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Prince Harry’s feud with his family has been raging for several years now.
And it seems that at one point, things got so bad that the Duke of Sussex considered changing his last name in order to symbolically distance himself from his relatives,
Yes, we might not hear it very often, but Harry does have a last name.
And his two children share the Mountbatten-Windsor surname.
But there was reportedly a time when Harry considered changing the family moniker to “Spencer,” the maiden name of his late mother, Princess Diana.
Prince Harry reportedly took steps toward changing name
According to a new report from the Daily Mail, Harry once approached Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, about the possibility of adopting her last name.
“They had a very amicable conversation and Spencer advised him against taking such a step,” a source tells the outlet.
In the end, Harry and Charles agreed that there were too many legal hurdles, and the change would create too much controversy.
News of Harry’s interest in changing his name comes on the heels of reports that he’s still not on speaking terms with King Charles.
The situation is especially worrisome, as Charles is battling cancer, and it’s unclear if his illness is life-threatening or not.
Thus, he and Harry might not have much time to bury the hatchet.
What’s in a name? A lot, it turns out…
The topic of Harry’s family name has come up more than once in recent months.
On an episode of Meghan Markle’s Netflix show, guest Mindy Kaling received some pushback when she referred to the host by her maiden name.
“It’s so funny, too, that you keep saying Meghan Markle. You know I’m Sussex now,” Meghan clarified, proceeding to explain why the distinction is an important one to her:
“You have kids and you go, ‘No, I share my name with my children,’” Markle said. “It just means so much to go, ‘This is our family name, our little family name.’”
So clearly, names are of great importance to both Harry and Meghan.
And if Harry had gone through with his plan to adopt his late mother’s maiden name, you can be certain that the British tabloid media would have interpreted it as a slap in the face to his father.
Of course, the British tabloid media interprets just about everything Harry does as a slap in the face to his father.
But in this case, that interpretation might have been completely accurate.
