Prince Harry wrote that Prince Charles and Camilla wanted Kate Middleton to change the spelling of her name, and kate reportedly felt offended by charles and camilla's name demands. In Spare, Harry said they suggested Katherine with a K because of existing royal cyphers tied to the letter C.
Harry's Spare Account
Harry wrote, “I remembered the time [Prince Charles, Harry’s father] and Camilla wanted Kate to change the spelling of her name, because there were already two royal cyphers with a C and a crown above.” He added, “Charles and Camilla. It would be too confusing to have another. Make it Katherine with a K, they suggested.”
The memoir places the request in 2023 and ties it to the cyphers already used by Charles and Camilla. Their monogram had two interlocking C’s beneath a coronet, and Harry wrote that another C would have been too much.
William's Reaction
Christopher Andersen, the royal biographer, said Charles and Camilla asked Kate Middleton to change her name from Catherine to Katherine. Andersen also said Camilla saw the change as a logical progression, since the world knew her as Kate.
Prince William was left fuming, and he called the request “insulting, not only to Kate but to her entire family.” That reaction puts the request in sharper focus than the spelling issue alone: it touched Kate’s public identity and the way her family was being asked to accept it.
Kate's Royal Title
When Kate Middleton married Prince William at Westminster Abbey fifteen years ago, Queen Elizabeth II gave them the titles Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Earl and Countess of Strathearn, and Baron and Baronness of Carrickfergus. In the years since, Kensington Palace team has repeatedly said Catherine, the Princess of Wales, wishes to be called Catherine.
Harry closed the memoir passage by writing, “I wondered now what came of that suggestion.” The immediate effect of the account is simple: the request was never just about a letter. It landed in public as another dispute over how the future queen should be named, and William’s response showed the family took it that way.
