Shawdesh Desk:

Ouch! The royal family seemed to throw some shade at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle when they removed the prince’s 2016 statement confirming his relationship with the actress, 42, from the website, Royal.uk.

In November 2016, Harry’s communications secretary Jason Knauf released a rare statement about the “wave of abuse and harassment ” Meghan endured after their romance went viral. The statement remained on the website in the years since, the but the link is no longer active, Newsweek reported.

The outlet reported that Wayback Machine, an internet archive site, was able to access the link on December 3, 2023, but not a week later on December 10, meaning that it was removed during that time period.

The now-deleted statement came days after an article in The Mail on Sunday said: “Harry’s girl is (almost) straight outta Compton: Gang-scarred home of her mother revealed — so will he be dropping by for tea?”

In response, Kensington Palace fired back, writing, “The past week has seen a line crossed. 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,” the message 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.”

It’s no surprise the royal family would subtly diss the pair, who moved to California and left The Firm in 2020.

Since then, Harry’s released his tell-all book, Spare , in addition to their Netflix series, Harry & Meghan , which shared details about his tense relationship with his brother, Prince William , and father, King Charles .

Harry, 39, recently went to the U.K. for the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games, but his father didn’t make time for him .

“It unfortunately will not be possible due to His Majesty’s full program,” the message read. “The Duke of course is understanding of his father’s diary of commitments and various other priorities and hopes to see him soon.”

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According to expert Kinsey Schofield , “there is complete distance between the British royal family and Prince Harry and anything he’s got going on in his sphere right now.”