In a move that has sent royal watchers into a tailspin, a bombshell post appeared on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s official @sussexroyal Instagram account at 3:17 a.m. Los Angeles time yesterday… only to be deleted exactly eleven minutes later.

Eagle-eyed followers who happened to be doom-scrolling in the middle of the night managed to screenshot the image before it vanished: a simple black-and-white photograph of the couple standing side-by-side on the Montecito balcony at sunset, Harry in an open-necked shirt, Meghan in a flowing white dress. No faces visible – just their silhouettes against the Pacific Ocean. The caption consisted of four chilling words:

“We tried. It’s gone.”

That was it. No emoji, no hashtag, no link in bio. Just those four words and a post that disappeared faster than Harry’s UK security detail.

By 6 a.m. London time Buckingham Palace press officers were reportedly “running around like headless corbies”, according to one senior aide. Kensington Palace, Clarence House, and even Anmer Hall were all dragged into emergency WhatsApp groups titled “SUSSEX MELTDOWN 2.0”. One courtier allegedly texted: “What the hell have they done now?”

The internet did what the internet does best: it detonated.

Within an hour the screenshots were everywhere. #ItsGone was the number-one global trend before most of Britain had even had their first cup of tea. Theories ranged from the heartbreaking to the utterly deranged.

The leading contender? That Harry and Meghan have finally decided to give up their royal-adjacent status altogether and are preparing to relinquish their Duke and Duchess of Sussex titles voluntarily. Sources in California claim the couple have grown exhausted with the endless briefings against them from London and have told friends they’re ready to “draw a line for good”. “They feel everything they’ve built since 2020 has been systematically destroyed,” one Montecito neighbour allegedly overheard Meghan saying at a school gate. “The titles, the charity work, even the kids’ privacy – it’s all gone.”

A darker interpretation doing the rounds in royal WhatsApp groups is that “it” refers to Harry’s relationship with his father. Insiders say Charles has quietly refused to take Harry’s calls for weeks following yet another leaked excerpt from an upcoming memoir update. “Harry rang on the King’s birthday, on Remembrance Sunday, even on Camilla’s birthday just to keep the door open,” claims a former palace staffer. “Every time it went to voicemail. He finally accepted it’s gone.”

Then there’s the pregnancy theory that refuses to die. Royal fans zoomed in obsessively on Meghan’s mid-section in the silhouette photo, claiming they could see the faintest curve. “It’s gone” = the baby they supposedly lost? The privacy they once had? Or – in the most dramatic reading – an announcement that they’re expecting again but have decided to raise this child completely out of the public eye, titles be damned.

The Nigeria trip fallout refuses to go away either. Some claim the deleted post was their response to being quietly stripped of permission to use “Sussex Royal” branding on future commercial projects. Royal experts point out the Instagram handle itself hasn’t been officially sanctioned since 2020 – yet the couple have continued using it. “Maybe the palace finally pulled the plug,” one commentator wrote, “and ‘it’s gone’ was their middle finger to The Firm.”

By 10 a.m. yesterday the account posted a perfectly innocuous throwback photo of Archie and Lilibet playing on the beach with the caption “Grateful every day ❤️” – the digital equivalent of smiling through gritted teeth after a family row at Christmas lunch.

Harry was spotted hours later looking “haunted” (Daily Mail) or “totally chill” (People magazine, take your pick) walking their Labrador in Montecito wearing noise-cancelling headphones. Meghan reportedly spent the afternoon at a friend’s house “crying and drinking English breakfast tea” – a detail that somehow made British headlines within thirty minutes.

Kensington Palace’s response was predictably arctic: “We do not comment on social media posts.” Buckingham Palace went one better: a spokesperson claimed nobody in the royal households had even seen the deleted post because “we do not follow the Sussexes on Instagram”.

Yet royal reporters swear blind that behind the scenes it’s all-out war. One veteran correspondent claims King Charles himself called an emergency 8 p.m. meeting at Windsor yesterday “to discuss the Sussex situation”. Another says William hasn’t spoken Harry’s name in the same sentence as “brother” since 2022.

As of this morning the @sussexroyal account has gone eerily quiet – story highlights deleted, profile picture reverted to the original calligraphed monogram, and every post from the past year suddenly archived.

Royal fans are now camped outside the comments of the one remaining post like digital vigilantes, begging for answers. “Tell us what ‘it’ is Harry PLEASE,” reads the top comment with 87,000 likes.

Because until the Sussexes explain why, at 3:17 a.m., they told the world “We tried. It’s gone” before frantically deleting the evidence, the speculation will only grow louder.

Is it their royal connection that’s gone for good? Their hope of reconciliation? Their patience with the British press? Or something far more devastating that the couple decided, in the cold light of dawn, the world isn’t ready to know?

One thing is certain: in the space of eleven minutes, Harry and Meghan managed to remind everyone that six years after Megxit, the drama is very much not gone.