Take it for what you will, but here is the fact of the matter: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s separate bios on the royal family’s website have been combined into one, replaced by a significantly smaller joint profile. The new shared bio has been placed at the very bottom of the list of royal family members, directly after an image of Prince Andrew. “As announced in January 2020, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have stepped back as working members of The Royal Family,” a description leading to their page reads. “The couple married in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor on 19 May 2018 and have two children: Prince Archie of Sussex and Princess Lilibet of Sussex.”
As for the opinion side of the house, that’s up to each of us, but many are calling it a “demotion” for the Sussexes four years after they stepped back as working members of the royal family in January 2020 and just weeks after launching their own new website. It also comes just days after Meghan announced her next major professional venture, lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard, last Thursday.
Prior to this, Harry and Meghan each had their own blurb on the site. Harry’s new bio highlights his military service in Afghanistan and his work with charities Sentebale and the Invictus Games; Meghan’s references her work as an actress, specifically on Suits, her lifestyle blog, “The Tig,” and the work she did while still a working member of the family. Their page also links back to Sussex.com.
Fan blog Gert’s Royals was the first to notice the change. It comes after ample criticism surrounding Harry and Meghan’s refreshed website of their own. (Wait, what? Harry and Meghan, criticized? That never happens.) After the backlash over the couple continuing to use the Sussex name—Queen Elizabeth gave Harry and Meghan the Duke and Duchess of Sussex titles upon their marriage in May 2018—a representative of the Sussexes told The Mirror “We’ve heard time and tie again that certain opportunities are make or break for the couple. They’re still here.”
They added “They’re still working and pursuing what they believe in, despite constantly being challenged and criticized. This couple will not be broken.”
Last August, three-and-a-half years after their step back, the royal family’s website finally removed Harry’s HRH title, once again prompting a stir. Royal expert Gareth Russell told Us Weekly at the time that the edit wasn’t malicious in nature: “Part of it—without throwing too much shade in the general direction of the royal website—is that it is chaotically curated,” Russell said, noting that the site is maintained by staff, not the royal family themselves. “The royals no more update the website than the president of the U.S. would update the presidential website,” Russell added.
As to the whole royal family website refresh, The Independent writes that “Critics of the Sussexes have labelled the editing of their online biography as a ‘snub,’” but The Daily Mail added that sources said the move was simply a “long overdue update,” and that the Palace was “slowly” updating the website following Queen Elizabeth’s death in September 2022 and would “get ‘round to it in time.”
“If you want to crunch the numbers, Prince Harry’s section on the website has been radically pared back from 2,600 words to 200 words,” Tatler reports. “Extensive descriptions covering Harry’s charity commitments and interests have been condensed significantly, while some of the more grandiose sentiments to do with the Sussexes’ ‘allegiance to the monarch’ have been totally removed.” Meghan’s former bio, The Daily Express reports, was around 1,300 words; the joint bio now clocks in at 577 words.
And digital updates are in abundance, not only with the royal family’s website and the Sussex website but with Meghan herself, who launched a new website and an Instagram page for American Riviera Orchard last week. The brand “will reflect everything that she loves—family, cooking, entertaining, and home décor,” a source told People. “She is excited about her latest, personal venture. This is something she’s been wanting to do for a while. She is excited to share her style and things that she loves.”
