Family sends first such public birthday greeting to prince since 2021, with relations between them strained

A post from the X account of the royal family with a photograph of the Duke of Sussex. Photograph: @RoyalFamily/PA Media

The royal family has delivered a small peace offering in its rift with the Duke of Sussex by wishing Prince Harry happy birthday for the first time in three years.

In a post on X, the royal family shared a photograph of a smiling Harry, to mark his 40th birthday, complete with a cake emoji. The message said: “Wishing The Duke of Sussex a very happy 40th birthday today!”

It is the first time the royal family has shared such a public birthday greeting to Harry since 2021, the year the Sussexes accused unnamed royals of animosity and racism in an interview with Oprah Winfrey.

Harry is celebrating his birthday on Sunday at his California home with Meghan and their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, before reportedly heading away for a gathering with close friends.

Harry, who stepped down as a working royal in 2020, remains estranged from his brother, William, the Prince of Wales, and has a strained relationship with his father, King Charles.

Last February, Harry flew to the UK to see his father after the king’s cancer diagnosis. But the meeting was kept to just 45 minutes, and there was no meeting with his brother.

He travelled to London again in May to celebrate a decade of his Invictus Games and attended a service at St Paul’s Cathedral but did not meet up with his brother or father.

There was also a brief return to the UK in August for the funeral of his uncle Lord Fellowes, when he stayed at Althorp, the ancestral home of his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. He reportedly had no interaction with William at the church service.

The duke continues to pursue legal cases against tabloid newspapers over allegations of phone hacking and unlawful information-gathering, in a battle he believes has annoyed his family. In his memoir, Spare, he wrote of what he saw as the royal family’s connivance with the media through alleged leaking, believing himself to be collateral damage.

In July, Harry told an ITV documentary that his determination to fight the tabloids over allegations of phone hacking was a “central piece” in destroying his relationship with his family.

And a separate legal battle with the Home Office over his security while in the UK is reported to have “frustrated” the king.

Harry lost a high court challenge against the Home Office in February over a decision to change the level of his personal security when he visits the UK, but he has been given leave to appeal.

During the case, the court was told Harry believes his children cannot “feel at home” in the UK if it is “not possible to keep them safe” there and that he faces a greater risk than his late mother, with “additional layers of racism and extremism”.