Royal family silent on Meghan Markle's 42nd birthday; aides insist they only post on birthdays of working royals: Report

Royal family did not wish Meghan Markle on her birthday amid strained relations. As per a new report, this was only because she is no longer a working royal.

Official Twitter (now X) accounts for King Charles and Prince William usually share birthday messages for Prince Harry's wife and former actor Meghan Markle, but this year marks a shift as they remained silent on social media. As per a Daily Mail report, royal aides responded to the royal family's failure to publicly send Meghan birthday wishes by stating that birthdays of only working royals were marked on social media – despite sharing birthday messages for Meghan in previous years.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle during the 2021 Global Citizen Live festival in New York City. (File Photo: AFP)

Royal family didn't wish Meghan Markle on birthday

Meghan Markle celebrated her 42nd birthday on August 4, but there was radio silence from senior members of the royal family. Daily Mail reported that on Friday, royal aides said 'they only marked the birthdays of working members of the Royal Family on their official social media accounts'. The report added that royal watchers view it as evidence of the ‘even more strained relations in recent months’ between the Sussexes and Harry's brother William, sister-in-law Kate, father Charles and stepmother Camilla.

Meghan reportedly celebrated her 42nd birthday early by going to see the Barbie movie with her friends, and later stepping out for dinner with Prince Harry, as per Page Six.

Royal family shared messages wishing Meghan earlier

Last year, the official Twitter accounts for the royal family, including the Prince and Princess of Wales and King Charles and Queen Camilla, publicly shared birthday wishes for Meghan on social media.

“Wishing a happy birthday to The Duchess of Sussex!” wrote the @KensingtonRoyal Twitter account for Meghan’s 41st birthday, sharing a picture of Meghan smiling. The Clarence House account, which at the time was being used by then Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, shared an identical tweet with a different picture of Meghan.

Meghan-Harry's kids didn't get birthday wishes too

In June this year, there was also silence from senior members of the royal family on social media as Harry and Meghan’s daughter, Princess Lilbet, celebrated her second birthday. Moreover, Prince Archie also did not receive a birthday wish from the royal family on his fourth birthday, which fell on the same day as King Charles’s coronation in May.

Relations between Harry and Meghan and the royal family have soured in the past year, since the release of Harry and Meghan’s Netflix docuseries Harry and Meghan as well as Harry’s tell-all memoir Spare, in which he made a series of claims about the royal family, and how Meghan and him were treated during their time as working royals. Prince Harry and Meghan stepped back from official royal duties in 2020.