Last year, there was a strange story about how the Princess of Wales possibly demanded that the National Portrait Gallery put a royal portrait in storage. Kate is the royal patron of the gallery, and the gallery quietly removed an old portrait of Prince Harry and Prince William from display. The gallery didn’t say anything other than: we cycle portraits in and out all the time, no biggie. Well, back in May, the same gallery acquired a copy of Misan Harriman’s portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Harriman released three photos of Harry and Meghan in October 2022, photos which were taken in Manchester one month prior. NPG chose the black-and-white image of Harry and Meghan in profile. Harriman was so pleased – it was his first photo added to NPG’s collection. Well, now the Mail claims that Kate possibly got NPG to bury Misan’s portrait?

The National Portrait Gallery has said it won’t put up a picture of Prince Harry and Meghan that it acquired earlier this year. The black and white image by photographer Misan Harriman – a friend of the Sussexes – was taken when the couple attended the opening of the One Young World summit in Manchester two years ago, after they dramatically quit royal life and moved to California.

But last night a spokesman for the gallery, whose patron is the Princess of Wales, said: ‘The portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex was acquired for the Gallery’s photographs collection in May 2024. Following cataloguing and its digitisation, the portrait was added to our website at the beginning of this month. There are no current plans to display the portrait in the gallery.’

It comes after The Mail on Sunday revealed that the Royal Collection has no photographs of Meghan in its vast archives of more than a million objects.

Mr Harriman is a globally celebrated celebrity and social photographer who became the first black man to shoot a cover of British Vogue in the magazine’s 104-year history. The National Portrait Gallery holds one of the world’s greatest collection of portraits, but its patron Kate has no say over which are added to the collection.

There were rumours last year that the Princess was secretly pleased when a controversial portrait of her, painted by artist Paul Emsley, was removed from public view.

[From The Daily Mail]

LOL, I’m including the Emsley painting below – it was iconic because he really captured how she looks and not in a Disney-princess way. As for all of this fuss about Harriman’s photo, did NPG ever say that they were going to put it on display? No, they just made a point of adding it to their collection. They should put it on display though, it’s a lovely photo. As for the Royal Collection not having any photos or paintings of Meghan… lol, she wasn’t there long enough and they were too racist to celebrate her when she was there. She really should have gotten some palace-commissioned artwork, but oh well. Thankfully, Meghan can and does organize her own photoshoots whenever she wants.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images, and Misan Harriman for the Sussexes.