Prince Harry and Meghan Markle served ‘brutal reality check’ by Buckingham Palace

Meghan and Prince Harry meet members of the public at Windsor Castle. Photo / AP

Earlier this week, Prince Harry’s “His Royal Highness” title was quietly stripped from his royal profile page, and now Buckingham Palace has been accused of giving him a “brutal reality check”.

UK newspaper The Express highlighted a “major blunder” on the Royal family website, noting that the Duke of Sussex was still being referred to via his HRH title despite Harry and Meghan retiring from royal duties. Shortly after the call out, the website was changed, now a royal expert has spoken out on the matter calling it “brutal”.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, royal expert Richard Kay has claimed it was “no coincidence” that Harry was stripped of his title the same week he visited Japan for a summit.

“For it was surely no coincidence that the Prince’s arrival in the Far East coincided with the brutal reality check administered by Buckingham Palace about his status — and that of his wife, Meghan — in the new‑look Royal Family.”

Prince Harry, left, and former All Blacks player Dan Carter attend an event organised by the International Sports Promotion Society (ISPS). Photo / AP

Kay continued to say he had spoken to sources close to King Charles who confessed the Royal family have “a visceral bitterness” that “persists at the sustained attacks” from the Californian-based royals.

“In such a highly charged atmosphere, there was resentment that elements of the Duke and Duchess’s previous lives were allowed to remain unaltered, as though they were still somehow part of ‘the Firm.’

“One reason there was no push for a change was because the late Queen Elizabeth wanted to ensure that anything her grandson might interpret as a snub or the slamming of a royal door was avoided,” Kay added.

Harry and Meghan have launched multiple attacks on the family following the release of their Netflix docuseries and the Duke’s bombshell memoir Spare in which he branded his step mother, Queen Camilla a “villain” and accused her of leaking stories to the press.

A further change to the website saw the couple’s names moved above Prince Andrew but below working members of the Firm.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's final appearance as working royals in 2020. Photo / AP

It follows the terms of the 2020 Megxit agreement which stated Harry and Meghan would lose their HRH titles after they stepped down from their positions as senior royals.

However, over the last three years, certain sections of the website have referred to Harry as HRH, seemingly in error. After a few updates made to the site on Friday, there is now no trace of any references to Harry as HRH.

In a statement on January 18, 2020, the palace revealed: “The Sussexes will not use their HRH titles as they are no longer working members of the royal family.”

Harry and Meghan have kept their Sussex Dukedom and have chosen to publicly style themselves as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.