Happy Birthday, Meghan!
Meghan Markle, a.k.a. the Duchess of Sussex, turns 39 today, August 4th. And the Royal Family celebrated her special day early Tuesday morning (U.K. time) with social media posts in honor of the occasion.
Kensington Palace, Prince William and Kate Middleton’s official Instagram account, shared a photo of Meghan speaking with a young girl, writing, “Wishing a very happy birthday to The Duchess of Sussex today! 🎂🎈”
The Royal Family, the Queen’s official Insta, shared a throwback photo of Meghan with the Queen during their joint visit to Chester in 2018, captioned, “🎂🎈Wishing The Duchess of Sussex a very happy birthday!”
The Clarence House, Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall’s, IG account, posted a candid shot of a smiling Meghan on Instagram, along with similar sentiments, “Happy Birthday to The Duchess of Sussex! 🎈”
Their posts come after Meghan and Prince Harry stepped down from their Royal duties earlier this year. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have since relocated to Los Angeles together with their 15-month-old son Archie.
Although the abovementioned Instagram accounts represent the members of the Royal Family, Prince William previously revealed that they don’t actually post all the content themselves. He does, however, get to post from time to time – but not without a “fight”.
“No, they deliberately keep me away from that,” Prince William shared on The Peter Crouch Podcast, referencing their official Twitter account.
The subject came up when William talked about breaking rank and personally posting about a particularly exciting soccer game he watched back in 2019 – he went on Twitter and wrote: “Well done Liverpool – an incredible result, what a comeback!”, signing it with a “W” for William.
“When Liverpool did that amazing [game against Barcelona] I went mental, I grabbed the Twitter thing and I just posted it,” he said on the podcast. “It was an amazing match. I was literally blown away by it. It was one of the best games of football I’ve ever seen. And I got completely out of control and I just went, ‘Tweet that, get it out. Give it here!'”
“And nearly every Villa game we’ve won — which hasn’t been many this season — I’ve been trying to get a hold of it. They keep it away from me now. I have to fight them for it,” he quipped.
Although the royals may not be handling their social media accounts personally, the Cambridge’s post is a big deal – it’s the first public show of friendship since the release of the bombshell book about the Sussexes, Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family.
A spokesperson for Meghan and Harry previously said in a statement, “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were not interviewed and did not contribute to Finding Freedom. This book is based on the authors’ [Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand] own experiences as members of the royal press corps and their own independent reporting.”
Other royal fans also seem to think that the Queen’s post contains a subtle show of support – the event during which the photo was taken was Meghan’s first ever joint royal engagement with the Queen, and it was also her first without Prince Harry. Other photos from the event have since become iconic and indicated a strong rapport between Meghan and the monarch – like when the two royals got the giggles. Fans think that the choice of photo was a subtle reminder of the bond that the two share.
