All of the drama around this story is strange, right? Last Saturday, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex attended Kris Jenner’s 70th birthday party. So many A-listers and billionaires were in attendance, and Meghan and Harry happily posed for photos with Kris and Kim Kardashian. On Monday, Kris and Kim posted party photos on their respective Instagram accounts, then within a few hours, both women edited their carousels and deleted some of the photos, including pics of Harry and Meghan. Now the deleted photos have become a stand-alone scandal, because people are being ridiculous. It feels like the campaign to treat the photo-deletion is yet another attempt to smear the Sussexes. As in, “Kris deleted those photos because she HATES the Sussexes and/or they weren’t even invited!” Please, that was never it. Still, there were questions about what happened behind the scenes, whether it was Team Sussex politely asking for the photos to come down, or whether it was Kris trying to protect H&M. Well, The Royalist Substack is on the case:
Online, theories soon started to circulate, which can be boiled down to a) the Sussexes were snubbed by not being included, or b) the Sussexes got the pics taken down either because they i) didn’t look good or ii) because of the whole Remembrance Sunday context.
The truth, according to a source in Harry and Meghan’s camp with direct knowledge of the arrangements, is actually b) iii) – that Harry and Meghan, along with other guests, were asked beforehand if they consented to images of them at the party being shared and had said “no” (despite, perplexingly, apparently allowing themselves to be photographed arriving).
Photographic consent forms are now routine at high-octane gatherings, and the Sussexes, fully in line with Hollywood etiquette circa 2025, ticked “no” for inside shots.
Someone on the Jenner social team missed the memo, the shots went live, a klaxon sounded somewhere, and down they came.
I’m told Harry and Meghan were not particularly bothered by the photos being published, which is lucky, as they have now been saved by an army of Redditors. Turns out, deleting a post of your hubby looking daft on the world’s biggest digital megaphone produces the opposite of disappearance (the aged among us will know this as the Streisand Effect).
“Turns out, deleting a post of your hubby looking daft…” Meghan wasn’t the one deleting anything and Harry didn’t look “daft.” If Sykes is interested in a daft-looking prince, perhaps he should check out Prince Huevo’s “I can read, I swear” photo-op on a private plane in Brazil last week, or perhaps check out those volleyball photos again. I also think it’s a bit “daft” to assume that Kris Jenner was sitting there, personally adding or removing photos to her carousel. She has staff! She has a social media team, as does Kim. But sure, I believe that the A-list guests were probably given waivers or whatever and they had to check a box saying “I’m cool/not cool with these photos being posted to social media.” I also believe Harry and Meghan probably didn’t care that much either way – I mean, Kris didn’t remove the photos of Beyonce and Tina Knowles, you know? If Beyonce doesn’t give a sh-t, why would the Sussexes?
Also: a party insider (??) told Page Six that Meghan “was definitely in networking mode. She schmoozed with a lot of power players” at the party, and that Meghan came across as “cool.”
After I wrote all of this, People Magazine confirmed the basic gist of Sykes’ exclusive – their Sussex sources are saying the same thing, that Harry and Meghan checked “no” on the consent form.
Photos courtesy of Kris Jenner’s Instagram and Backgrid.
