Intro for August 6, 2019

Dear Gossips,

It was Meghan Markle’s birthday on Sunday and we went into the weekend anticipating how her birthday would be acknowledged. As we know, the royals have a standardised social media play for birthdays. But the Sussexes are anything but standard. 

Being that it was Royal Meghan’s first birthday since the birth of Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, I was wondering if we’d see a new photo of the baby with his mother. That didn’t happen. The photo they chose is from Meghan and Harry’s tour last year, just after confirming that they were expecting. It’s the caption that has their signature all over it, with a message from Harry to Meghan: 

    View this post on Instagram           

A post shared by The Duke and Duchess of Sussex (@sussexroyal) on Aug 4, 2019 at 12:00am PDT

That’s the extra personalisation that the Sussexes are known for. 

As for the other royals, there were birthday wishes for Meghan from all the senior royal Instagram accounts: 

    View this post on Instagram           

A post shared by The Royal Family (@theroyalfamily) on Aug 4, 2019 at 1:03am PDT

    View this post on Instagram           

A post shared by Clarence House (@clarencehouse) on Aug 4, 2019 at 1:04am PDT

The Cambridges used an exclamation point!

    View this post on Instagram           

A post shared by Kensington Palace (@kensingtonroyal) on Aug 4, 2019 at 1:01am PDT

And even Prince Andrew joined in:

    View this post on Instagram           

A post shared by The Duke of York (@hrhthedukeofyork) on Aug 4, 2019 at 1:25am PDT

Someone wrote to me this weekend describing it as everyone getting into formation in support of Meghan to kick off what’s expected to be a quieter month in royal activity as, typically, their schedules are lighter in August. So the Sussexes will be recharging before their South African tour in the fall, their first as a family. While they made the announcement at the end of June, no specific dates were confirmed. We will probably hear soon exactly when they’ll be on their way. Archie’s first trip! And I don’t think it’s an accident that this is the destination. 

Yours in gossip,

Lainey