Sometimes royal gossip comes from the most unexpected places, and Lord Ivar Mountbatten has just stirred the pot in a way only a seasoned aristocrat can. Fresh off winning reality TV series The Traitors, the King’s second cousin has taken a polite but pointed swipe at Meghan Markle for something she said about her name – and let’s just say, it’s got royal watchers buzzing.
During a recent chat with Mindy Kaling on With Love, Meghan, the Duchess casually dropped the line, “You know I’m Sussex now,” referring to it as if it were her family name. But Lord Ivar wasn’t having it. In an interview with Town and Country, he was quick to point out that Meghan had it all wrong.
“She’s completely incorrect,” he said, before explaining that while she and Prince Harry are indeed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, that title isn’t the same as a surname. Meghan’s actual family name, he clarified, is Mountbatten-Windsor – the same one used by Harry and their children, Archie and Lilibet.
“They are the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, but actually he’s Harry Mountbatten-Windsor and she would be Meghan Mountbatten-Windsor,” he said, as if gently correcting a slightly confused dinner guest.
To make it even clearer, he used an example from his own family. “My brother is the Marquess of Milford Haven, but his surname is Mountbatten, so he’s called George Mountbatten, the Marquess of Milford Haven.” It’s that old-school royal thing where your title is not your surname, and apparently, in their world, getting that wrong is like forgetting your own birthday.
It may seem like splitting hairs to most people, but in royal circles, the difference really matters. And Lord Ivar would know. As a direct descendant of Queen Victoria and the first openly gay member of the extended royal family, he’s had a lifetime of experience navigating the maze of royal traditions and formalities.
The Mountbatten-Windsor name itself has an interesting backstory. It’s a blend of Prince Philip’s surname, Mountbatten, and Windsor – the name adopted by King George V in 1917 to replace the more German-sounding Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Queen Elizabeth II established the use of Mountbatten-Windsor for her direct descendants in 1960, giving future generations a bit of both sides of the family.
What made Lord Ivar’s comments stand out even more was the calm, matter-of-fact way he delivered them. After all, this is someone who just outwitted a house full of liars on national television, so he clearly knows a thing or two about strategy and straight talk.
Whether Meghan’s line about being “Sussex now” was just a harmless oversimplification or a genuine misunderstanding isn’t clear. Maybe it was just her way of making things more relatable to her American audience. Still, Lord Ivar’s correction shows there’s always someone in the royal family ready to set the record straight when tradition is even slightly misunderstood.
And in a family where protocol and perception are everything, it seems even the smallest slip-up doesn’t go unnoticed.