Meghan Markle & Prince Harry Had Their Reasons for Not Sending the Queen a Birthday Post

If you haven’t heard by now: it’s Queen Elizabeth II’s 94th birthday! The royal family is doing what they can to celebrate her during these socially-distanced times, with Prince William and Kate Middleton taking to social media. But what gives with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s Queen birthday message? They haven’t publicly shared their well wishes yet. Though as it turns out, there’s a perfectly simple explanation as to why they won’t be doing that this year.

Followers of Meghan, 38, and Prince Harry, 35, noticed that the pair were absent from any virtual celebrations of the Queen’s big day. While their royal counterparts Kate Middleton, 38, and Prince William, 37, took to Instagram on the morning of April 21 to share a heartfelt tribute to Her Majesty, a message from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the pair did things a little differently this year.

In lieu of their typical post to social media, a representative for the Sussexes shared with Town & Country that Harry, Meghan, and baby Archie had a video call with the Queen to wish her a happy birthday this year. The change of plans can really be chalked up to two simple reasons: First off, the Queen wants to see Archie as much as possible now that he’s living with his parents thousands of miles away in California, and secondly, the Sussexes no longer have any active social media accounts anyway.

Source: Instagram

Meghan and Harry’s former Instagram account, @SussexRoyal, was shut down before April 1 when they officially transitioned out of the roles as senior members of the royal family. They shared their last post a couple of days prior on March 30, thanking fans for their support. “While you may not see us here, the work continues,” they wrote in the caption of their farewell post. “Thank you to this community—for the support, the inspiration and the shared commitment to the good in the world. We look forward to reconnecting with you soon. You’ve been great!”

Source: Instagram

Their Instagram account was just one of many things the Sussexes gave up as they stepped down from their roles as working members of the royal family in 2020. Due to the Queen’s “royal” word ban, they have since promised that they “do not intend to use ‘Sussex Royal’ or any iteration of the word ‘Royal’ in any territory” when it comes to their charitable efforts, or otherwise.

It looks like the Queen will have to do with FaceTime and phone calls from her Stateside kin, for now.