How you’re actually supposed to say Harry and Meghan’s new name as Oprah makes mockery of it
Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, have made headlines once again this week after the likes of Oprah Winfrey appeared to 'mock' their 'Sussex' title.
For some context, it all started following the 71-year-old talk show host's comments made on Kelly Ripa's Let's Talk Off Camera podcast, where she recalled a sweet story about the pair in which she claimed Harry, 40, and Meghan, 43, had gotten in touch with her around Easter-time, asking if she might be willing to help them relocate a group of ducklings.
"I got a call from Harry, Prince Harry, on Easter Saturday," she told listeners. "'Sorry to bother you, O, but we have a duck problem here. Our pond is a stream, we don’t have a pond, so can we bring the ducks over to your pond?'"
She went on to recall that she had another celebrity friend, Gayle King's grandchildren visiting that day: "I said, 'Wait until I can get the kids to come down to the pond so they can see you put the ducks in the pond'.
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"And he goes, "No, we’re coming right away, we’re coming over!"
The anecdote prompted host Kelly to ask Oprah whether she'd appreciate it if someone gifted her baby chicks one day - a supposedly common practice during the Easter season.
"I'd run them straight to the Sussexes," Oprah laughed back.
The producer then repeated the couple's surname again, however, making sure to slur the 's', and add a couple more 'x's' to make light of the moniker's notoriously tricky pronunciation.
Oprah continued chuckling away, however, confirming she means no harm with her comments.
Since then, rumours have abounded that Harry and Meghan were pretty peeved by what Oprah said, but a spokesperson for the Sussexes has since confirmed it was 'categorically untrue' that the pair were annoyed at her.
But how do you actually pronounce the pluralised name 'Sussex' which, as both we and Oprah know, is correctly 'Sussexes'?
Well, it's quite simple really.
If the name ends in 'x', you're meant to add 'es' - unless the x is silent.
In that case, add an s.
So, for example, the Felix family would be referred to as the Felixes while the Bordeaux family becomes the Bordeauxs.
Back in March, Meghan broke the news that she, her husband and their two children - son Archie, six, and daughter Lilibet, three - had secretly been using the surname 'Sussex' for some time.
Speaking to PEOPLE, she revealed that the name was bestowed on them by the late Queen Elizabeth II on their wedding day before being passed on to their kids.
"It’s our shared name as a family, and I guess I hadn’t recognised how meaningful that would be to me until we had children," the Duchess said.
"I love that that is something that Archie, Lili, H and I all have together."
The mother-of-two also emphasised her new family name in her Netflix lifestyle series As Ever, Meghan, in which she corrected actress Mindy Kaling for incorrectly referring to her as 'Markle'.
"It's so funny you keep saying Meghan Markle, you know I'm Sussex now," she told The Office US star. "You have kids and you go 'No, I share my name with my children'.
Meghan added: "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'."
Topics: Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, Royal Family, UK News, Celebrity
Rhiannon Ingle