How Meghan Markle must be addressed revealed with simple 3-word guidance as Harry in U-turn

Scott Moore, the new CEO of Prince Harry’s Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025, was given very specific guidance on how to address Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex

Meghan Markle is still the Duchess of Sussex despite walking away from the Royal Family

Scott Moore, the newly appointed CEO of Prince Harry ‘s Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025, has revealed the surprising way he was told to address Meghan Markle. The advice he received was a departure from the usual protocol for addressing former senior Royals.

As detailed in Richard Eden’s column for the Daily Mail, Moore shared: “I did make sure to ask how I should be addressing them when they get here.”

He was informed that a simple “‘Ma’am’ is fine.’ He was also told a simple ‘Sir’ was fine to address the Duke of Sussex.”

Typically, male members of the Royal Family are first addressed as ‘Your Royal Highness’, followed by ‘Sir’, while female members are referred to as ‘Your Royal Highness’, and then ‘Ma’am’. However, after Harry and Meghan’s decision to step back as senior working royals in 2020, they lost their HRH titles.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in Whistler, Canada ( 
Image:
Getty)

This means they can’t be addressed as Your Royal Highness, but they can keep their Duke and Duchess of Sussex titles. The choice for Prince Harry to be addressed with formal titles such as Sir and ‘Ma’am’ for Meghan Markle starkly contrasts his earlier stance in 2020, reports Gloucestershire Live.

Back then, during a tourism conference in Edinburgh, Harry famously insisted on informality. Ayesha Hazarika, the event host, disclosed: “He’s made it clear that we are all just to call him Harry.”

As the Invictus Games gear up, all eyes are once again on the Sussexes. Their trip to Vancouver, Canada, earlier this year for the event had the Invictus CEO asking how they wished to be addressed.

It was back in February 2024 when Harry and Meghan mingled with competitors at Whistler Backcomb ski resort ahead of the 2025 games. These upcoming games, featuring winter sports like alpine skiing and snowboarding for the first time, will welcome around 550 competitors from as many as 25 countries.

In other news, there’s been a significant update regarding their children. As per the updated Sussex.com website, King Charles’s coronation signalled a new era for the Sussex children.

Archie, five, and Lilibet, three, have now taken ‘Sussex’ as their surname instead of Mountbatten-Windsor, breaking away from a Royal tradition established in 1960 when the Queen decreed that her male-line descendants would bear the Mountbatten-Windsor name, following advice from her advisors.