Wait, did the Royal Family really delete Prince Harry’s statement confirming his romance with Meghan Markle?

The situation between Prince Harry and the Royal Family has been messy for years, but the latter has just upped their game quietly, and seemingly for no reason. Because the British Royal Family website no longer includes a very important statement Prince Harry made about his now-wife Meghan Markle.

It’s no secret to anyone that Prince Harry’s relationship with his family is complicated, to say the least. King Charles III’s youngest son has separated himself from the family after stepping back as a senior member of the Royal Family a few years back. Prince Harry is no longer a regular at Windsor Palace, and he might never be, as his return is reportedly blocked by King Charles and his older brother, Prince William, and the Royal Family just made a very shady move.

The revelation comes in the aftermath of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s return home after their trip to Nigeria for Harry’s role in the Invictus Games. It seems the British Royal Family quietly deleted Prince Harry’s controversial statement confirming his relationship with the former Suits actress months ago.

What did Prince Harry say in his official statement?

In the groundbreaking statement, released on Nov. 8, 2016, Prince Harry confirmed his relationship with Meghan Markle, and also condemned the press for their “racist” and “sexist” remarks. The royal acknowledged the support he received over the years, and also the interest about his private life. He noted that, “He has never been comfortable with this, but he has tried to develop a thick skin about the level of media interest that comes with it,” the palace statement read.

“But the past week has seen a line crossed. His girlfriend, Meghan Markle, has been subject to a wave of abuse and harassment,” the palace continued. “Some of this has been very public—the smear on the front page of a national newspaper; the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments.”

According to Newsweek, the statement has been available for over seven years on on the royal.uk, the official British Royal Family website that contains news, press releases, and official statements. The last time the link to the statement worked was on December 3, 2023, which means the palace worked quietly to remove this piece of iconic history. Prince Harry’s notes don’t appear in the Sussex section, and the oldest entry is from Jan. 30, 2019.

Harry’s 2016 statement reportedly made King Charles and Prince William “furious”

In his tell-all biography, Prince Harry addressed the statement and his family’s reaction. He claimed he was advised that “silence is the best option,” but he wanted to say something about all the hate and racism Markle was enduring. “We needed a statement out there,” he wrote in the book. “Within a day we had a draft. Strong, precise, angry, honest.”

According to Harry, King Charles and William were “furious” after he put out the official statement. Why, you may ask? According to the younger royal, he claimed the statement made them look bad for not defending their own wives the same way Harry did: “Because they’d never put out a statement for their girlfriends or wives when they were being harassed,” Harry wrote.