After Meghan Markle was hit with a string of hate online for asking a celebrity guest to refer to her as her royal title, many have wondered what Prince Harry’s real last name is.

Prince Harry’s last name is ‘Sussex’ after his official title ‘The Duke of Sussex’(Image: Getty Images)

Following Meghan Markle’s recent “inherited title” backlash, many fans are curious to know what Prince Harry’s true last name is.

Since Prince Harry was born into the British royal family, his last name became “Sussex” which is based off his official title which is the Duke of Sussex. The Duke of Sussex is considered a “substantive title,” and is just one of several royal dukedoms in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.
This is a hereditary title of a specific rank of nobility in the royal family, and comes from the historic county of Sussex in England. Prince Harry also uses the last name “Sussex” when referring to his family and wife Meghan Markle, despite the pair stepping away from their royal duties in 2020.

Meghan sparked controversy among fans after an awkward moment when she corrected a celebrity guest star on her lifestyle series With Love, Meghan. During the first season of her cooking show, Meghan boldly corrected The Office star Mindy Kaling after she accidentally called Meghan by her maiden name while they were chatting about their childhood eating habits.

Meghan was hit with backlash after correcting Mindy for calling her by the wrong last name (Image: Justin Coit/Netflix)

In the tense moment, Mindy jokingly said to Meghan: “People wouldn’t believe that Meghan Markle ate at Jack in the Box.” To which she replied: “It’s so funny, too, that you keep saying Meghan Markle. You know I’m Sussex now.”

After the episode aired, many fans took to social media slamming Meghan for the remark and branding her as “arrogant.” On X, formerly Twitter, one critic fumed: “Excuse me but #MeghanMarkle wants you to know that her last name is Sussex. Not so fast, Markle. Not in the US. We don’t have titles and ‘of Sussex’ is a title. Had you stayed in the UK? Sure. You just decided a year or so ago to use Sussex for your mystery kids. The pretentious arrogance is WILD. Titles mean nothing here. Deal with it.”

Despite the backlash, Meghan stood true to herself in an interview with People as she further discussed the sentimental value her last name holds for her. In this, the former actress explained that she wants to be referred to as “Sussex” instead of “Markle” stemming from her royal title “The Duchess of Sussex.”

Meghan explained that the last name ‘Sussex’ holds importance to her and her family

The mother of two shared with the news outlet: “It’s our shared name as a family, and I guess I hadn’t recognized how meaningful that would be to me until we had children. I love that that is something that Archie, Lili, H and I all have together. It means a lot to me.”

She went on to add that she feels like the last name “Sussex” is “part of her love story” with Prince Harry. Meghan explained: “I think as the kids get older, they’re so excited about, ‘Oh my gosh, Mama and Papa, how did you meet?’ I think that will come with time as they get older, but for right now a huge part of our love story is that we share the name Sussex.”