Oh, come on.
Now that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have officially tied the knot, there’s been a lot of chatter about when the couple will have children. However it turns out that if they have a daughter, she won’t actually be able to inherit their royal titles - something we bet doesn’t sit well with feminist Meghan.
Although the Queen passed the Succession to the Crown Act in 2013 - a ruling which states that the heir to the throne can be male or female - it only applies to Prince William and Kate Middleton’s children. (Princess Charlotte actually made history as the first female royal to retain her position in the royal line of succession, despite the birth of her baby brother.) Unfortunately, that means that any daughters Harry and Meghan have won’t inherit the dukedom.
Richard Fitzwilliams, a royal commentator, told The Independent, ‘Under the current system, any child of the Duke and Duchess won’t automatically have a royal title. The peerage, unlike the succession to the crown, favours males and if they have only daughters, the title of Sussex could die out as it did before.’
Only a son can inherit the dukedom under the current antiquated laws, which means that Meghan and Harry’s titles will die out if they only have daughters. Given that they’re both incredibly modern royals however, they might not even want their children to have titles. They wouldn’t be the first to scrap them if they wanted to, as Prince Edward and his wife Sophie Rhys-Jones made sure their brood didn’t need the burden of a royal title.
That said, maybe Queen Elizabeth will step in again and shake up the rules once again for her beloved grandson. Go on Liz, we’re rooting for you.
