Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton have announced their decision to turn royal protocol on its head and be addressed by their names instead of their titles.

The news was revealed in The Mirror this weekend, with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge reportedly wanting to scrap outdated formality – including bows and curtsies – while they are on duty.

According to a royal source, the move was prompted by their recent disastrous tour of the Caribbean.

The source said: “They want to be more approachable, less formal, less stuffy and break away with a lot of the tradition.”

The prince plans to tear up the rule book to “move with the times,” reports the Sunday Mirror.

William is said to be concentrating on a sleeker, more modern monarchy to ensure its survival in the coming years.

A source revealed: “When the team arrived back in London the couple had a debrief with aides. They went over everything and pinpointed specific things that went wrong and how to improve moving forward.

"The general consensus was that the tour seemed out of date, out of touch, too formal and stuffy. So now it’s more ‘Wills and Kate’ instead of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge… ‘Just call me Wills’ type of thing.

"They want to try to avoid the bows and curtsies in public, be more approachable, less formal, less stuffy, and break away with a lot of the tradition and focus on a modern monarchy.”

The royal couple were shaken by criticism in the wake of their Caribbean tour which took place earlier in March, with many critics calling out the imperialistic undertones of much of the formal proceedings.

This was particularly relevant as the couple shook hands with well-wishers standing behind a metal cage fence in Trenchtown, Jamaica.

One Twitter user perfectly captured the public mood at the time, posting: “Everything about this is wrong.”

Meanwhile author Omid Scobie, who co-wrote Finding Freedom, the controversial biography about Prince Harry and wife Meghan – wrote: “Fans climbing walls, reaching through railings etc is nothing new – seen it on every tour.”

In contrast to this, a royal source said Harry and Meghan were perceived as “down-to-earth, normal people” during their attendance at the Invictus Games in Holland last month.

While the week-long tour of former British colonies left William, 39, and Kate, 40, painfully aware of how much the monarchy would need to evolve and modernise if it wanted to survive.

On one particular occasion during the tour, the pair were criticised for riding standing up in an open-top Land Rover as part of the inaugural Commissioning Parade on March 24, with many calling the display an embarrassing blast from the past.

Several protesters also gathered outside the British High Commission in Kingston, singing traditional Rastafarian songs and holding banners pleading for Britain to apologise for the hand it had played in the slave trade.

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Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness also informed William and Kate during a photoshoot that his country wished to become independent of the Commonwealth so that it could finally address a number of “unresolved” issues.

William would not be drawn on the matter, and subsequently did not address calls to remove the Queen as head of state in a speech at the governor general’s residence.

He did however say he agreed with a statement by his father Prince Charles that “the appalling atrocity of slavery forever stains our history”.

William then went on to speak of his “profound sorrow” for the institution of slavery, which he said should never have existed.

According to the royal source, the general consensus of the tour was that it was “silly” to have continued to rely on old royal traditions, with the couple reportedly wished they could turn back time and do things differently.

The source added: “If they could wave a magic wand and go back in time, they would change almost everything about the Caribbean tour.

“William and Kate are now both very aware that to certain parts of the world, and to the younger generations, the monarchy is a symbol of colonialism and a time gone by.

"Now, it seems silly to have celebrated that and push royal traditions during the tour.

“One of the big mistakes they pinpointed was echoing the Queen and Prince Phillip’s military parade, standing up in the open-top Land Rover.

“In retrospect, the team decided that this was one of the main symbols that showed the Royal Family hadn’t changed and moved on with the times. It portrayed a very elitist and out of touch monarchy, and this can no longer be the image it should portray in order to survive.”

Up until now, William and Kate had been “ perceived as the royal stars” – with the Queen believing the younger generation of royals would be able to “cement the monarchy’s position globally and secure the Commonwealth”.

However this wasn’t quite the case, with the source adding: “It was a shock to them all. A real eye-opener. This is what prompted institutional change within the monarchy. Otherwise, they just wouldn’t survive.”

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