A Glitzy Night, A Silent Delete: Why Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner Removed Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s Images from the Revelation-Filled 70th Birthday Celebration
Last Saturday night, at a lavish James-Bond–themed birthday party hosted by Kris Jenner for her milestone 70th, the guest list read like the A-list directory of Hollywood, royalty and tech. But what stirred the headlines wasn’t just the glamour—it was the quiet removal of several Instagram photos featuring the celebrated couple Meghan Markle and Prince Harry that followed.
The scene: Jenner’s opulent Beverly Hills soirée, held at the mansion of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez, was awash with chandeliers, tuxedos, couture gowns and a setting fit for spies and celebs alike. According to People magazine, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrived hand-in-hand and were greeted with fanfare. Meghan reportedly appeared in a black wrap-style floor-length dress—elegant, dramatic and in full accord with the Bond theme—while Harry wore a sharp tuxedo complete with the red remembrance poppy pin, in honor of Armistice/Remembrance Day.
On Instagram immediately afterward, Jenner shared a carousel of images from the evening—including one of her posing with Meghan and Harry. Jenner’s post quickly became a rally point for social-media attention. Shortly thereafter, Jenner’s daughter Kim Kardashian posted her own image set from the night—one of which showed her alongside Meghan, while Harry appears in the blurred background. These posts looked like the standard red-carpet documentation that often follows a star-studded party.
But over the following hours, viewers noticed something odd: the photos featuring Meghan and Harry were quietly removed from both Jenner and Kardashian’s Instagram feeds. Jenner’s carousel still stood, but the image with the Sussexes had been taken out. Kardashian’s post removed not only the shot of her and Meghan but scrubbed any trace of Harry’s presence. The reason? No official statement has been made. The moment passed with silence.
It’s a seemingly small gesture: a few deleted photos. Yet in the world of celebrity, royal branding and media optics, it becomes a loaded signpost. There are several layers worth exploring: what it says about the star-power balance, the optics of royalty in Hollywood, the control of one’s image, and what might lie beneath that erased frame.
From one angle, the move could simply be a matter of brand management. Meghan and Harry have in recent years become adept at tightly curating how they appear — where they show up, who photographs them, what posts later surface. After stepping back from official royal duties in 2020 and relocating to the U.S., the Sussexes have crafted a post-royal narrative that mixes high-glamour lifestyle, activism and entertainment ventures. Knowing that, it’s possible that the presence of theirs in Jenner’s Instagram catalog posed a subject of reconsideration: perhaps rights issues, image permission, or simply a change of mind about how the moment should be preserved online. Social-media users speculated that the deletion could be aimed at avoiding tabloid reuse of the images, or at sidestepping critique of the royals leaning too hard into a Hollywood scene.
From another vantage, the gesture might reflect the sensitive nature of Meghan and Harry’s place in both media and monarchy. Their attendance at a glitzy Hollywood party hosted by a reality-TV matriarch—with billionaires, actors and tech moguls—was a prominent image. Yet as one palace-adjacent source told The Post, the appearance struck some within royal circles as “so tacky” given the contrast to how Prince William and Kate Middleton now envision monarchy: less spectacle, more duty.
It raises questions of juxtaposition: the Prince who served in Afghanistan and marks Remembrance Day observances, stepping into a world of martinis and million-dollar mansions. The party’s timing also overlapped with the U.K.’s remembrance-weekend events, where King Charles, Queen Camilla and William hosted solemn tributes. That contrast — high-glamour event in Beverly Hills vs. formal British remembrance ceremonies — was not lost on social-media commentators.
On the Jenner-Kardashian side, the erasure may speak to the nature of these mega-events where image control matters. When the teenager-to-mogul matriarch invited the A-list: Oprah Winfrey, Mariah Carey, Mark Zuckerberg, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, among others, she created a spectacle of glamour and influence. Yet simultaneously, early reports flagged a clause: attendees were reportedly discouraged from posting their own photos and a strict no-phones policy minimized unauthorized imagery. According to The Sun, the guest list was asked to sign a photo-use form before entering the high-security party.
When the Instagram posts went up and then were edited out, it shows just how fluid and strategic social-media documentation has become. Whether this was a pre-planned deletion or a reaction to backlash is unclear. But the result is a moment of subtraction—what remains unsaid becomes as loud as what was posted.
For fans and observers, the missing photo turns into a question. Why delete it? Was there discomfort from one of the parties? A last-minute decision? A rights issue? A brand concern? Social-media users pointed out the removal almost as fast as it occurred:
“Wait, where did the not Duchess of Sussex go??” one commenter wrote under Kardashian’s feed.
“Where did the photo of royals go,” another added alongside a laughing emoji.
“She deleted the photos with her in them… Wonder why,” read another.
The anatomy of modern celebrity is such that the deletion itself becomes the event. The act of “removing” is as headline-worthy as the posting. In this case, the optics bring together multiple threads — Hollywood glamour, royal redefinition, celebrity branding and the silent power of a missing image.
Of course, it is entirely possible the situation is mundane: an accidental omission, a technical glitch, or a house-keeping edit by Kardashian’s Instagram team. But given the magnitude of the soirée and the figures involved, simply overlooking a photo seems unlikely. The more compelling interpretation lies in the strategic interplay of visibility and invisibility. In a world where posting = permission, un-posting = curation.
Consider also the positioning of Meghan and Harry within the broader domain of the Kardashian-Jenner universe. Meghan has had previous interactions with members of the clan: promotional tie-ins with her lifestyle brand, public appearances and the shadow of entertainment-crossover potential. The confluence of two powerhouses—royalty turned Hollywood couple, and reality-TV dynasty turned global media brand—inevitably carries sensitivities: How visible should each be in the other’s orbit? Does a royal photo-op in a celebrity realm help or complicate the Sussexes’ narrative of independence and advocacy? And does appearing so closely entwined with a celebrity matriarch risk the credible distance the Duke and Duchess have worked to establish from both the monarchy and from mere celebrity?
There is also a technical dimension. When high-profile hosts post their nights online, they implicitly grant the right for the hosts and their networks to use those images. But when a royal image surfaces, questions of licensing, tabloid rights, jurisdiction and brand control become messier. Some analysts surmise the deletion may have been a protective move: to limit the reuse of the Jenner-posted image by British tabloids without payment. By removing it quickly, the Jenner/Kardashian camp may have cut off downstream licensing or redistribution.
Whatever the motivation, the real takeaway is that this moment underscores how the once-transparent “look what I did” post is now a tightly managed communication tool. Celebrities, royals and influencers increasingly treat their social-media feeds like living brand portfolios—what appears is intentional, what disappears is even more so. And in that light, the deletion of Meghan and Harry’s image becomes a statement in itself: about image, about association, about distance and about control.
In the end, the party remains a glittering spectacle. Jenner’s birthday was an evening of celebration, high fashion, tech luminaries, music icons, royalty and reality-TV royalty alike. The glitter will fade in time. But the missing frames, the removed pixels, may linger longer in public memory than any posted snapshot. For Kim Kardashian, for Kris Jenner, for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, the silence around those deleted photos may end up speaking louder than any toast made in that chandeliers-lit ballroom.
