Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s determination to keep the details of their son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor’s birth completely secret resulted in “tears of frustration and despair” behind the scenes, an expert has claimed.
Rather than following the approach used by Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Sussexes did things their own way – keeping the location to themselves.
The Daily Mail’s Rebecca English claims that Harry became “morbidly obsessed” with keeping the information completely private, but many fans supported their decision.
Reflecting on the time, she writes: “Behind the scenes, matters were so fraught that more than one official — as I know from personal experience — was reduced to tears of frustration and despair.”
(Image: Getty Images)
The secrecy surrounding Archie’s birth has become the topic of conversation again after it was revealed that just weeks after his birth Meghan and Harry changed their names on his birth certificate.
It emerged that ‘Rachel Meghan’, her first and middle names, were removed from her son’s certificate a month after giving birth.
In its place, the document listed Archie’s mum as the more formal ‘Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Sussex.’
It has caused a baffling row, with the couple claiming the decision came from Buckingham Palace while insiders say that’s unlikely.
Meghan and Harry released a strongly worded statement on the issue, saying: “This was not requested by Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex nor by The Duke of Sussex.
“To see this UK tabloid and their carnival of so-called “experts” choose to deceptively whip this into a calculated family “snub” and suggest that she would oddly want to be nameless on her child’s birth certificate, or any other legal document, would be laughable were it not offensive.
(Image: AFP/Getty Images)
“‘There’s a lot going on in the world; let’s focus on that rather than creating clickbait.”
Royal sources have revealed this has been met with a sense of “bewilderment” in the Palace.
One royal source claimed that Meghan ordered her staff to make the change to Archie’s birth certificate in order to “to fall in line with amendments she’d already made to her passport”.
In short, Meghan already stylised herself as ‘HRH The Duchess of Sussex’, dropping her given names – and wanted some form of continuity.
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However, courtiers have diplomatically suggested the tone of Meghan and Harry’s statement from their spokesman was “somewhat unfortunate”.
One aide said: “There is no set protocol with these things.
“The birth certificate is a civic document so there are options on how it is filled out. The language used suggesting it was ‘the Palace’ who ‘dictated’ it is somewhat unfortunate, as it certainly wasn’t addressed like that.
“The statement and its wording poses more questions than it answers unfortunately.”
-- to www.mirror.co.uk
