Duchess of Sussex cropped out of photo used by Royal family for Duke’s 40th birthday
The Duchess of Sussex has been cropped from a photograph shared online by the Royal family to mark Prince Harry’s 40th birthday.
The King and the Prince of Wales took the surprising step of using their official social media profiles to send the Duke of Sussex birthday wishes on Sunday.
The Royal family account on X, formerly Twitter, posted a message that said: “Wishing The Duke of Sussex a very happy 40th birthday today!” It was accompanied by a picture of the Duke, taken during an official royal engagement in Dublin in 2018, when the Sussexes were still working members of the family.
The message was shared by the Prince and Princess of Wales’s official account, with the words: “Wishing a Happy 40th Birthday to The Duke of Sussex.”
Wishing a Happy 40th Birthday to The Duke of Sussex! https://t.co/ZKJbYDmV6L
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) September 15, 2024
The picture used was taken when the Duke and Duchess visited Dogpatch Labs to meet technology entrepreneurs.
In the original photograph, the Duchess was depicted alongside her husband at a table with two other people. However, she was partially obscured and a photographic agency cropped the image in order to release a second, square version focused solely on the Duke.
The family’s decision to publicly mark the occasion was considered by some as an olive branch, signalling a potential thawing in relations.
However, others noted that it would have appeared churlish not to record such a significant milestone, only serving to generate further speculation and coverage of family tensions.
Neither the King nor the Prince of Wales publicly acknowledged the Duke’s birthday last year, with palace sources insisting they only marked the birthdays of working members of the family.
The previous year, the family was observing a period of mourning following the death of Elizabeth II, ahead of her funeral on Sept 19.
However, in 2021, 18 months after the Duke and Duchess stepped back from their roles as working royals, the family’s official social media accounts wished the Duke a “very happy birthday”, posting several pictures of him alongside a balloon emoji.
Normal service is likely to resume next year, after palace sources insisted this weekend that they had simply been following tradition by marking “significant” birthdays, even for non-working members of the family.
The palace had marked the Duchess’s 40th birthday in 2021 and the Duke of York’s 60th in 2020.
While the Duke of Sussex is understood to have no contact with his brother, the Prince of Wales, he is keen to mend relations with his father.
His decision not to update his memoir, Spare, nor conduct any further interviews about it when it is released in paperback next month, is thought to have come as a relief at Buckingham Palace.
