06 March 2024 , 10:15
728
0
A recent decision made by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle would have greatly upset his late grandfather, and has 'further distanced' the couple from the royal family, an expert has claimed.
Harry and Meghan surprised royal fans when they abruptly changed their children's surname - from Mountbatten-Windsor to Sussex - deviating from a 64-year-old tradition.
It's something that would not have sat well with the late Prince Philip, according to Ingrid Seward.
The surname Mountbatten-Windsor was given to male-line descendants of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, as established by the Privy Council in 1960. It was something the Duke fought hard for.
Once his wife Princess Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1952, Prince Philip became upset upon learning that his children wouldn't carry his surname, Mountbatten. Instead, they were assigned as Windsors, in acknowledgement of the Queen's lineage.
Kate Middleton swears by £19.99 rosehip oil that helps 'reduce wrinkles & scars'
A solution was found by Winston Churchill and the Queen's private secretary Tommy Lascelles, who suggested that the family use Mountbatten-Windsor for male descendants.
"How sad, therefore, that only three generations later, Harry should so blatantly disregard his grandfather's wishes and effectively abandon the family name for which Philip had fought," Ingrid told the Daily Mail.
As such, going by a new surname "will only serve to further distance the prince and his children from the Royal Family," Ingrid added.
It comes after a royal expert suggested that Harry and Meghan's children, Archie and Lilibet, already face a number of "huge obstacles" if they are to ever forge a relationship with King Charles.
Archie, four, and Lilibet, two, have had limited time with their grandfather due to their residency in the United States and Harry's reluctance to travel to the UK as a full family. Harry previously stated he didn't feel it was safe to bring his children with him to the UK following the decision to revoke his security.
And while this is sure to play a major part in establishing any bond, royal expert and author Tom Quinn says there are more stumbling blocks for the family.
"There are huge obstacles to King Charles having a relationship with his grandchildren," Quinn exclusively told The Mirror. "It's not just the fact that they live in the States and that Meghan recalls her time in the UK with anger and upset, it's that no one in the family now trusts the couple - any time the Sussexes and their children spend with Charles is risky for the royal family. Once you have washed the family dirty linen in public no one is going to trust you not to do it again."
Quinn previously stated that "no one trusts Harry" following his outbursts about the Royal Family on the small screen and in his memoir, Spare.
"Charles is also aware that, as future king, William is at the heart of the succession planning that is taking place right now – officials had assumed Charles would remain healthy at least into his mid-eighties before succession planning would need to begin but in fact it has now begun and indicates perhaps that Charles' cancer is more dangerous than we have been led to believe," Quinn said.