Friday, April 21 marks the first birthday that Queen Elizabeth isn't here to celebrate after she died at the age of 96 in September 2022. And on the day that would have marked the Queen's 97th birthday, Prince William and Kate Middleton shared a sweet tribute featuring her grandchildren and great-children — with a couple of very obvious exceptions.
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The Prince and Princess of Wales shared the photo on Instagram.
The photo was taken at the royal family's home in Scotland and features many of the littlest royals, including Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis.
"Today would have been Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s 97th birthday," read the caption. "This photograph — showing her with some of her grandchildren and great grandchildren — was taken at Balmoral last summer."
It was impossible not to notice who was missing from the photo.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's two children, Archie and Lili, were nowhere to be found. This isn't necessarily surprising, given that they weren't able to spend much time with the Queen before her death, but their followers couldn't help but notice their absence.
"So sad Archie and Lilibet are missing forever from any photos with cousins and the queen," one person wrote.
Another commenter added, "Beautiful photo. Archie & Lilibet should have been in this photo with the Queen."
Others simply focused on how lovely this moment must have been for the Queen.
Many of the commenters chose not to focus on the missing Archie and Lili and instead were just glad that the kids got quality time with their grandma and great-grandma toward the end of her life.
"I just knew this would have happened. She spent her final moments with the one she loved the most," one person wrote.
Others praised Kate's photography skills, because she was the one who snapped the photo.
The royals' official Instagram account shared another tribute as well.
They opted to share a photo of Queen Elizabeth solo, sharing a little background info about the late monarch's time on the throne.
"When Her Majesty was born in April 1926, Princess Elizabeth and her family did not expect that she would one day become Queen. Following the abdication of her uncle King Edward VIII in 1936, her father acceded to the throne," the caption noted. "When King George VI died in February 1952, Princess Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth II when she was just 25. Her Majesty went on to be Britain’s longest reigning Monarch — the only one in history to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee."
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There are a lot of potential reasons Archie and Lili weren't included.
And of course, some of them might have to do with the feud going on between the royal brothers. But it seems more likely that Will and Kate simply didn't have a photo that featured Archie and Lili to choose from when making this post — as far as we know, the Queen may have only met Lilibet once, when the family was in the UK for the Platinum Jubilee.
All that matters is that they grow up knowing their great-grandmother loved them, and we have no doubt that's true.
