The Queen, Charles, Kate and William’s Birthday Tributes to Meghan Markle Say a Lot About Their Relationship

Meghan Markle celebrates her milestone 40th birthday today, and the occasion was not lost on the royal family, who all shared tributes to the Duchess of Sussex on their Instagrams this morning. What’s striking about their posts this year is that all of the royal accounts—the Queen’s (@theroyalfamily), Prince Charles’ (@clarencehouse), and Kate Middleton and Prince William’s (@dukeandduchessofcambridge) opted not to make them permanent grid posts even though they have every other year. The three accounts shared Instagram Stories wishing Meghan a happy birthday, which only appear for 24 hours on the platform. They called her by her Duchess title in polite but short messages.

Here’s the royal family’s account’s post, representing the Queen: “Wishing the Duchess a very happy birthday today!”

Clarence House’s, representing Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall: “Wishing the Duchess of Sussex a very happy 40th birthday ”

And the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s account, aka Kate and William’s: “Wishing a happy 40th birthday to the Duchess of Sussex! ”

The use of Instagram Stories stands in stark contrast to previous years’ tributes—and how the royal family has wished each other happy birthday this year. Last year, all three royal accounts shared permanent posts to Meghan:

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And they’re still doing permanent posts for other members’ birthdays. All three accounts posted permanent Instagrams for Kate Middleton’s birthday on January 9.

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Prince William, who celebrated his birthday on June 21, didn’t get a grid post on the Queen’s IG, but he did get one on his father Charles’ and of course, one on his and Kate’s account.

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Meghan and Prince Harry’s son Archie even got grid posts on the Queen’s and Charles’ accounts for his second birthday on May 6.

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All three royal households deciding to do Instagram Stories to Meghan, sent out at the same time, sends an interesting message publicly about where Meghan stands with the Firm—especially in the months after Meghan and Harry gave their candid interview to Oprah in March about how they were treated as working royal family members.

Among the Sussexes’ bombshell claims was that a member of the royal family (not the Queen or the late Prince Philip) had concerns that Archie’s skin would be too dark, the Firm refusing Archie security, Meghan revealing that the institution refused to let her seek treatment when she struggled with suicidal ideation, and Harry’s statement that the family has an “invisible contract” with the British tabloids and are scared of them.

Over a week after the interview, Gayle King revealed that while Harry heard from his family, none of them contacted Meghan. “I think what is still upsetting to them [Meghan and Harry] is that the Palace keeps saying they want to work it out privately but yet they release these false stories that are coming out that are very disparaging against Meghan still,” King said. “No one in the Royal Family has talked to Meghan yet or at this particular time. And I think it’s frustrating for them to see that it’s a racial conversation about the Royal Family when all they wanted all along was for the royals to intervene and tell the press to stop with the unfair, inaccurate, false stories that definitely have a racial slant. And until you can acknowledge that, I think it’s going to be hard to move forward. But they both want to move forward with this. They want healing in this family. At the end of the day, it’s Harry’s family.”

A friend of the Sussexes shared with ELLE.com in mid-March that Harry and Meghan wanted the process of healing with the royal family to begin “for their own health as much as anything else. They felt they needed to have these conversations so they can move forward and highlight some important issues as well.”

The Sussexes and royals have kept details of any conversations they’ve had since then private. The royal family’s birthday posts to Meghan are their first public comment on the Duchess—and hint on where things stand now.

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