ROYAL experts have said Meghan Markle has been caught out playing a power game after she was caught calling herself 'Her Royal Highness'.
Meghan was caught using the royal title in a recent podcast interview, which showed an image of a gift basket the Duchess sent to Kern Lima a year ago.
The present was filled with ice cream and jam and came with a note on monogrammed paper, signed: "With the compliments of HRH the Duchess of Sussex."
Both Meghan and Harry agreed not to use their HRH title at the Sandringham Agreement five years ago amid fears they would use their royal titles to make money after leaving the working royal family.
Sources have said that while Meghan and Harry do still have their titles, they agreed not to use them for "commercial purposes".
The source said the note was a "personal gift" but the couple don't publicly use HRH.
However, The Sun's Royal Editor Matt Wilkinson has said she was 'caught out' by the inclusion of the picture.
He said: "She's kind of almost been caught out because I have a theory on this that maybe she hadn't seen the edit or she wasn't aware this picture was going to be shown or maybe her staff didn't realise the gravity or we'd end up talking about it lots.
"Is there a danger that it could be, and we don't know, but I'm just guessing, that if she's sending cards to friends, private gifts with HRH, Duchess of Sussex, there are also emails or contacts that we don't see publicly, she could be speaking to Netflix bosses, Spotify bosses using this title."
Public Relations Consultant Mark Borkowski also agreed the image caught Meghan out for using the title for leverage.
He said: "It's clearly social capital. I mean, I think that I'm sure her PA uses it to ensure that she gets that top table at a restaurant."
He went on to add: "Of course it adds weight and she knows it adds weight. And it gives that sort of subliminal aura that she still has links with the British Royal Family, which is a very, very, very powerful brand globally, particularly in America.
"And the fact is, if you are disconnected from that, of course, you lose your social capital, you lose your weight in terms of sort of some of these deals that she's trying to do.
"I'm sure she is using that, when it's important, when she has to land something to remind the people the power that she possibly has.
"This is a power game. And no more than in America where that status is so important because without that status, she's just another sort of B-lister in a continent absolutely populated with celebrities."
Vanity Fair's Royal Correspondent Katie Nicholl admitted Meghan using the name even in private was 'murky territory' and hypocritical.
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Katie explained: "I think it just poses a bit of a hypocrisy element... you've attacked this institution many, many times, most recently in a podcast, which we've just heard this week. And yet you want to retain all of the perks and privileges of being in that institution.
"Which is, of course, the titles, because I suppose if they are just Harry and Meghan Sussex, because that is her name, you know, she's right to say she's not a Markle anymore.
"When you marry, you know, most people take their husband's name and that's what she's done. But she doesn't need to be using the HRH title.
"She doesn't really need to be using the Duchess of Sussex. But of course, that sets her aside from everyone else, including A-list Hollywood celebrities."
It's not the first time Meghan has raised eyebrows with the use of the royal title.
Earlier this month she shared on Instagram a message from Ukraine's Vice President addressing her as 'Your Royal Highness'.
It came after she insisted her surname is now Sussex while correcting her actor friend Mindy Kaling in her Netflix show.
During the podcast, MEghan, 43, admitted she had no plans of realising a tell-all memoir like her husband.
"I've got a lot more life to live before I'm there," she said.
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