Not what it seems. Meghan Markle responded to claims that changing her name on Archie’s birth certificate was a snub at Kate Middleton

The Sun reported on Saturday, January 30, that the Duchess of Sussex had “secretly erased” her first names, Rachel Meghan, from her 1-year-old son Archie Harrison Mountbatten Windsor‘s birth certificate in June 2019, a month after Archie’s birth. The name was changed from “Rachel Meghan” to “Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Sussex.” The name of Meghan’s husband Prince Harry—whom she shares Archie with—was also amended to add the word “prince.” It now reads: “His Royal Highness Prince Henry Charles Albert David Duke of Sussex.”

In its report, The Sun claimed that the name change was a “snub” at Meghan’s sister-in-law Kate Middleton, who uses her birth name on her children’s birth certificates. The Sun also reported that the change could be a way for Harry and Meghan to align with his late mom, Princess Diana, who used “Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales” on her son’s birth certificates.

In a statement to Entertainment Tonight, a rep for Meghan denied that the name change was shade toward her sister-in-law. The Duchess of Sussex’s rep explained that the change was “dictated” by Kensington Palace and not the Sussexes. “The change of name on public documents in 2019 was dictated by The Palace, as confirmed by documents from senior Palace officials,” the statement read. “This was not requested by Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex nor by The Duke of Sussex.”

The statement continued, “To see this U.K. tabloid and their carnival of so-called ‘experts’ choose to deceptively whip this into a calculated family ‘snub’ and suggest that she would oddly want to be nameless on her child’s birth certificate, or any other legal document, would be laughable were it not offensive. There’s a lot going on in the world; let’s focus on that rather than creating clickbait.”

The statement comes amid reports that Prince Harry and Prince William’s relationship has become better after the younger brother’s move to North America in January 2020. “Things are a lot better between William and Harry. If you go back a year at that stage, these brothers were barely on talking terms,” royal reporter Kate Nicholl told Entertainment Tonight in January 2021.  “When William went to the Sandringham Summit, he was so angry with his brother. He couldn’t even face going to that lunch with the Queen. He only went for the meetings, such was his frustration and feeling of disappointment about what his brother had done and how Harry was handling the situation.”