The Royal Family ‘is distancing itself from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

Changes made to the Royal Family website are the latest sign of the institution ‘distancing’ itself from Harry and Meghan, a royal expert said today. 

Biographies of the couple have been moved down the homepage so they now appear towards the bottom alongside the Duke of Kent and Prince Andrew. 

Meanwhile, Harry’s styling as His Royal Highness has been quietly ditched from the site.  

Under the terms of the 2020 Megxit agreement, the Palace said Harry and Meghan Markle could retain their HRH titles but would not be allowed to use them after stepping down as senior royals. 

Even so, parts of the royal website have referred to Harry as HRH for the last three years, seemingly in error. After a series of updates made on Friday there are no longer any references to the Duke as HRH. 

Royal author Richard Fitzwilliams told MailOnline: ‘There have been several changes on the royal website and the Sussexes now appear below the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Princess Alexandra.

‘This clearly shows that the royal family is distancing themselves from a couple whom they must, for obvious reasons, regard as unpredictable and unreliable.’

Mr Fitzwilliams suggested the changes provided fresh evidence of the need for the Sussexes to prove they could make a success of themselves outside the Royal Family. 

‘It was well known that Harry and Meghan were extremely bitter at being forced to step down as senior working members of the royal family and, although they kept their titles, being unable to use them and also losing their patronages,’ he said. 

‘However their brand is currently inextricably linked to being royal. The challenge they face is to prove they are actually creative at doing something for themselves.’ 

Meghan Markle’s official royal biography stripped her of her HRH title three years ago. However, it remained on some sections of the royal website, including on a quote from a speech made in 2019.

This development is the latest in a string of embarrassing incidents for the couple, who were recently dropped from their $20million Spotify deal and slated as ‘grifters’ by a senior executive. They have also seen a slump in their public polling. 

In a statement on January 18, 2020, Buckingham Palace said: ‘The Sussexes will not use their HRH titles as they are no longer working members of the Royal Family.’ 

The part of the royal website which details the Royal Family’s background and duties, now refers to Meghan as ‘she’ or the ‘Duchess’, instead of ‘Her Royal Highness’. 

Details of the Duchess of Sussex’s education, career and royal engagements have been moved from her ‘about’ page to a biography section.

The previously described details of Meghan’s philanthropic activities have also been moved to the ‘Charitable Work’ part of the royal’s page. 

The couple have retained the Sussex Dukedom and have chosen to publicly style themselves the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. 

A slew of other errors on the website have also been changed – including one that implied Prince Harry, 38, was five-year-old Prince Louis. 

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said it had been periodically updating the website following the death of the late Queen Elizabeth II and out of date information had now been amended.

‘The Royal Family website contains over five thousand pages of information about the life and work of the Royal Family.

‘Following the death of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, content has been revisited and updated periodically. Some content may be out of date until this process is complete.’

Harry raised eyebrows earlier this year when he appeared in court documents as ‘HRH The Prince Henry Charles Albert David’ – a rare use of the title he retains but is not allowed to use. 

However, defenders of the duke said it was convention for full names to be used in court documents. 

On Tuesday, the Duke of Sussex beamed as he walked through Tokyo’s Haneda Airport among the crowds of passengers, wearing a black shirt and a dark cap bearing the logo of the Archewell Foundation he runs with wife Meghan Markle – who was not with him.

One reporter could be heard off camera asking Harry: ‘How do you like to be in Japan for the first time in four years?’ And he replied: ‘Good to see you again.’

A video broadcast on Japanese TV network ANN News showed Harry arriving at the terminal alongside his long-time friend, Argentinian polo player Nacho Figueras.

The duo will attend Harry’s fundraising Sentebale Polo Cup match in Singapore this Saturday which he has said will help young people affected by HIV/Aids.

It is not known which flight Harry landed on, but there were several services arriving from Los Angeles in Tokyo this afternoon – including the 5.25pm local time American Airlines flight, a 3.25pm United flight and a 2.20pm American Airlines flight. 

The duke arrived in Japan ahead of his attendance at the ISPS (International Sports Promotion Society) Sports Values Summit ‘Special Edition’ tomorrow.

Harry will join a panel discussion with former New Zealand rugby player Dan Carter, an ambassador for ISPS Handa which is sponsoring the polo cup.

Also expected to be present are Sentebale chairwoman Sophie Chandauka and Royal Australian Navy Veteran and Invictus Games gold medallist Steve James.

In addition, the event in Tokyo is set to feature Professor Wim de Villiers, the rector and vice-chancellor of South Africa’s Stellenbosch University.

Harry will then stage the Sentebale Polo Cup in Singapore on Saturday, with the money raised used to support the organisation’s clubs and camps programme, which provides psychosocial support to young people living with HIV.

Speaking last month, Harry said: ‘The annual Polo Cup is essential to Sentebale’s vital work ensuring children and young people are healthy, resilient, and able to thrive.

‘The funds raised this year will support our clubs and camps programme, which provides intensive psychosocial support to young people living with HIV.

‘In a time where being HIV positive is no longer a death sentence, we are empowering young people to know their status, stay healthy, and eliminate the stigma so that they can break the cycle.’

Since 2010, the annual polo cup has raised more than £11million to support Sentebale’s work with children and young people affected by poverty, inequality and HIV/Aids in southern Africa.

The duke will play on the Royal Salute Sentebale team, against the Singapore Polo Club team captained by the charity’s ambassador Mr Figueras.

Harry’s arrival in Japan follows claims that Netflix executives have paid £3million for the film rights to a romantic novel that Harry and Meghan will produce for the streaming service as part of their £80million deal.

