In her interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan Markle said that when she "was pregnant, there were conversations about the status of her future child, including what title he or she should take".
"They said they did not want him to become a prince or princess, not knowing what gender would be, which would be different from protocol," she said.
What does the royal protocol say?
The rules on who can become prince and also referred to as "his royal height" (HRH) come from a patent letter issued by King George V in November 1917.
Patent letters are legal instruments that can take the form of an open letter from the monarch. They can be used for royal declarations or for awarding titles.
In the 1917 letter, George V declared that the monarch's great-grandchildren would no longer be princes or princesses, except the eldest son of the Prince of Wales.
In our current situation, this means that Prince George, the eldest son of Prince William, automatically became a prince, but not Archie, even though both are great-grandchildren of the Queen.
According to this protocol, neither Prince George's brothers - Charlotte and Louis - would have received the title.
But in December 2012, the Queen also issued a patent letter which stated that all of Prince William's children would be eligible to be princes or princesses and receive the HRH title.
Also, being a prince or princess only crosses the male line, which means that Princess Anne's children did not receive those titles despite being the Queen's grandchildren.
Meghan clearly knew the protocol. She referred in the interview to a "George V or George VI convention" which meant that her son Archie would become prince "when Harry's father becomes king".
But she went on to say that she had been told when she was pregnant that "they want to change the convention for Archie" so that he would not become a prince.
She did not provide further details and Buckingham Palace did not comment on the allegations.
However, even though Meghan and Harry have withdrawn from their titles, royal life reporter Victoria Murphy says that one day, Archie may decide to be called the "prince".
Source: BBC
