Meghan Markle has finally broken her silence on the controversy surrounding the Sussex surname.
Speaking to The Circuit with Emily Chang this week, the 44-year-old confirmed that she legally changed her surname to Sussex when she married Prince Harry in 2018.
“My legal name is Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, but Sussex for us works as our family name and it’s the name we share with our children. Since I’ve been married, that’s what I’ve been called,” she said.
“When I got married I changed my name, but it’s a complicated one for people to understand because our last name is not typical in that construct,” she continued. “It’s used roughly, or loosely, rather.
“It sounds so silly to say. And I get it, because I’m American and then I went there and I started to understand. But then you come back and as an American, you go, ‘I’m so confused’ but it’s a dukedom.”
The former Suits star said that no matter what her last name is she’s still the same person she was when she was Meghan Markle.
“What I learned about myself is that, no matter what my name is, or what people call me, I’m still the same person. That didn’t really change who I am and maybe that’s the biggest distinguishing factor,” she said.
The royal’s last name became a point of contention after she corrected Mindy Kaling over it in the first season of her Netflix series With Love, Meghan.
In the episode, Mindy, who is close friends with the Duchess, referred to her as ‘Meghan Markle’ as they were preparing food for a kids party.
“It’s so funny, too, that you keep saying, ‘Meghan Markle,'” Meghan said to Mindy. “You know, I’m Sussex now.”
The moment instantly went viral with people analysing the exchange between the two famous friends.
While appearing on The View recently, Mindy said she couldn’t believe the moment had turned into such a big deal as she didn’t even remember it happening.
“We were making sandwiches, and then they’ll push in on my face on TikTok and they’ll be like, ‘Look at this emotion you felt,’ and I honestly didn’t even remember it,” she said.
Queen Elizabeth granted Prince Harry and Meghan the titles of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex when they tied the knot in 2018. The couple later decided to adopt the Sussex surname for themselves and their children, however, the children’s birth certificates continue to list their last name as Mountbatten-Winsdor, which is the royal family’s official surname.
While speaking to PEOPLE magazine earlier this year, Meghan explained that Sussex is the family’s “shared surname”.
“It’s our shared name as a family, and I guess I hadn’t recognised how meaningful that would be to me until we had children,” the Duchess of Sussex told PEOPLE. “I love that that is something that Archie, Lili, H and I all have together. It means a lot to me.”
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