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Meghan Sussex? Even Meghan Markle’s Last Name Inspires Debates.

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Meghan Sussex? Even Meghan Markle’s Last Name Inspires Debates.

In “Romeo and Juliet,” the star-crossed heroine asks: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.”

People far less infatuated have wrestled with this concept for hundreds of years: How much should a name signify, and does it actually affect what or who a person is?

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, would like a word.

In her new Netflix series, “With Love, Meghan,” the duchess, who is married to Prince Harry, told the actress Mindy Kaling that her last name was Sussex, correcting Ms. Kaling, who had referred to her by a more familiar name: Meghan Markle.

“It’s so funny, too, that you keep saying Meghan Markle,” Meghan said in the second episode of the series, which premiered last week. “You know I’m Sussex now.”

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Meghan cited the importance of sharing a last name with her 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,’” she said.

Ms. Kaling, who initially seemed surprised, replied, “Well, now I know and I love it.”

It’s understandable that Meghan, whose representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment, insists on usage of what she feels is the correct form of her name. But as with most Meghan-related news, the clip quickly made waves online as people took to social media to criticize her. Some commenters thought she was being pretentious, and others called her out for seemingly having confused her royal house with the family’s surname.

There was similar confusion over how to refer to the duchess after she and Prince Harry announced in 2020 that they would “step back” from their official royal duties and move to the United States.

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Two days after the new series premiered, during an appearance on “The View,” Ms. Kaling said that she had “a great time” on the show, despite critics who felt like Meghan had behaved in a passive aggressive way toward her.

There is still some debate, however, on Meghan’s last name.

“She’s either totally oblivious to what her actual name is, she doesn’t understand it or she’s lying,” Hilary Fordwich, a royal family expert, said in a phone interview.

Ms. Fordwich explained that while it isn’t new for a member of the royal family to choose to go by their birth titles (Prince Harry went by Harry Wales during his time in the British army), that doesn’t make it their family name.

“By established protocol, he can use Harry Sussex, which I’ve never heard him use,” she said. “She could choose to use Meghan Sussex, but it’s not their surname. This was the issue in that Netflix clip.”

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However, Rachel Bowie, the royals editor for the lifestyle website PureWow, didn’t think what Meghan said was problematic at all, adding that it’s “totally within royal protocol” and she didn’t see it as a formal change.

“Even though Archie and Lili were christened ‘Mountbatten-Windsor,’ Harry and Meghan are borrowing Sussex from their title to make up their last name,” Ms. Bowie, who was previously the co-host of the “Royally Obsessed” podcast, said in a phone interview.

“I never read it as Meghan formally changing her name, but more as this symbolic thing for herself, that she feels this connection, between the four of them, that they move through the world under the name Sussex,” she added.

Opinions have continued to roll in, even from relatives of Harry and Meghan.

Lord Ivar Mountbatten, a cousin of King Charles III and a reality television star on “The Traitors,” claimed she had been wrong about her own surname in an interview he gave to Town & Country, saying the family’s surname is Mountbatten-Windsor.

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“Her children are called Archie and Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor; they’re not called Archie and Lilibet Sussex, because Sussex is a title,” he said.

And Thomas Markle, Meghan’s estranged father, complained to the Daily Mail on Saturday about her decision to no longer use the name Markle, despite the fact that it’s still fairly common for a woman to adopt her husband’s name after getting married.

Understanding exactly how to refer to the royal family requires a look at its evolving history regarding names. According to the official website for the British Royal Family, “Members of the Royal Family can be known both by the name of the Royal house, and by a surname, which are not always the same.” It’s uncommon for core members of the Royal Family to be referred to by a surname at all.

Members of the Royal Family had no surname at all before 1917 and were referred to only by the name of the house or dynasty they belonged to. That year, King George V adopted Windsor as the name of the house and surname of his family.

In 1960, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Harry’s grandparents, altered the name to distinguish their direct descendants from the rest of the extended Royal Family, making their new surname Mountbatten-Windsor, which included Philip’s family name.

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“For the most part, members of the Royal Family who are entitled to the style and dignity of HRH Prince or Princess do not need a surname, but if at any time any of them do need a surname (such as upon marriage), that surname is Mountbatten-Windsor,” the site reads, using the abbreviation for His or Her Royal Highness.

Meghan now lives outside that structure, meaning those rules do not necessarily apply to her. So her choice to be referred to as Meghan Sussex, for now, will simply be added to the list of things she’s either criticized or embraced for.

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Bill Maher is getting the Mark Twain Prize after all

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Bill Maher is getting the Mark Twain Prize after all

Satirist Bill Maher is this year’s recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Maher will receive the award at the Kennedy Center on June 28th. The show will stream on Netflix at a later date.

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Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Bill Maher will be receiving the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor after all.

