On September 16, the British royal family posted a photo of Prince Harry to their Instagram account. It was at first glance an innocuous one: it showed the Prince smiling in a gray blazer at a table during an official 2018 appearance in Ireland. “Wishing The Duke of Sussex a very happy 40th birthday today!” it read.

Within hours, however, some online commenters were in a furor. Buckingham Palace, they claimed, had cropped out Harry’s wife Meghan Markle—who was originally pictured at the table alongside him.

The Duke of Sussex in on July 11, 2018 in Dublin, Ireland. Buckingham Palace shared this photo on social media in honor of the Duke’s 40th birthday. Some internet users, however, incorrectly claimed that the Palace intentionally cropped out the Duchess.

 Photo: Getty Images
The feud between Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, and the royal family is perhaps the most well-documented royal bust-up in history. Since the couple announced they were “stepping back” from their official duties in January 2020, they’ve explosively revealed unflattering and intimate details about their experience with the monarchy. In 2021, for example, Meghan Markle accused the royal family of racist behavior in an interview with Oprah. In 2023, Prince Harry made several bombshell allegations in his biography Spare, including that Prince William physically assaulted him. Was this photo—which at first appeared to be somewhat of an olive branch amid the continued estrangement—just the next chapter in the never-ending story of these posh Hatfields and McCoys? (Then, add in the royal family’s not-so-stellar reputation with editing. Earlier this year, the Princess of Wales came under fire for photoshopping a family photo for Mother’s Day.)

The Duke of Sussex and the Duchess on July 11, 2018 in Dublin, Ireland at the same event.

 Photo: Getty Images

It appears, however, that this may be much ado about nothing. Earlier today, Buckingham Palace publicly denied cropping the Duchess out of the photo. They confirmed to The Independent that “the image used was not altered and was used in the format it was received.” Indeed, it seems that the photographer uploaded both a wide shot that included Meghan and one that was just a close crop of Prince Harry to the wire image site Getty Images. While the rift between the Sussexes and the wider royal family still exists, it seems this isn’t a mark of it widening.