It was a landmark statement at the time from Prince Harry, a groundbreaking one that confirmed his relationship with Meghan Markle back in 2016, a few months after they began dating that summer. And now, People reports, the royal family has quietly taken it down, with the outlet confirming it “is no longer available on the British royal family’s website,” adding “The statement remained on the royal family’s official website in the years since, but the link is no longer active.” Newsweek confirmed that the internet archive site Wayback Machine was able to access the link on December 3, 2023, but not a week later on December 10, indicating that the page was taken down during that time frame five months ago.
In Harry’s plea from over seven years ago, he said he was worried about Meghan’s safety as she’d been subjected to a “wave of abuse and harassment.” The statement, released in November 2016, confirmed speculation that the British prince and the American actress were, indeed, a couple, as they had been for roughly four months at the time.
Harry’s spokesperson said in the statement, in part, “His girlfriend, Meghan Markle, has been subject to a wave of abuse and harassment. Some of this has been very public—the smear on the front page of a national newspaper; the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments. Some of it has been hidden from the public—the nightly legal battles to keep defamatory stories out of papers; her mother having to struggle past photographers in order to get to her front door; the attempts of reporters and photographers to gain illegal entry to her home and the calls to police that followed; the substantial bribes offered by papers to her ex-boyfriend; the bombardment of nearly every friend, co-worker, and loved one in her life.”
It continued “Prince Harry is worried about Ms. Markle’s safety and is deeply disappointed that he has not been able to protect her. It is not right that a few months into a relationship with him that Ms. Markle should be subjected to such a storm. He knows commentators will say this is ‘the price she has to pay’ and that ‘this is all part of the game.’ He strongly disagrees. This is not a game—it is her life and his.”
Harry spoke of the decision to release this statement in his 2023 memoir, Spare, writing he was advised that “silence is the best option” regarding the intense media attention surrounding his romance with Meghan, but that he pushed for a “course correction immediately”: “We needed a statement out there,” Harry wrote. “Within a day we had a draft. Strong, precise, angry, honest.”
Yet it unfortunately didn’t do much—Harry wrote the statement was “everywhere. And changing nothing. The onslaught continued.” He added that the statement—truly groundbreaking in its time—made his father, King Charles (then Prince Charles), and his brother, Prince William, “furious,” adding their anger was “Because they’d never put out a statement for their girlfriends or wives when they were being harassed.”
The removal of this statement isn’t the only change to royal.uk since last December regarding the Sussexes, People reports. In March, Harry and Meghan’s biographies on the website were merged into a joint profile rather than individual bios, as was the case previously.
