Fifth royal to stop using HRH in 26 years

PRINCE Andrew is the fifth royal to stop using the Royal Highness title in 26 years. Diana, Princess of Wales, was stripped of her HRH title following her divorce from Prince Charles in 1996.

It was apparently proposed by Prince Philip that Diana should also be downgraded to Duchess of Cornwall – but he eventually accepted the view of courtiers that, as the mother of the future King William, Diana should retain the rank of Princess.

The Duchess of York lost her HRH title when she and Andrew divorced in 1996, by which time the couple had already been separated for four years.

The Queen ordered Harry and Meghan not to use their HRH status following the couple’s decision to ‘step back’ as senior royals in January 2020. They now style themselves Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, in their commercial dealings.

Like Harry and Meghan, Andrew retains his title but will not use it in any official capacity.

Edward VIII kept his HRH style after he abdicated in 19 6 to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson. His brother George VI decreed that Edward ‘having been born in the lineal succession to the Crown’ should be ‘entitled to hold and enjoy for himself only the style title or attribute of Royal Highness’.

Mrs Simpson became the Duchess of Windsor, but was never permitted to adopt the style HRH.