Meghan Markle and Prince Harry and may no longer be able to use their “Sussex Royal” brand name following their decision to step down as senior members of the royal family, Fox News reports.
The Queen and other palace senior officials are believed to have agreed it is no longer tenable for Harry and Meghan to keep the word ‘royal’ in their branding, particularly if the Sussexes were going to spend the majority of their time in North America.
“As The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are stepping back as senior Members of the Royal Family and will work towards financial independence, use of the word ‘Royal,’ in this context, needed to be reviewed,” a royal source told Page Six. “Discussions are still ongoing.”
The source added, “As part of the process to transition The Duke and Duchess of Sussex into their new chapter, planning has been well underway around the launch of their new nonprofit organization.
A source also told Town & Country that the “likely decision” is that Markle, 38, and Harry, 35, will have to cease using the term.
The pair reportedly spent tens of thousands of pounds developing the branding on a new Sussex Royal website and their hugely popular Instagram feed.
According to the Daily Mail the couple sought to register Sussex Royal as a global trademark for a range of items and activities, including clothing, stationery, books and teaching materials.
After it was recently announced Harry and Meghan Markle would not use their HRH titles, more confusion developed surrounding Markle’s official title, which Buckingham Palace announced would be Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. However, according to the Daily Mail, typically only divorced wives or widows are addressed using a comma between their first name (Meghan Markle) and their royal title (Duchess of Sussex). In recent years, the title stylization has been used twice: Diana, Princess of Wales, and Sarah, Duchess of York.
Royal officials said their statement was given out in error, and that a new title would be announced soon.