This is a tried-and-true process for King Charles and the British media. The palace will openly brief a big lie about Prince Harry and the British media will insist that Harry is a villain and that his poor father and brother just don’t know what to do. Then if Harry corrects the lie or claps back in any way, guess what? He’s still the villain, because why is he constantly talking about his father, why is he constantly revealing all of the family secrets? So it is with this week’s dumb palace lie, that Prince Harry was invited to his father’s birthday party but Harry “snubbed” the invitation. The Archewell spokesperson denied the story to the Messenger yesterday. Now the Mail is running an exclusive… from the Sussexes’ perspective? Is this the Mail’s way of clapping back on the palace for lying to them, or is it a more undercover version of “this is still Harry’s fault?”

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have had ‘no contact’ from Buckingham Palace about an invitation to King Charles’ 75th birthday party next week, their spokesperson told MailOnline today.

‘There has been no contact regarding an invitation to His Majesty’s upcoming birthday. It is disappointing the Sunday Times has misreported this story,’ they said. The same spokesperson also denied that Meghan, who found fame on Suits, will be making a return to acting following reports earlier this week.

A source close to the Sussexes told MailOnline that they were not invited to Charles III’s party in London next week. ‘They had not received any invitation and were unaware of any celebrations until the stories came out,’ the insider said, adding: ‘I’m sure the Duke will find a way to reach out privately to wish His Majesty a happy birthday like he has always done’.

A friend of the couple suggested the Palace could even have leaked the ‘snubbing’ story to take attention away from the recent royal visit to Kenya, where the King faced calls to apologise for Britain’s colonial past.

‘The story is being positioned in a way to make it look like the Duke is snubbing his father, which he is not,’ the friend said. ‘Considering the trip [to Kenya] didn’t go well, this might be a welcome distraction.’

Royal and Government sources have been clear that they consider the Kenyan trip last week was a ‘resounding success’.

A friend of the Sussexes told MailOnline that they would normally have been included in plans for significant events in the UK, despite the widening gap between themselves and the rest of the royal family. ‘The story in The Times as well as subsequent stories have been positioned in a way to make it look like the Duke is snubbing his father, which he is not.’

[From The Daily Mail]

Look at the wording there – the spokesperson didn’t suggest that the palace lied to deflect from the Kenyan tour, it was the Mail’s so-called “friend of the Sussexes.” I tend to believe that the friend in question is just some Mail editor who wanted to point out the quid pro quo of the visible contract. The British media agreed to praise the Kenyan tour in exchange for a palace briefing about the Sussexes. The palace lied, so therefore the media is bringing up the idea (and crediting it to Team Sussex) that the Kenya tour was a flop and the birthday party lie was always meant as a distraction. Still leaves an open question about why the palace lied in the first place. My theory: the palace is in much the same situation as the royal press – they don’t have access to the Sussexes, they don’t know what the Sussexes are up to, they have no information to trade. So they just made up a lie and never expected Harry to correct them.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.