Originally appeared on E! Online
The royal family is clearing out its archives.
As such, it appears Prince Harry‘s powerful 2016 statement that not only confirmed his romance with Meghan Markle, but also defended her from racist abuse, is no longer traceable on the royal family website.
While the November 8, 2016 statement can be found through the royal domain’s search engine, the link to actually bring a user to the statement itself is broken, multiple outlets have reported. E! News has reached out to reps for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as well as the Palace for comment regarding the matter.
At the time, when rumblings of a romance between Harry and Meghan led to a wave of negative press against the Suits star, Kensington communications secretary Jason Knauf—who represented Harry as well as Prince William and Kate Middleton—shared a rare, impassioned statement in her defense.
“Meghan Markle, has been subject to a wave of abuse and harassment,” the message read, “some of this has been very public—the smear on the front page of a national newspaper; the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments.”
The Most Shocking Parts of Prince Harry’s Spare
Of course, in the years since confirming the relationship, Harry and Meghan—who share kids Archie, 5, and Lilibet, 2—tied the knot and ultimately stepped back as senior members of the royal family.
But looking back on that moment, Harry has expressed how important it was for him to defend the woman he loved.
“We needed a statement out there—within a day we had a draft,” he recalled in his 2023 memoir Spare. “Strong, precise, angry, honest.”
And while the 39-year-old lamented that the statement did not stop the “onslaught” of harassment on Meghan, 42, it also had other repercussions. In fact, Harry claimed in his memoir that the bulletin made his brother William—who shares children George, 10, Charlotte, 9, and Archie, 6, with Kate—and his father King Charles III “furious.”
“Because they’d never put out a statement for their girlfriends or wives,” Harry detailed in the book. “When they were being harassed.”