Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have confirmed the name of their new nonprofit venture, which is tied to their nearly 1-year-old son Archie.
The Sussexes, who have settled in Los Angeles, plan to name their new venture Archewell.
“Before SussexRoyal, came the idea of ‘Arche’ — the Greek word meaning ‘source of action,'” Harry and Meghan said in a statement to ABC News in response to a story in the U.K.’s The Telegraph, which was the first outlet to report the name. “We connected to this concept for the charitable organisation we hoped to build one day, and it became the inspiration for our son’s name.”
“To do something of meaning, to do something that matters,” they said. “Archewell is a name that combines an ancient word for strength and action, and another that evokes the deep resources we each must draw upon.”
Harry and Meghan, who began their new roles as non-working royals on April 1, confirmed the nonprofit’s name after The Telegraph found paperwork including the nonprofit’s name filed in the U.S.
“Like you, our focus is on supporting efforts to tackle the global Covid-19 pandemic but faced with this information coming to light, we felt compelled to share the story of how this came to be … We look forward to launching Archewell when the time is right,” the couple said in their statement.
The Sussexes had to decide on a new name for their new venture after having to drop the word “royal” once they stepped back from their roles as senior members of the royal family. As royals, Harry and Meghan had launched the Sussex Royal Foundation and used Sussex Royal for their website and Instagram, which they are now no longer using.
“While The Duke and Duchess are focused on plans to establish a new non-profit organisation, given the specific UK government rules surrounding use of the word ‘Royal,’ it has been therefore agreed that their non-profit organization, when it is announced this Spring, will not be named Sussex Royal Foundation,” a spokesperson for Harry and Meghan told ABC News in February, adding that trademark applications Harry and Meghan previously filed for Sussex Royal have “been removed.”
In addition to their new nonprofit, Harry and Meghan are also continuing with their royal patronages in the U.K. and continuing to support causes important to them, like the Invictus Games for wounded warriors that Harry founded in 2014, and Travalyst, a sustainable travel initiative Harry launched in September.
The Sussexes attended their last official royal engagement in the U.K. in early March. They have since quietly moved from Vancouver Island in Canada to Los Angeles, Meghan’s hometown.
Meghan, a former actress, is the voice behind a new Disney nature film, Elephant on the streaming service Disney+.
The duchess recorded the voiceover in London last fall and had been made aware of the film through mutual friends of the filmmakers, a source close to Meghan told ABC News.
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.