Initial reports suggested the couple had personally stumped up the money for Carley Fortune’s The Meet Me At The Lake, which echoes their personal story and includes a character whose parent dies in a car crash.

However, an insider has now told Page Six it was Netflix itself that purchased the rights for them to produce a film adaptation under their Archewell Productions arm.

The source described the book as ‘right up their alley’ because they ‘love love stories and rom-coms’. The Sussexes famously wanted to tell their own ‘love story’ in their bombshell 2022 Netflix documentary ‘Harry & Meghan’.

The US-based outlet also reported that the couple have been restructuring their team following the departure of producer Ben Browning – former head of internal content at Archewell Productions who oversaw the documentary.

They have reportedly parted ways with Archewell’s senior vice-president of scripted television, Nishika Kumble, after less than two years in the role.

PR guru Mark Borkowski believes the financial backers of the Netflix adaptation overpaid because the Sussexes ‘have zero track record in drama or producing anything of consequence’.

Penguin Random House, the publisher of Harry’s global bestseller Spare, ‘probably’ helped do the deal because Penguin also put out Meet Me At The Lake, he said. 

Author Carley Fortune, who is a big fan of Meghan’s, calls her book a ‘love letter to Toronto’ – where Meghan filmed hit series Suits. The duchess could have a personal connection with Ms Fortune, who worked as a journalist in the city for many years.

Mr Borkowski told MailOnline that he believes that the adaptation is a ‘playbook’ attempt by Harry and Meghan to resurrect their media careers after multiple deals collapsed and business interests flopped. 

‘They are so far off the radar’, he said. Mr Borkowski added that the timing of the announcement, with lots of negativity around the couple, made him ‘suspect there is more to this than meets the eye’.

He said: ‘They need to do something. According to Tom Bower they fell out with the Beckhams. Harry was forced to cold shoulder Becks because of Meghan’s position on Victoria.

‘The rights for this could have cost up to £3million. Although, if it’s a best-seller, you wouldn’t be handing it to Harry and Meghan. There’s some amazing drama producers out there. Why would you give away a prize asset?’ 

MailOnline has asked Penguin Random House to comment.

The adaptation will be the Sussexes’ first attempt at producing a fiction hit as part of a multimillion-pound Netflix deal which is reportedly under threat. 

The author of the novel is a fan of the Sussexes and has said she was left in tears watching their wedding in 2018.

Ms Fortune, a Canadian writer and journalist based in Toronto, woke up at 4am to watch the royal wedding at St George’s Chapel in Windsor as the Sussexes tied the knot in 2018.

After seeing the duchess in her wedding gown designed by Clare Waight Keller, she tweeted: ‘Meghan Markle is pulling up to the chapel and I am feeling very teary! Maybe it’s the 4am start.’

Meet Me At The Lake, her second novel, is set in Ontario and the city of Toronto.

It is said to have captured the Sussexes’ imaginations – perhaps due to Meghan’s connection to the Canadian city, which is where she lived when she was filming Suits.

An insider told the Sun: ‘The themes of the book gripped the couple and it was chosen for their first adaptation with Netflix.’

Although Ms Fortune has not yet commented on the reported deal, it is thought she will be pleased to have handed over the rights to the duke and duchess.

The author and mother-of-two has revealed she is a fan of Suits, and previously shared on Twitter that she was binge-watching the legal drama, which was Meghan’s big break in the entertainment industry.

Shortly before Harry and Meghan tied the knot, Fortune tweeted: ‘I’m binging my way through Suits. I felt a bit sheepish about it at first but I’ve decided to own my fandom. SUITS ROCKS, YOU GUYS! (I think that Meghan Markle is going places).’

Despite knowing that royal life was not ‘a world they wanted for their family’, as a friend has claimed, Harry and Meghan have faced some hard realities since they left to bring up their children away from the limelight of the Firm. 

Having signed major multi-million pound deals with giants Netflix and Spotify, as well as Harry’s own book deal, they have since faced hurdles including the loss of the Spotify partnership.

Meghan hosted a series of her Archetype podcast on the platform, but it has not been renewed by the streaming service and the couple announced in June they had ‘mutually’ agreed to part ways. They have also struggled to break into Hollywood, despite Meghan’s background as an actress in Suits.

Although their docuseries Harry and Meghan was watched extensively all over the world, experts say their brand is a tricky one to sell, due to the drama surrounding them raising clients’ expectations.

But Harry is currently working on a series based around the Invictus Games, which he set up as an opportunity for ex-service people to compete in sports in a similar way to the Paralympics or Commonwealth games. Heart of Invictus is expected to be released on Netflix later this year.

Last Wednesday, Harry and Meghan put on a united front in their garden as they appeared in a video about working with young people to improve the digital world.

The Duke and Duchess surprised US recipients of the first Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund (RTYPF) grants with phone calls to congratulate them.

Harry, 38, also mentioned their children Archie, four, and Lilibet, two, telling one winner in a call: ‘Thank you for doing everything that you do. Our kids especially are incredibly grateful.’ Meghan, 41, then added: ‘They don’t know it yet, but they will!’

It comes after the couple’s Spotify tie-up ended in June and concerns were raised over the future of their Netflix deal, while Harry’s green travel project Travalyst made a major announcement about a big revamp in May without mentioning him.

Also in June, a YouGov survey found Meghan’s popularity had sunk to -47, which is the lowest since polling her favourability began in 2017, while Harry’s fell to -36.

The couple are expected to attend the Invictus Games in Düsseldorf together next month for the events between September 9 and 16. It is not yet known whether the couple will visit the UK during their time abroad.