Prince Harry’s 40th birthday shout-out from the royal family wasn’t something he sought as a “reward” for not dropping new bombshells on the Firm, sources tell The Post.

Despite their ongoing estrangement from Prince Harry, the royal family wished the Duke of Sussex a happy 40th birthday, which some are seeing as an olive branch.

Meghan Markle was cropped out of the photo shared by the royal family to celebrate Prince Harry’s 40th birthday. The picture of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex was taken at DogPatch during their overseas trip to Dublin, Ireland in 2018 while they were still working royals.

The most senior members of the British royal family acknowledged Prince Harry's birthday on social media for the first time in three years on Sunday. In two separate posts shared online, the account for King Charles wrote,

Britain’s Royal family has publicly wished Prince Harry a happy birthday to mark his 40th, breaking two years of silence.

Through it all, there was a sense that Harry was rebelling against an accident of birth that made him, in the harsh calculus of the House of Windsor, just “the spare.” As the second son of the man who is now King Charles III, he was raised as a prince but wouldn’t inherit the throne unless brother William came to harm.

The Royal Family has posted a photograph of Prince Harry for his 40th birthday, which appears to have Meghan Markle cropped out.