I haven't seen a complete transcript of the Duchess of Sussex's interview concerning her son's title, but a recently published article includes a lengthy quotation.
Speaking to Oprah, Meghan recalled how, when she had been pregnant, 'They [the Royal Family] were saying they didn't want him to be a Prince or a Princess'.
She continued: 'You know, the other piece of that convention is, there's a convention – I forget if it was George V or George VI convention – that when you're the grandchild of the monarch, so when Harry's dad becomes King, automatically Archie and our next baby would become Prince or Princess, or whatever they were going to be… But also it's not their right to take it away.'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ie-prince-plans-slim-monarchy-save-costs.html
"There's a convention – I forget if it was George V or George VI convention – that when you're the grandchild of the monarch [...] automatically [you] would become Prince or Princess" is false. The George V convention formulated in
the Letters Patent of 1917 is that when you are the
male-line grandchild of the monarch you automatically would become Prince or Princess, but when you are a
female-line grandchild of the monarch you would not automatically become anything at all.
It is alleged in the article by Kate Mansey for the Mail on Sunday that at the birth of Archie Mountbatten-Windsor his parents expected their son to become a prince upon his grandfather's accession and that they were only told differently just before giving their interview to Oprah Winfrey this March. There are no named sources. It is claimed in the article that the information was obtained from an unnamed "source close to the couple".
Charles has told the Sussexes that he will change key legal documents to ensure that Archie cannot get the title he would once have inherited by right, according to a source close to the couple.
[...]
The loss will be all the more galling as the Sussexes havemade a point of refusing to use another, lesser title for their son, who is technically the Earl of Dumbarton. They took that decision safe in the knowledge that Archie would become a Prince in due course. Or so they thought.
Earlier this year, a source close to the Sussexes confirmed they did indeed expect Archie to be named a Prince when Charles, Archie's grandfather, acceded to the throne. Their spokesman at the time was even instructed to remind journalists of that 'fact'.
The Sussexes finally learned that would not be the case just before sitting down with Oprah Winfrey for their first bombshell interview in March.
[...]
An insider said: 'Charles has never made any secret of the fact that he wants a slimmed-down Monarchy when he becomes King.
'He realises that the public don't want to pay for a huge Monarchy and, as he said, the balcony at Buckingham Palace would probably collapse.'
[...]
A Royal source said last night: 'We are not going to speculate about the succession or comment on rumours coming out of America.'
Could the statement of the "Royal source" be considered a denial? I am not clear on why they refer to the "succession" instead of "titles".
If there is truth to the claim that "
the Sussexes [...] did indeed expect Archie to be named a Prince when Charles, Archie's grandfather, acceded to the throne. Their spokesman at the time was even instructed to remind journalists of that 'fact'", it would call into question whether the "senior source" who
confirmed to Robert Jobson in April 2019 that Archie would become a prince was that spokesman.
However, the timeline set out in the Mail on Sunday article is inconsistent with what was reported last year in
the book Finding Freedom, which was that:
[...] Meghan and Harry want to wait until Archie is at an age where can can decide "which path" he wants to take - making them worry about the day Prince Charles would become king. [...]
A senior aide close to the couple, who was close to the couple at the time, told Durand and Scoobie: "To not have a senior role in the Royal family but have a title is just a burden."
[...] The Finding Freedom authors write: "They shared their concerns with Charles, who said he would consider when became king issuing a new letters patent, a legal instrument in the form of a written order issued by a reigning monarch, that would change this style."