Queen Elizabeth has reportedly removed a photo of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle from her sitting room in Buckingham Palace, but there’s no need for royal fans to be alarmed.
The change was noticed on Oct. 22, when the Queen met with High Commissioner for Grenada Lakisha Grant and the framed shot was not present on the small table where it had stood. The table now features a shot of Prince William and Kate Middleton and another photo of William and Harry in their military uniforms.
Videos by PopCulture.com
The photo of Markle and Harry was a previously unseen snap from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s engagement shoot, with Markle in a light blue dress and Harry wearing a navy blue suit as the new mom rested her hand on her husband’s chest.
The snap was first spotted when the Queen had a meeting with George Brandis, the Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom in May 2018.
According to Metro U.K., the royal likely made the decision to swap out the photos in an effort to give Markle and Harry some privacy amid the intense media attention they are currently receiving.
The Queen often keeps personal photos of her family in the room, giving fans a peek into the lives of the royals. The photo of Markle and Harry marked the Duchess of Sussex’s first framed photo in the room, and there will surely be more to come over the years. Elizabeth II has also previously swapped out the photos in her sitting room, which have featured various family members including one of Princess Anne and her husband Timothy Laurence that was removed and replaced by the photos of Markle and Harry and Harry and William.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex recently opened up about the struggle they feel amid constant negativity from the British press in a new ITV documentary following their recent tour of South Africa. Markle noted that she had not been aware of the true nature of the British tabloids before she married Harry, explaining why she doesn’t feel their treatment of her is fair.
“I never thought that this would be easy, but I thought it would be fair. And that’s the part that’s really hard to reconcile,” she said. “If things were fair … If I’d done something wrong, I’d be the first one to go ‘Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. I would never do that.’ But when people are saying things that are just untrue, and they are being told they’re untrue, but they’re allowed to still say them — I don’t know anybody in the world who would feel like that’s OK.”
“That’s different from just scrutiny,” she continued. “That’s…. what would you call that? It’s a really different beast, you know.”
Photo Credit: Getty / Charlie Crowhurst
