Royal | News - Prince Ricardo De La Cerda
King Charles shared a picture of Prince Harry alongside a sweet birthday message to his youngest son to mark his 40th birthday on Sunday.
With many surprised that the King decided to set aside the family’s ongoing feud with his son, many also questioned the choice of picture to go alongside the message.
The tribute, which was posted on the Royal Family’s X and Instagram account, read: “Wishing The Duke of Sussex a very happy 40th birthday today!”
The sweet message was posted alongside smiling picture of the Duke of Sussex wearing a smart grey suit.
As reported by journalist Kevin Maher for The Times, there were likely five reasons why that particular “boring” picture of Harry was chosen to accompany the message.
As reported by the publication, the family “can’t use” certain pictures – including recent images of the royal and ones with certain family members.
The article read: “[They] can’t use the most recent stuff because it’s all faux royal-tour material from Harry and Meghan’s Colombia jaunt, the foregrounding of which would be something of an own goal for the Firm.
“Can’t show him in action mode playing polo because now it looks like a promo for his forthcoming Netflix series Polo.
“Can’t show him with William because reconciliation there looks far from likely and the immediate associations from any image of those two is still, unfortunately, ripped necklaces, broken dog bowls and a tussle in a cottage kitchen in the grounds of Kensington Palace.”
Explaining a possible fourth and fifth reason, it read: “[They] can’t show him with King Charles or the Princess of Wales either because that implies a subtextual argument about how some senior royals are facing, and wrestling with, the spectre of death while Harry is valiantly juggling multimillion-dollar media deals and reflecting incessantly, from his £12 million Californian home, upon the role that this same media has played in ruining his otherwise perfect life.
“Can’t show him with Meghan at all, or use any pictures of Harry chillaxing in Montecito because that will only trigger post-traumatic audience flashbacks to their Netflix whinge-a-thon and Meghan reminding everyone that she’s a hugger, which, as we know, is something that can be, in her own words, “really jarring for a lot of Brits”.
As well as the King, the Prince and Princess of Wales also shared the same image with their own message to the Duke. Their message – which was also shared on Instagram and X – read: “Wishing a Happy 40th Birthday to The Duke of Sussex!”