Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's children (opens in new tab) will not have royal titles if new reports about Prince Charles' plans for the future of the monarchy (opens in new tab) are true.

According to the Daily Mail (opens in new tab), the Prince of Wales has made it clear to the Sussexes that he will not give their children titles when he takes the throne.

This explains why the Sussex children (opens in new tab) do not have titles now, but were expected to have them in the future. When their grandfather, Charles, became king, they were supposed to be given the titles automatically, but apparently he plans to formally change that rule. Indeed, a source close to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex told the paper that Charles will "change an important legal document" (possibly a 1917 patent letter (new (open in tab)), which he is said to have said.

"Harry and Meghan were told that Archie would never become prince, even when Charles became king," the source said.

If the Mail's reporting is accurate, the decision is in fact neither personal to Harry, Meghan, and their children, nor the result of an ongoing feud between the Sussex family and the royal family, but part of Prince Charles' larger plan to reduce the number of active royals, according to the Mail and this stems from Charles' belief that the public wants fewer working royals.

"Prince Charles has never said publicly that he wants a slim monarchy when he becomes king," a source told The Sun (opens in new tab). He realizes that the people don't want to pay for a monarchy so huge that, as he said, "the balconies of Buckingham Palace will probably collapse.

Notably, there is precedent for the kind of change Prince Charles allegedly wants: in 2012, prior to the birth of Prince George, Queen Elizabeth made significant changes to the titles for all of Prince William and Kate Middleton's (opens in new tab) children The Queen issued a new Letter of Patent (opens in new tab) that made significant changes so that all children of Prince William and Kate Middleton (opens in new tab) would receive titles. Even though the Cambridge children (opens in new tab), like Archie and Lili, are great-grandchildren of the monarch, Prince William is the direct heir (opens in new tab), so under the old rules the eldest son would automatically receive the title. The Queen's change (opens in new tab) amended the old criteria for dates, so that all of the couple's children, including their daughter, would receive the title.

However, the palace appears to be tight-lipped about Prince Charles' reported plans to change the rules regarding who is granted knighthoods. A royal source told The Sun about the recent reports.

We will have to wait and see how Prince Charles deals with this issue and what impact it will have on the future of the monarchy.