Prince Harry revealed he was considering U.S. citizenship in a recent interview—and almost half of America believes that should mean losing his royal titles, according to exclusive polling for Newsweek.
The normal route to becoming officially American involves renouncing allegiance to any "foreign prince" and giving up royal titles.
There are options for Harry if he wants to continue being the Duke of Sussex, including following the route taken by Winston Churchill, made an honorary American by Congress. However, this would not afford him the right to vote or run for elected office.
Another alternative put forward by Alphonse Provinziano, of U.S. law firm Provinziano & Associates, was that he could launch a Supreme Court challenge.
Newsweek asked Redfield & Wilton to poll a representative sample of 1,500 U.S. adults on whether the prince should lose he titles or whether the law should be changed so he can keep them.
And 44 percent felt he should be made to give them up in order to become a citizen while 23 percent felt the law should be changed and 32 percent said they did not know.
Provinziano previously told Newsweek: "If you want to become a U.S. citizen, there's a code section that says you have to renounce all of your foreign titles.
"I was interested in whether Prince Harry has to renounce all of his titles or not. It's a law stated by Congress, and all the constitution says is Congress can't confer foreign titles. But it doesn't say anything about being a foreign citizen [or] having a title when you become a U.S. citizen.
"I think there's actually a challenge to this under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment because it treats people differently. If you're a natural-born U.S. citizen, you can acquire a title from a foreign government."
Meghan Markle has gained her Duchess of Sussex title through marrying Prince Harry and continued to be a U.S. citizen.
Yet Prince Harry, a royal birth, would have to give up his in order to achieve the same status.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have between them filed at least 10 lawsuits since 2019 but only one of those was in America and a Supreme Court challenge to an aspect of U.S. law would break new ground for them.
However, the issue might become more pressing for them if Donald Trump becomes the next president, since he has indicated he would not "protect" Harry.
Conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation is suing the Joe Biden administration under the Freedom of Information Act in an effort to get Harry's visa records.
The think tank wants to know whether he lied about his past drug use, which he described in his book Spare. It has raised the prospect that his experimentation with cannabis, magic mushrooms, cocaine and ayahuasca might have been grounds for rejecting his visa.
Trump told the Daily Express at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February: "I wouldn't protect him. He betrayed the queen. That's—unforgivable. He would be on his own if it was down to me."
Jack Royston is Newsweek's chief royal correspondent based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Jack Royston is Newsweek's Chief Royal Correspondent based in London, U.K. He reports on the British royal family—including King Charles ... Read more
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