Ahead of the January 2023 release of Prince Harry’s highly anticipated memoir, Spare, royal expert Tom Bower boldly argued that the Duke of Sussex should be stripped of all royal titles due to the “damaging” nature of his predicted attacks and previous media appearances.
In a segment of Good Morning Britain on October 31, Bower – who penned the 2022 tell-all book Revenge: Meghan, Harry, and the War Between the Windsors – asserted that both Harry and Meghan Markle are using their titles to boost their own popularity while simultaneously dragging the royal family through the mud. Their bombshell March 2021 interview was, as Bower argued, enough to cast the pair aside for good. Now, the “hugely damaging” CBS sit-down will be all but bolstered by Spare.
“I don’t think they should be allowed to call themselves duke and duchess anymore, and I think the only way in which they can be undermined and reduced in importance in America is to say ‘Well, if you think that of us, this is our family, this is Britain, then you don’t need to keep your titles anymore’,” Bower argued on-air. “If they want to make their money out of trashing Britain, then why should they be recognized as the duke and duchess?”
Not everyone present on Good Morning Britain agreed with Bower’s harsh assessment, however. Dr. Tessa Dunlop – whose book Elizabeth and Philip is dropping on April 4, 2023 – pushed back on fellow author Bower, arguing that as someone who has profited from Harry and Meghan’s exodus from the royal family, he should not be so quick to judge.
“Harry, he’s had a pretty rough ride in his young life, meanwhile you are sitting there in your little establishment position, raking it in off the back of their arguable ‘misfortune’ or ‘fortune’ depending on how you spin the coin,” Dunlop posited. “Yes, they no longer belong in that family, yes, they do a lot of sun-drenched photographs and they’ve dropped the royal regalia, so what? They’re a different generation from you Tom, let them be,” she concluded, directing her opinion directly to Bower.
The fate of Harry’s royal titles does hang in limbo due to the predicted nature of his memoir, Spare, as do the titles bestowed to his children. In her book The New Royals, Vanity Fair correspondent and author Katie Nicholl divulged that King Charles III is very hesitant to bestow royal titles to his grandchildren, Archie and Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor, and will likely hold off on doing so until after Harry’s memoir has been released. As grandchildren of the reigning monarch, both Archie and Lilibet are entitled to royal distinctions.
The drama over titles, memoir details and ongoing revelations comes as the latest iteration in the royal schism that has plagued headlines for years. Arguably commencing when Harry introduced Megan to the royals – and the world – as his fiancée, tensions between the Sussexes and their royal counterparts bubbled to the surface. When Harry and Meghan made the unexpected announcement that they would be leaving their roles as senior royals in January 2020, a tsunami of rumors, allegations and uncontrolled tempers crashed down upon the firm – the Sussexes clearly have not seen eye-to-eye with the royals since.
Time will certainly tell if Harry’s memoir includes as many bombshells as is predicted, with many intrigued as to what he will reveal about Camilla, Queen Consort, his strained relationship with his father and the affair that plagued his late mother’s life. Until then, the future of his royal distinctions remains to be seen.
A rep for Prince Harry did not immediately respond to Life & Style’s request for comment.
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