According to biographer Tom Bower, Harry and Meghan risk losing their royal titles when William becomes king. Too many “hurts” to the family
The wind at Buckingham Palace has changed. And from Montecito, where Californian luxury should guarantee eternal peace to the most discussed former royals on the planet, an air is anything but calm. According to biographer Tom Bower, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle would be “on borrowed time”, vulnerable and aware that the day William ascends to the throne could mark the point of no return: the definitive break, with the revocation of the titles for them and their children.
The precedent that changed the rules of the game
To understand the reason for such anxiety we need to look at the other Windsor who fell into disgrace. King Charles III did what no sovereign had ever dared: he took away from his brother Andrew not only the title of Duke of York, but also that of Prince. A historic punishment after years of controversial relationships with Jeffrey Epstein. For Harry, Bower says, it was “a total shock”. If the king can do this to his own brother, nothing prevents William from doing the same to those who – in his opinion – undermine the image of the monarchy from the outside.
The wounded Kate and the “betrayals” dossier
The point is not just Spare, the book that burned bridges and relationships by recounting private conversations with William and Kate. It is the repetition of the blows, Bower continues, that makes them “unforgivable”. The perfect mother of the family who dreamed of the American princess no longer exists: what remains are bomb interviews, truth documentaries and international public opinion as the audience. And above all, a date that still resonates like an indelible echo: 2021. The interview with Oprah Winfrey. The accusations of racism against the Royal Family, the insinuation that the Crown was a hostile body. A media explosion which, in the eyes of the Palace, will not be easily extinguished.
The Risk of Another “Oprah”
The real terror of Kensington Palace, Bower says, is not the past. It’s the future. Meghan without significant income. Harry doesn’t either. And the idea – concrete – that to remain in the flow of attention they can talk again. A Meghan memoir? Another interview? A new documentary? Every hypothesis is a potential bomb for the Monarchy. And William, once king, could choose the most radical path: remove the titles and neutralize the threat.
The burning issue of the “HRH” label
Then there is an apparently harmless detail which, at court, is never harmless: the use of the title. When Meghan sent a gift to the founder of IT Cosmetics signed “With the Compliments of HRH The Duchess of Sussex”, many spoke of a violation of the agreement signed with the Crown when the two left their roles as working royals. And the recent interview with Harper’s Bazaar reopened the wound: a journalist said she was announced by the staff as if she were at court – “Meghan, Duchess of Sussex” – even though there were only two of them in the house. For Bower, the use of the title isn’t nostalgia: it’s business. “A commercial lever, and he uses it with ease,” claims the biographer.
Who is Meghan without the title?
The question that Bower throws like a blade is simple and brutal: what is left without the real brand? Without the title, without the Windsor aura, without the echo of the Crown to illuminate every project? This is the fear that, according to the biographer, lives in Montecito today. Not an emotional loss – that is already consumed – but a loss of power.
The nightmare for the Sussexes: a future without Windsor
Charles’ moves on Andrew have rewritten the vocabulary of contemporary monarchy: now he can be punished. Firmly. With harshness. And on the day William places the crown on his head, no one will be able to say what will happen. Supporters of the Sussexes hope for a rapprochement. Critics are already talking about a showdown. Meanwhile, Montecito observes Buckingham. And Buckingham watches Montecito. The chessboard is ready. The king will arrive. The pawns, perhaps, will fall.
