Fresh from the tense finale of blockbuster reality show The Traitors, series contestant Lord Ivar Mountbatten appears ready to trade the show’s famously stressful roundtable room for another, even more contentious debate: Why did the woman we until recently knew as Meghan Markle cringingly correct Mindy Kaling when she used the Suits star’s birth name on the set of With Love, Meghan? And was she right to do so?
For those who have yet to watch the Duchess of Sussex’s Netflix series about the joys of domesticity, here’s a quick recap. In the vein of similar lifestyle shows (think Martha Stewart—the show’s producers certainly were!), the royal’s famous friends “stop by” her blindingly white farmhouse-style kitchen set, ostensibly as a way station on a visit to the Montecito home she shares with husband Prince Harry and children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
One such friend, writer, director, and actor Mindy Kaling was one such visitor—and during her time on the show, she received a lesson in royal nomenclature when Meghan told her, “It’s so funny that you keep saying ‘Meghan Markle.’ You know I’m Sussex now.”
The matter also came up in an interview with People published this week, in which Meghan said that Sussex is “our shared name as a family, and I guess I hadn’t recognized how meaningful that would be to me until we had children.”
“I love that that is something that Archie, Lili, H and I all have together. It means a lot to me.”
The problem, Ivar Mountbatten says, is that’s not actually true. Now known in the US for his role in The Traitors, Mountbatten is also a member of the royal family: Harry’s estranged father, King Charles III, is Mountbatten’s second cousin by way of both of their fathers; the 61-year-old is also a godparent to Prince Edward and Princess Sophie’s daughter, Louise Windsor.
Speaking with Town and Country, Mountbatten says of Meghan, “It’s interesting because she’s completely incorrect. Her family name is not Sussex, her family name is Mountbatten-Windsor,” he said.
“Her children are called Archie and Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor; they’re not called Archie and Lilibet Sussex because Sussex is a title. So, they are the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, but actually he’s Harry Mountbatten-Windsor and she would be Meghan Mountbatten-Windsor.”
Mountbatten called on his immediate family to further explain royal naming protocol to those of us in the colonies. “My brother is the Marquess of Milford Haven, but his surname is Mountbatten, so he’s called George Mountbatten, the Marquess of Milford Haven.”
Rebecca English, the Daily Mail’s Royal Editor, agrees with Mountbatten—but only to a point. “Officially, the family’s name is Mountbatten-Windsor – and is recorded as such on both Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet’s birth certificates,” she writes. It’s a tradition that began in 1960, when Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip decided they’d like “their own direct descents to be distinguished from the rest of the Royal Family, without changing the name of the Royal House.” From that point on, “Mountbatten-Windsor.” was the last name rule of the land.
But according to English, Meghan isn’t entirely wrong. “Members of the Royal Family – indeed, the peerage generally – often use their dukedom or title as a ‘shorthand surname,’” she writes. Wendy Bosberry-Scott, the editor of title guide Debrett’s Peerage and Baronetage, concurs. “When Prince Harry was in the army, he was known as Harry Wales, as his father was then Prince of Wales,” she says. “Now that he is the Duke of Sussex, it is perfectly within protocol for him to use Harry Sussex and for his wife to use Meghan Sussex.”
“The Sussexes are not doing anything unusual here as it is common practice within the Royal Family and the British peerage,” she says, a direct dispute to Mountbatten’s assertion.
Then again, perhaps if Mountbatten actually watched the show, he might soften his stance. As Vanity Fair previously reported, those close to members of the royal family expect them to “be quite dismissive of it,” and Mountbatten—though a more distant relation—appears to share that disdain. “No, I haven’t [watched it],” he told Town and Country. “I might be interested to watch it; it might not last long.”
On that, too, the Traitors winner might be incorrect. Netflix has already announced a second season of Meghan Markle, I mean, Sussex’s series, saying this week that production has already concluded on another set of episodes, which will hit the streamer this fall.
More Great Stories From Vanity Fair
-
Inside Donald Trump’s Hospital Room After Assassination Attempt
-
It’s Meghan Sussex Now
-
Wendy Williams, Her Guardian, and the Age of Celebrity Conservatorship
-
Marco Rubio’s Secret Frustration With Donald Trump
-
The Biggest Moments from the 2025 Academy Awards and the Vanity Fair Oscar Party
-
The Vanity Fair Oscar Party With Timothée Chalamet, Mick Jagger, and Mikey Madison After Anora’s Cinderella Ending
-
Meet Elon Musk’s 14 Children and Their Mothers (Whom We Know of)
-
GOP Congressmen Are “Scared Shitless” of Trump
-
Where to Watch 2025’s Oscar-Winning Movies
-
From the Archive: How VF’s Oscar Party Became the Only Place to Be
The post The Traitors Star Ivar Mountbatten Wades Into Meghan Markle “Sussex” Controversy appeared first on Vanity Fair.
