Official Royal Website Update: Removal of ‘His Royal Highness’ Title from Prince Harry
While King Charles enjoys a break at Balmoral Castle, significant shifts are underway within his realm. Gert’s Royals recently highlighted on X (formerly known as Twitter) that the Royal Family’s official website, Royal, has undergone a makeover, introducing four distinct sections. This transformation comes on the heels of an alteration made earlier in August, wherein Prince Harry’s “His Royal Highness” title was removed from the website.
A freshly added “Royal Websites” menu now graces the Royal.UK page. This menu leads to four specific categories: The Royal Collection Trust, The Prince’s Trust, The Royal Foundation, and The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. Positioned prominently at the website’s top, this menu coexists with another novel feature. A “Their Majesties’ work as Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall” link directs readers to an archive of speeches, messages, press releases, and news from the Clarence House website.
King Charles and Queen Camilla have resided at Clarence House since 2003 and managed their affairs under the same banner until Charles ascended the throne in September 2022. Following Queen Elizabeth’s passing, the couple shifted their focus to the official Royal Family social media pages. Although the Clarence House accounts remain accessible on Twitter and Instagram, they now state, “This account is no longer being updated. Please follow @theroyalfamily for updates on His Majesty King Charles III and Her Majesty The Queen Consort.”
Despite Queen Elizabeth’s demise, the Royal website is yet to be fully updated. Notably, a guide on proper protocol for interacting with the royal family still refers to her as the sovereign. However, the team surrounding King Charles has enacted changes, omitting references to Charles as “the Prince of Wales” (a title bestowed upon Prince William upon his ascension). Moreover, the website now labels William and Kate Middleton as the Prince and Princess of Wales, shedding their previous titles of Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, which they held before the Queen’s passing.
Clarifications regarding these modifications came from Buckingham Palace, noting, “The Royal Family website contains over five thousand pages of information about the life and work of the Royal Family. Following the death of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, content has been revisited and updated periodically. Some content may be out of date until this process is complete.”
These changes come in the wake of another alteration two weeks prior when Prince Harry’s “His Royal Highness” title was erased from his bio on the site. This edit, observed between August 4 and August 9, affected references tied to his work in raising awareness about HIV/AIDS in 2016. His title has been replaced with “the Duke” or “the Duke of Sussex,” a title granted to him by Queen Elizabeth upon his wedding to Meghan Markle in May 2018. Notably, Meghan and Harry’s biographies still grace the main Royal Family tab on the Royal.UK site, with their profiles featured on the landing page.