Meghan Markle explains reason for new surname after revealing full legal name

Meghan Markle has been defended by fans after explaining the reason for her new surname after revealing her full legal name.

As many royal fans will know, there's been quite the discourse online when it comes to the Duchess of Sussex's official title after she and her husband, Prince Harry, stepped down as working senior royals back in 2020.

There's likewise been a keen interest in the legal names and titles of the pair's two children; Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.

Now, as for Meghan, the new season of her show With Love, Meghan dropped on Netflix yesterday (26 August) and, on the same day, she appeared on YouTube's The Circle with Emily Chang, where she opened up a little more about royal life.

Meghan Markle has confirmed once and for all if her legal name is actually 'Meghan Sussex' or not (Bloomberg Originals)

During the chat, Emily asked the mother-of-two about her name - something that remains to be a very talked-about subject amongst fans and critics alike earlier this year when she opened up about the personal significance of the family-of-four all having the same surname.

In an episode of the debut series of With Love, Meghan, she explained to her friend Mindy Kaling more about her choice of surname.

"I don't think anyone in the world knows that Meghan Markle has eaten Jack In The Box and loves it," Mindy said in response to an admission Meghan made about eating the takeout food.

Meghan pointed out that she found it 'funny' that Mindy called her 'Meghan Markle'.

"It's so funny you keep saying Meghan Markle, you know I'm Sussex now," she explained. "You have kids and you go 'No, I share my name with my children'.

"I didn't know how meaningful it would be to me but it just means so much to go 'This is our family name. Our little family name.'"

Meghan acknowledged that the whole name-change situation was a 'complicated one for people to understand' (Netflix)

Speaking to Emily, Meghan shared why it's such a 'complicated' sitch for people to wrap their heads around.

"Well, when I got married, I changed my name. But it is a complicated one for people to understand because a last name is not typical in that construct," she explained, prompting the host to press if 'Sussex' really was her last name.

Putting an end to the online chatter once and for all, the As Ever founder confirmed: "It's not, but it's used loosely or roughly rather. It sounds so silly to say and I get it 'cos I'm American and then I went there and I started to understand, then you come back and as an American, you go 'I'm so confused'.

"It's a dukedom - and that's the truth of it. But at the end of the day, yes, my legal name is Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, but Sussex works for us as our family name and it is the name we share with our children. But yes, since we've been married that's what I've been called."

Upon catching light of Meghan's recent comments, fans rushed to social media to defend her against certain keyboard warriors who seem to be left in a right spiral every time she is referred to as 'Duchess of Sussex' or 'Meghan Sussex'.

One X user penned: "That’s like when anyone gets married, they change their name so when Meghan got married she automatically became Meghan, Duchess of Sussex."

"Yeah see and yet some fans (I don't hate them but just saying), and the press keeps on calling her 'Markle' and she isn't," hit out another while a third responded: "The Duchess of Edinburgh's name is Sophie Wessex... the media refer to her as that... don't know why it's so hard for some people to understand?

"Guess they don't want to..."