Practically everybody who’s anybody was at Jeff Bezos’ and Lauren Sánchez’s $165 million mansion this weekend to celebrate Kris Jenner’s 70th birthday, with celebs like Oprah Winfrey, Martha Stewart, Mark Zuckerberg and more posing for pics with the birthday girl and the rest of the Kardashian-Jenner family members. Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were also among the revelers, but a photo initially posted of the Duchess of Sussex with Kim Kardashian has mysteriously disappeared from the Instagram post.
Kim Kardashian and her mom shared plenty of star-studded photos from the huge James Bond-themed birthday celebration, so it’s understandable if fans didn’t notice that one slide went missing from one of the multiple posts. Kardashian — dressed in a sparkling purple homage to Halle Berry’s character in Die Another Day — had been pictured with Meghan Markle in one shot, but now it’s gone. (Below you can see some others though!)
The photo, which seems to have been removed from Instagram, showed the Suits alum in a black turtleneck dress, while Prince Harry — seen having a conversation with someone in the background — sported a tuxedo. Their wardrobe options fit the 007 theme well but were actually the same outfits they were pictured wearing earlier in the evening, when they attended Serena Williams’ annual Baby2Baby Gala.
The big mystery is why the photo would have been removed. Did either Kim Kardashian or Meghan Markle object to how they appeared in the pic? Did the duchess ask for it to be taken down? Whatever the reason, it seems that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s association with America’s rich and famous rubbed some the wrong way. One insider who allegedly works with the royal family told Page Six:
It’s so tacky. It truly shows that Harry is so far removed from the rest of the family. These people may be stars in America, but the pure ostentatiousness is at odds with what Prince William is trying to do with his life and the monarchy.
Could the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have asked the Kardashians to remove their photos from social media because it was a step in the wrong direction of a possible reconciliation?
It’s hard to say, because this isn’t Kim Kardashian’s first disappearing photo mystery. Just this summer she removed a bikini photo from a post about her family’s lake vacation, seemingly because it contained a Photoshop fail. In fact, that’s a move she’s been pulling for years (as if fans aren’t screenshotting everything anyway).
It may have been a potential photo editing issue, an attempt to head off royal backlash, or something else altogether. Unlike at party hosts Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez’s wedding, phones were allegedly prohibited from Kris Jenner’s party, and sometimes celebs prefer not to be photographed.
We can’t be sure what exactly happened, but if removing the photo of Kim Kardashian and Meghan Markle was an attempt to downplay the Sussexes’ presence at the bash for any reason, I’d say the plan has backfired.
You can catch more of Kris Jenner and her brood on new episodes of The Kardashians, available each Thursday with a Hulu subscription.