Prince Harry 'considered changing family name' before close relative stepped in
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Prince Harry considered changing his family name amid ongoing tensions with the Royal Family, sources have claimed.
According to reports, the Duke of Sussex, nearly decided to change his last name from Mountbatten-Windsor to Spencer, the same as his mother, Princess Diana.
However, the 40-year-old prince was reportedly advised against it by his mother's brother, the current Earl Spencer.
According to the Times, a friend of Harry said that he had had friendly conversation with Earl Charles Spencer who told him not to change his last name. They explained: 'They had a very amicable conversation and Spencer advised him against taking such a step.'
The near-name change comes as Harry attempts to continue to build a new life in the USA over five years after he and Meghan Markle left the UK at the start of 2020.
In that time, he and Meghan have embarked on several projects including a podcast, several books, Netflix documentaries, and other commercial endeavours alongside his continued oversight of the successful Invictus Games.
The reports that Harry nearly changed his name has sent shockwaves through some areas of society with royal commentators coming out and decrying the name change that Harry didn't make.
(Image: LOIC VENANCE, AFP via Getty Images)
Speaking on GB News, Anne Diamond declared: 'I can't think of a more hurtful insult that Harry could deliver to his father, can you? To say, 'I no longer want your name. I want my mother's name. It's like declaring a divorce, only worse.'
Meanwhile, Richard Fitzwilliams added: 'There's no doubt in the Oprah interview, where Meghan floated the prospect of Archie not becoming a prince because of some kind of racism was utter nonsense.
'The moment they became grandchildren of the monarch, both of them had the option of taking the HRH. The problem with the Sussexes is, clearly very little has been thought out. They are supposed to have advisers.'
Richard's comments came just days after Harry and Meghan announced the launch of their own version of a royal household which involved a restructuring of their existing team in such a way to replicate some of the structure the pair had when they acted as working members of the Royal Family.
According to royal expert Charlotte Griffiths, the restructure could be part of the beginning of a long term strategy to re-build Harry and Meghan's popularity following the release of recent polls which showed how unpopular they were reported to be, reported the Daily Express.
She told GB News: 'So apparently Harry has looked at the latest polls that put him down at 27 per cent, and he's upset by it. A source really close to him told me that he's realised there's nowhere to go but up.
'So what he's done is he set up around himself the exact thing that he's been railing against all these years, which is a really concrete, firm structure of a hierarchical, top-down kind of PR voices on his behalf and chiefs of staff. And it's basically a royal house. This is like a faux royal household.'
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Last week, the Duchess shared a clip of her and her daughter beekeeping in matching protective suits, writing: 'Harvesting honey with my little honey. (Like mother, like daughter; she's even wearing my gloves).' Lilibet is named after her great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth II. Princess Elizabeth had difficulty pronouncing her own name as a toddler and her grandfather George V would affectionately call her Lilibet, imitating her own attempts to say Elizabeth. The sweet nickname stuck and she became known as Lilibet to her family from then on. But the late Queen was reportedly 'as angry as I'd ever seen her ' after Harry and Meghan claimed they had her blessing to use the name for their daughter Lilibet, a royal aide said. Royal author Robert Hardman, in his biography of the King, told how a member of staff recounted Elizabeth II's fury following Harry and Meghan's announcement in 2021 over the use of her childhood family nickname. 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