Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced the birth of their first child -a baby boy – earlier in the week, but thanks to a bizarre royal rule, the couple won’t have full custody over their own child or future children.
Baby Sussex!
According to a royal expert who spoke to The Sun Online, the Royal Family have an agreement whereby the Queen has full legal custody over all minor royals.
This also means that Prince Harry’s older brother, William and his wife, Kate Middleton do not have full legal custody over their three kids, Prince George, Princess Charlotte or little Prince Louis.
Internationally recognised royal expert Marlene Koenig explained:
”The sovereign has legal custody of the minor grandchildren. Legislation passed during the reign of George I.
It was known as The Grand Opinion for the Prerogative Concerning the Royal Family and it was about the King’s control over the education, the raising and the marriage of his grandchildren.
He did it because he had a very poor relationship with his son, the future King George II, so they had this law passed that meant the King was the guardian of his grandchildren.”
The ancient law dates back over 300 years to 1717 when the monarch’s “right of supervision extended to his grandchildren and this right of right belongs to His Majesty, King of the Realm, even during their father’s lifetime”.
Even when the Queen dies, Kate and William will not gain legal custody of their children and neither will Prince Harry or Meghan. Instead the legal custody would be passed on to Prince Charles (Harry and William’s father).
Marlene further disclosed that the law still exists today, and has recently affected the way the royals parent their kids.
“When Harry was an infant, Charles asked the Queen if he and Diana could travel with both kids to Scotland (on a plane). The Queen said yes. Later, as Harry got older, he would fly with parents, and William would travel separately.
Technically, they needed permission for travel. The Queen has the last word on parenting decisions like that.”
The bizarre rule is allegedly said to have prevented Princess Diana (Harry and William’s mother) from flying to Australia with her kids before her death as she didn’t have legal custody.
And Prince Charles was also required to seek permission for a teenage Prince William to go to holiday camp in America in the 1990s.
When Princess Diana and Prince Charles went through their very high-profile divorce in 1996, the law was reportedly taken into consideration. Marlene said:
“Neither the Wales’ or Yorks’ divorces dealt with actual custody of their children because of this law. Charles and Diana each saw their sons about 40 days a year after the separation.
Charles and Diana certainly talked to the queen about their kids’ education. The Queen was unlikely to push her views. She would respect the parents’ wishes.”
Constitutional expert Michael L. Nash wrote in The Times in 1993:
“Queen has the last word in the custody upbringing, education and even the right of abode of the princes, even during the lifetime of their father, Prince Charles.
“As for their mother, the Princess of Wales, her say is a matter of discretion and negotiation.”
While the law is technically still in existence, Marlene said it typically is a “formality and nothing more”.
