Meghan's Illicit Use of the HRH + What Styles/Titles the Monarch Can and CANNOT Strip
Several weeks ago, Meghan joined Jamie Kern Lima on her podcast. In the course of the video podcast, an image was shared that showed a gift basket (including jam) Meghan sent to Kern Lima last year. The basket prominently displayed a card on which Meghan used her HRH, her royal styling meaning “Her Royal Highness.” BBC reported:
A video accompanying a podcast shows a gift basket for US cosmetics entrepreneur Jamie Kern Lima, which includes a card saying: “With the Compliments of HRH The Duchess of Sussex.”
This caused quite the furor, because when the Sussexes left the royal fold, the Queen determined they could not use their HRHs anymore. Yet, “sources close to the Sussexes” deny Meghan misused the styling. Again from BBC:
According to sources, the couple do not use HRH in commercial or public settings - and this was only a private use of the title and was for a gift given more than a year ago.
This distinction would mean the HRH title was not being used to promote the jams and food products in Meghan's As Ever range or her Netflix cookery series.
There is so much confusion about Harry and Meghan’s titles, let’s just review quickly what we are talking about here, and why it is important.