The Prince celebrated his 36th birthday on Tuesday at home in California. To mark the occasion a number of senior royals posted pictures of Harry on social media with accompanying tributes.
However royal observers noted none of the photographs released by the Queen, Prince Charles or the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge included his wife Meghan.
Prince Charles posted two photos of his youngest son without Meghan whilst the Queen opted for a picture of herself and Harry together.
The Cambridges’ posted a photo of the couple taking part in a race with Prince Harry in 2017 at London’s Olympia Park.
Amanda Platell, a journalist who specialises in royal affairs, argued this would have “hurt” Prince Harry.
Writing in the Daily Mail she said: “Despite Palace protocol dictating that spouses are not included in pictures celebrating royal birthdays, it must have hurt Prince Harry deeply to see that the images released by his grandmother, father and brother to celebrate his 36th birthday all excluded his wife Megs.
“To compound things, Kate was in the 2017 picture sent by the Cambridges.
“As many of us know from bitter experience, families fall out, yet it leaves us all the sadder for it.
“Surely even blue blood is thicker than water.”
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A number of royal fans reacted to Meghan’s photo absence using social media.
Responding to the Cambridge’s Instagram post one said: “The shade of them using this pic rather than one including his wife.
Another added: “Interesting photo selection. No Meghan.”
However not everybody took the same view with a third poster commenting: “Ahh a nice reminder of happier times before it all fell apart.”
Harry and Meghan shocked the world back in January by announcing the planned to step down as senior royals.
Instead the couple vowed to become “financially independent” and to split their time between Britain and North America.
After a brief stay in Canada the Duke and Duchess moved to California shortly before the state’s coronavirus lockdown was imposed.
Recently Harry and Meghan moved to a new £11.2million home to the north of Los Angeles.
They also announced a mega deal with streaming giant Netflix earlier this month.
This will see the couple produce documentaries, films and children’s shows for the platform.
