Prince Harry 'will be banned' from wearing military outfits at royal events

It is being speculated that Prince Harry will not only lose his honorary military titles but also the right to wear his uniform at official royal events when Queen Elizabeth II conducts the one-year review of his exit as a working royal.

Ever since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey, rumours are on the rise that the Queen will take away the few royal positions they had retained after their exit as senior members of the royal family in March 2020. Among them are the military roles of the Duke of Sussex, who is known to cherish his position as Captain-General of the Royal Marines, an honour he took over from his grandfather Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

The 36-year-old is also Honorary Air Commandant of RAF Honington in Suffolk and the Royal Navy's Commodore-in-Chief of Small Ships and Diving. He also has prestigious medals from his time in the Army, including his Operational Service Medal for Afghanistan. Harry also has at least two ceremonial uniforms for his roles in the Forces, as well as a variety of military outfits, including the white Tropical Dress of the Blues and Royals, and the Blues and Royals frockcoat which he wore for his wedding with Meghan Markle in May 2018.

Retired Armed Forces personnel in Britain are allowed to wear their medals but generally not their uniform at official engagements. The Duke, who retired from the Armed Forces in 2015 after serving for a decade, was only allowed to wear his uniform because of his honorary military titles. But if his titles are taken away, it is possible that he could be prevented from wearing his uniforms, which he often did at royal events, reports Mail Online.

There is still a chance that he would be allowed to wear his uniform, as the ban on wearing them following retirement is not automatic - with a procedure in place for exceptions at certain appropriate occasions, which would feature high-level discussions about a specific individual and event.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Buckingham Palace is soon expected to bring forward the final announcement from the Queen on what will happen at the end of next month, which will mark a year of Harry and Meghan's exit as working royals, to avoid any further speculation and uncertainty about their future roles as British royals. The decision about allowing him to wear a military uniform instead of civilian clothes would also be decided by the palace following a conversation with the ceremonial team of the Ministry of Defence.

Harry has previously been allowed exceptions when it came to wearing his uniform. While it is customary to be clean-shaven when wearing them, the British monarch permitted her grandson to keep his beard when he wore his uniform for his wedding.

The last time the prince wore his military uniform in public was in March last year when he and Meghan were finishing their last round of engagements as senior royals. He wore his scarlet mess jacket uniform as Captain-General of the Royal Marines when he attended the Mountbatten Festival of Music at the Royal Albert Hall in London on March 7, with his wife colour-coordinating with him in a SAFiYAA dress.