Extending an olive branch? The royal family publicly acknowledged Meghan Markle‘s birthday following their past drama with her and Prince Harry

“Wishing a ‘happy birthday’ to the Duchess of Sussex!” Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, tweeted, whereas Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, wrote, “Happy birthday to the Duchess of Sussex!” on Thursday, August 4. Both social media messages also included a photo of Meghan, 41, smiling and wearing a white hat and matching outfit. 

The celebratory wishes came more than one year after the Suits alum and the Duke of Sussex, 37, opened up about their decision to leave the royal lifestyle during their explosive March 2021 CBS tell-all. In the interview, the couple got candid about the difficulties they faced as members of the British royal family and as parents. The two share son Archie and daughter Lilibet together. 

Meghan Markle, Prince Harry Share Birthday Photo of Daughter Lilibet
Matt Dunham/AP/Shutterstock

“My regret is believing them when they said I would be protected. I believed that,” Meghan said at the time. “And I regret believing that because I think, had I really seen that that wasn’t happening, I would have been able to do more. But I think I wasn’t supposed to see it. I wasn’t supposed to know. And now, because we’re actually on the other side, we’ve actually not just survived but are thriving. You know, this — I mean, this is miracles. I think that all of those things that I was hoping for have happened, and this is in some ways just the beginning for us. You know, we’ve been through a lot. It’s felt like a lifetime.”

For his part, Harry described his relationship with his brother, 40, noting that he “loves William to bits” despite the apparent distance between them. 

“But we — you know, we’re on — we’re on different paths,” he explained, adding, “The relationship is space, at the moment. And, you know, time heals all things, hopefully.”

Despite the claims Harry and Meghan made, this wasn’t the first time the royal family has reached out to the pair. Six months after their tell-all interview, a source exclusively told In Touch that Queen Elizabeth called the father of two via Zoom for his birthday

“[The Queen] told him that she is proud of him and [Meghan] for making it on the cover of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People,” the insider said in September 2021. “She hasn’t got hold of a copy yet but saw it on the news. She got to see Lilibet and Archie on the call too, which she was super happy about.”

In addition to the video call, Prince Charles, 73, the Duchess of Cornwall, 75, Prince William and Kate, 40, all took to Twitter to wish Harry a “happy birthday.” 

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