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EXCLUSIVEHarry and Meghan are ‘downgraded’ on the official Buckingham Palace website: Sussexes’ 4,000-word individual profiles vanish entirely… before being replaced by 500-word joint section alongside Prince Andrew
Despite acrimoniously stepping down as senior working royals in January 2020, full profiles of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex separately had remained up alongside of the rest of the Royal Family until this morning.
Tonight those pictures and biographies briefly vanished completely.
Within half an hour they were replaced with a significantly smaller, joint biography at the very bottom of the page – below the Duke of York.
The Sussexes’ entry now reads that they have stepped back as working royals, with just a couple of short paragraphs on each of them.
Prince Andrew’s entry was also updated tonight, setting the seal on his fall from grace.
In what will doubtless be be another humiliating relegation, his vastly-shortened biography now begins with the announcement of his withdrawal from public life over the Epstein scandal and Queen Elizabeth’s decision to strip him of his military affiliations and royal patronages.
Despite growing public anger at the Sussexes’ continued inclusion, Buckingham Palace has always side-stepped questions about why their details remained online despite the couple quitting royal duties four years ago and launching repeated attacks on the royal family in print and television interviews.
It has been suggested that the palace press office was ‘slowly’ updating the website following the death of Queen Elizabeth and would ‘get round to it in time’.
Harry’s original profile described him as fifth in line to the throne and the younger son of The King and Diana, Princess of Wales.
His 2,700-word biography included details of the prince’s early life, education and army career and was peppered with glossy pictures.
It also included details of his work setting up the Invictus Games, children with HIV/Aids and sporting initiatives, as well as African conservation and as his joint work on the mental health Heads Together initiative with the Prince and Princess of Wales.
There was also an entire section devoted entitled ‘Supporting the Monarch’, which included his time as a working royal for his late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth.
It stated he represented her at events in the UK and abroad, as well as attending state and ceremonial occasions, including Remembrance events.
Meghan’s separate profile was slightly shorter – around 1,300 words – and included her education and career as an actress, as well as the charitable engagements she undertook during her brief time as a member of the Royal Family.
Interestingly, there was no mention of her parents, including her own family including estranged father Thomas Markle.
In what many will view as a marked downgrading of their status, however, the couple now only share a joint biography showing a picture of them arm in arm on a beach in South Africa, with a combined word count of just 577 words.
They are the only married members of the Royal Family now not to have their own individual profiles.
Harry’s includes just a few words about his birth and upbringing, as well as his career in the armed forces and work with the Invictus Games.
Meghan’s merely says she was an actress and ran a website, as well as briefly including her patronages as a working royal and her official titles.
Their new entry begins by stating they stepped back at as working royals in January 2020 and concludes with the three official statements released by Buckingham Palace between 2020 and 2021 official confirming their departure.
In a gracious move, however, Buckingham Palace have also included a link to Harry and Meghan’s new Sussex.com website.
The link reads: Information about the current work of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex can be found on their official website: Sussex.com Sources insisted that the changes should not be seen as a snub, but a long overdue update.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment but noted that website design and content is updated from ‘time to time’.
A source said the couple’s separate pages had been combined into one as part of a routine update of content. A ‘technical glitch’ meant it took a while for the system to update to include the new joint profile.
Last month Harry and Meghan launched a new personal website, Sussex.com, which persistently refers to them by their titles, and uses the coat of arms Meghan was given when she married Harry.
A picture of the couple’s dominates the main web page overlaid with the text: ‘The Office of Prince Harry & Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex.’
The Sussexes’ demotion on the Royal Family’s website comes just days after Meghan launched her latest business venture – American Riviera Orchard under her official title the Duchess of Sussex.
Royal experts claimed the project – which will see Meghan, selling products such as cooking utensils and jams – was just another attempt for the California-based royals to ‘cash in’ on Meghan’s royal status.
Others said it could be a breach of the agreement they struck with the late Queen, which said that publicity materials make no attempts to hide Meghan’s royal links or her brand’s nakedly commercial nature.
Phil Dampier, who wrote a book about Harry and Meghan’s romance in 2018, said: ‘It’s hard to believe that Harry and Meghan would have used their titles for commercial gain so blatantly if Queen Elizabeth was still alive – now that she is no longer with us they sense a weakness and are exploiting it,’
‘The King won’t have the will or energy at the moment to fight this and so will let it go, but it just shows the hypocrisy of the Sussexes who criticise Harry’s family yet cling on to their royal titles for commercial gain.’
The website apparent snub also coincides with the fourth anniversary of their ‘freedom’ day – the date they moved from Canada to California following Megixt – which they celebrated on Friday.
Ever since the death of Queen Elizabeth in September 2022, King Charles has sought a ‘slimmed down monarchy’ which has seen half the number of working royals compared with 2017.
Back then, royal engagements such as trips abroad, investitures and state functions, were covered by 12 senior and around six minor working royals.
By 2024, however, there were only seven working royals – the King and Queen, Prince and Princess of Wales, the Princess Royal and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh – alongside minor royals such as The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester.
Yet a series of health woes to hit the royal family in January, with the King being diagnosed with an unnamed cancer and Kate undergoing planned abdominal surgery within days of each other, laid bare the reality of a stripped back monarchy.
The monarch has taken a step back from his public facing duties, although continues to meet the Prime Minister for his weekly audiences and still reads through his daily red boxes as he undergoes treatment.
Meanwhile, Kate left the hospital on January 29 – almost two weeks after her surgery – and returned to Adelaide Cottage in Windsor. Kensington Palace said she would be stepping back from public duty as she recovers.
The reality of the smaller-functioning royal family was revealed dramatically last month when Prince Andrew and his divorced wife Fergie, the Duchess of York, led the royal reserves into a thanksgiving service for the late King Constantine of Greece.
The Duke of York took a step back from royal life after he settled a sexual assault case filed against him by Virginia Giuffre , a sex slave victim of Andrew’s friend Jeffrey Epstein.
Yet after Prince William was forced to miss the memorial service to his late godfather for unexplained ‘personal reasons’, with Queen Camilla arriving separately, Andrew was seen beaming as he led the other royals into the service at Windsor Castle.
One royal watcher told MailOnline: ‘Prince Andrew and the Yorks are firmly back in the fold’.
The Princess of Wales, who made her last public engagement at Sandringham on Christmas Day, is expected to return to public duty after April 17, when her children start back at Lambrook School, near Ascot, following the Easter Holidays.
Despite Kensington Palace laying out a clear timeline for Kate’s recovery and return to her work as a senior royal, her visible absence from public life has sparked a tsunami of speculation and crazed conspiracy theories about her wellbeing.
In recent weeks, wild rumours – fuelled by social media and the foreign press – have speculated over the reason why Kate has not been seen.
‘Katespiracies’ online have ranged from claims she was recovering from a ‘Brazilian bum lift’ or in a coma, a theory sparked by a journalist on Spanish television.
Some joked she was a contestant on The Masked Singer television show – or may have even been bumped from the Royal Family.
Other trolls and conspiracy theorists have used her absence and the lawlessness of social media to spread deeply sinister claims. Even Kim Kardashian has weighed in posting selfies captioned: ‘On my way to go find Kate.’
