The Royal Family’s social media channels ignored his birthday in line with a policy brought in under Queen Elizabeth II, who decreed in 2022 that only zero or other significant birthdays of non-working royals would be acknowledged in future.
King Charles has stuck to the same policy of publicly ignoring non-working royal birthdays up until now. But, such is the poor state of relations between him and his younger son, aides can no longer be certain whether he will continue to acknowledge the milestones publicly on his family’s social media channels.
Sources did refer back to the palace publicly congratulating Meghan on her 40th birthday in 2021, implying it would be the same going forward for landmark occasions for others.
But palace officials remained tight-lipped on the subject today/yesterday. “A year’s a long time away,” one source said.
Click here to join our Whatsapp community to be the first to receive news about the Royal family
Harry, who remains fifth in line to the throne despite having no official royal duties any longer, celebrated his birthday at the Invictus Games for injured military personnel in Dusseldorf, Germany, today/yesterday.
Meghan, 42, joined competitors and spectators in singing happy birthday to him as they watched a sitting volleyball game between Poland and Germany in the Merkur Spiel-Arena.
The Duke of Sussex, who remains estranged from much of his family, appeared to enjoy the attention, giving a thumbs up as his wife leaned into him.
The couple posed for a picture with the Polish seated volleyball team and at the end of one match Harry gave his wife a hug.
He was expected to be at Invictus events for much of tonight/last night so celebrated his birthday with the couple’s entourage a night early at a traditional German restaurant.
At the Brauerei Schumacher restaurant they dined on classic German dishes such as wiener schnitzel, Bratwurst, and blood sausage, washed down with beer brewed by the restaurant.
The couple posed for a picture with restaurant workers after a birthday cake was brought to the table.
Brauerei Schumacher posted the image on its Instagram site with the message: “So proud! Impressed by very friendly people.
“Who enjoyed our Schumi Alt, Haxe Wiener Schnitzel, blood sausage and German sausages.”
It was a very different atmosphere to his birthday last year, which came a week after the death of his grandmother Queen Elizabeth. He and Meghan were in the UK attending sombre events in the run-up to her state funeral on September 19.
