Buckingham Palace is going on the defense!

On Sunday, the royal family shockingly wished Prince Harry a happy 40th birthday — a big freaking deal amid his ongoing royal rift! It seemed like such a positive sign. After years of silence on his birthday (and other significant moments in his and his family’s life), his estranged relatives were finally acknowledging him! Maybe, just maybe, the Invictus Games founder was starting to heal things with his father King Charles III, brother Prince William, and sister-in-law Princess Catherine. It was the olive branch everyone had been dying to see for ages, you know? Everything seemed so positive — until the bubble burst.

On Monday, folks realized that the royals had seemingly cropped out Meghan Markle from the image! Oof! So freaking shady, right?! There goes that olive branch!

If you don’t know, the original pic showed Harry sitting beside his wife at a table with several others during a trip to Ireland. Meanwhile, the photo the royals posted was zoomed in and simply showed Harry smiling. See the differences (below):

(c) WENN
Definitely the same picture, just close-up! Naturally, everyone presumed this was a pointed diss at the Duchess… but was it??

Per DailyMail.com on Monday, Buckingham Palace has insisted they didn’t crop the photograph. So, WTF happened then?? The picture was snapped by photographer Jimmy Rainford on July 11, 2018, at the Dogpatch Labs in Dublin. According to sources, two nearly identical images were uploaded to image archives — one of just Harry and another with the full table of people. Apparently, the royals received the birthday post snapshot in its unedited format from the Press Association, and they didn’t do any touch-ups before posting it.

So, the Palace isn’t taking any credit for the shade, BUT the photo had been edited by someone beforehand! Surely, they must’ve had access to the second, uncropped picture, and they still chose to use the one that didn’t include the Suits alum. We get it’s a b-day post and they weren’t obligated to show Meghan, but to use a photo she was originally in still looks super s**tty — even if it wasn’t intentional! If they really wanted to avoid the drama, they could have just used any one of the thousands they must have of the Duke of Sussex completely alone! Just sayin’!