There’s been some confusion about whether the comedian and longtime host of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher would, indeed, be getting the top humor award. After The Atlantic cited anonymous sources saying he was, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called it “fake news.” But today the Kennedy Center made it official.

“For nearly three decades, the Mark Twain Prize has celebrated some of the greatest minds in comedy,” said Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations in a statement. “For even longer, Bill has been influencing American discourse – one politically incorrect joke at a time.”

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Is President Trump, chair of the Kennedy Center’s board, in on the joke?

Maher once visited Trump at the White House and he tends to be more conservative than many of his comedian peers but after their dinner Trump soured on Maher, calling him a “highly overrated LIGHTWEIGHT” on social media.

Maher’s acerbic wit has targeted both political parties and he’s been particularly hard on Trump recently, criticizing his decisions to wage a war with Iran and his personnel choices.

“Trump said, ‘when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money.’ Um, who’s ‘we?,’” Maher said in a recent monologue.

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Past recipients of the Mark Twain Prize include Conan O’Brien, Dave Chappelle, Jon Stewart, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tina Fey, Eddie Murphy and Carol Burnett.

In a statement released through the Kennedy Center, Maher said, “It is indeed humbling to get anything named for a man who’s been thrown out of as many school libraries as Mark Twain.”

Maher will receive the Mark Twain Prize at the Kennedy Center on June 28. The show will stream on Netflix at a later date.

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What European Luxury Can Learn From American Fashion

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What European Luxury Can Learn From American Fashion
This week on The Debrief, BoF’s Diana Pearl explains why brands like Coach, Ralph Lauren and Tory Burch are outperforming many European luxury houses — and what their turnarounds reveal about pricing, product, retail and long-term brand building.
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Suit asks court to force Trump administration to use ‘The Kennedy Center’ name

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Suit asks court to force Trump administration to use ‘The Kennedy Center’ name

Workers react to the media after updating signage outside the Kennedy Center on Dec. 19, 2025, in Washington, D.C.

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Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio is asking a federal court in Washington, D.C., to force President Trump and the board and staff of the Kennedy Center to revert to calling the arts complex The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The motion, which Beatty filed on Wednesday, asks a federal circuit court judge to reverse the Trump administration and the center’s current board and staff’s decision to call the complex “The Trump-Kennedy Center.”

In the filing, Beatty’s attorneys wrote: “Can the Board of the Kennedy Center — in direct contradiction of the governing statutes — rename this sacred memorial to John F. Kennedy after President Donald J. Trump? The answer is, unequivocally, ‘no.’ By renaming the Center — in violation of the law — Defendants have breached the terms of the trust and their most basic fiduciary obligations as trustees. Shortly after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Congress designated the Kennedy Center as the ‘sole national memorial to the late’ President in the nation’s capital.”

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In a statement emailed to NPR Thursday, Roma Daravi, the vice president of public relations for the Kennedy Center, wrote: “We’re confident the court will uphold the board’s decision on the name change and the desperately needed renovations which will continue as scheduled.” NPR also reached out to the White House for comment, but did not receive a reply.

In December, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the complex would heretofore be called “The Trump-Kennedy Center.” Although the new moniker was never approved by Congress, the Center’s website and publicity materials were immediately updated to reflect the administration’s chosen name, and the same day as Leavitt’s announcement, Trump’s name went up on the signage of the complex’s exterior, over that of the slain President Kennedy.

Later that month, Rep. Beatty who serves as an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees, sued Trump, members of the Kennedy Center board appointed by Trump, and some ex-officio members, arguing that the complex’s name had been legislated by Congress in 1964. Wednesday’s motion is part of that lawsuit.

In a press release sent to NPR on Wednesday, Rep. Beatty said: “Donald Trump’s attempt to rename the Kennedy Center after himself is not just an act of ego. It is an attempt to subvert our Constitution and the rule of law. Congress established the Kennedy Center by law, and only Congress can change its name.”

For many patrons, artists and benefactors of the Kennedy Center, the name change was the last straw in politicizing the performing arts hub. Following the White House announcement of the new name, many prominent artists withdrew planned performances there, including the composer Philip Glass (a Kennedy Center Honors award recipient, who received his prize during the first Trump administration), the famed Broadway composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz and the 18-time Grammy-winning banjo master Béla Fleck.

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The Washington National Opera (WNO), which had been in residence at the Kennedy Center since 1971, also severed its ties in January after ticket sales dropped precipitously. Earlier this month, WNO artistic director Francesca Zambello told NPR, “We did try as best as we could to encourage [the patrons] that we are a bipartisan organization, but people really voted with their feet and with their pocketbooks. And so we realized that there was really no choice for us.”

On Monday, a coalition of eight architecture and cultural groups also sued Trump and the Kennedy Center board in federal court over the complex’s scheduled closing in July for unspecified renovations. Their suit seeks to have the White House and board members comply with existing historic preservation laws, and to secure Congressional approval before moving ahead with the renovation plans.

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