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There’s more to the story when it comes to the picture of Prince Harry that King Charles and Prince William used to wish him a happy birthday on social media.
On Sept. 15, the King’s office at Buckingham Palace wished Prince Harry a happy 40th birthday on Instagram, X and Facebook, using a photo of the Duke of Sussex taken in Ireland in 2018. Two years had passed since the royal family last mentioned the Duke of Sussex on social media in 2022.
Prince William and Kate Middleton‘s team reposted the same shot on the Instagram Stories of their official shared Instagram and X account, along with another festive message.
The picture of Prince Harry used across both sets of well-wishes showed him smiling and laughing in a gray suit with white shirt, and was taken during his tour of Ireland with Meghan Markle in July 2018. Harry and Meghan’s tour of the Emerald Isle was their first overseas trip as a married couple, held two months after their royal wedding in May 2018.
Gareth Fuller-Pool/Getty
While a solo photo of Prince Harry was used in the official well-wishes on Sept. 15, a look back shows that the Duchess of Sussex, 43, was beside him in the larger frame. It appears that photographer Jimmy Rainford released two versions of a picture for Getty Images of Prince Harry and Meghan sitting at a table during their stop at Dogpatch Labs in Dublin in July 2018.
The wider frame showed the newlyweds smiling alongside others, and the closer crop zoomed in on the Duke of Sussex, which seems to be the image that King Charles and Prince William’s offices used alongside messages on Harry’s 40th birthday.
Jimmy Rainford – Pool/Getty
The same picture was circulated with slightly different wording online. “🎂 Wishing The Duke of Sussex a very happy 40th birthday today!” King Charles and Queen Camilla‘s office captioned the snap, while the Prince and Princess of Wales wrote, “Wishing a Happy 40th Birthday to the Duke of Sussex.”
PEOPLE understands the Duke of Sussex marked his milestone birthday on Sept. 15 with a private celebration in Montecito, California, surrounded by family and friends. Prince Harry was then expected to continue the festivities abroad with close friends.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex relocated to her home state in the U.S. after stepping back from their royal roles in the U.K. in 2020, and reside in Montecito with their son Prince Archie, 5, and daughter Princess Lilibet, 3.
Netflix/Youtube
The celebratory posts about Prince Harry’s birthday from King Charles and Prince William arrived as a surprise, as public birthday wishes are usually reserved for working royals. However, there have been exceptions, like when King Charles, Queen Camilla, Prince William and Princess Kate wished Meghan a happy 41st birthday in August 2022. In another example, the Royal Family handle (then run by Queen Elizabeth‘s office) wished Prince Andrew a happy 60th birthday on X in February 2020 after his step back from royal duties in light of outcry around his BBC Newsnight interview in November 2019.
Amid the ongoing rift between Harry and William, as well as the Duke of Sussex’s strained relationship with their father, many interpreted the unexpected birthday messages as a potential olive branch.
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Heading into a new decade, Prince Harry told PEOPLE that he is focused on fatherhood.
“The best gift I’ve ever been given is, without doubt, my kids. I enjoy watching them grow every single day and love being their dad,” the Duke of Sussex told PEOPLE before his birthday in a statement via his spokesperson.
Looking ahead on the calendar, the duke is expected to travel to New York City later this month on behalf of several causes close to heart, including the organization behind Princess Diana’s legacy award.
