One of the highlights for the royals at Christmas is sitting down in front of the TV on Christmas Day at 3pm to hear the Queen's annual message.
Her Majesty usually gives the speech surrounded by touching pictures of her family members either at Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle.
But according to a book, after her message in 2019 was broadcast, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle 'felt sidelined' as they were absent from any of the family snaps.
In the biography Finding Freedom, it claims that the couple were dismayed when no picture of them and their son Archie was visible on the desk as Her Majesty gave her speech.
The previous year, in 2018, Harry and Meghan appeared in a photo with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as the Queen read her message.
But in 2019, instead, there were images of Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, King George VI, Prince Philip and the Cambridges and their children.
And according to authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand it made Harry and Meghan feel they "had long been sidelined by the institution and were not a fundamental part of its future."
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The authors write: "One didn’t have to look further than the family photos displayed during the Queen’s Speech on Christmas Day.
"In the Green Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace, where the Queen delivered her address, viewers glimpsed photos of the Cambridges and their children, Charles and Camilla, Prince Philip, and a black-and-white image of George VI.
"Noticeably absent was a photo of Harry, Meghan, and their new baby, Archie.
"Palace sources insisted that the photos were chosen to represent the direct line of succession, but for Harry and Meghan, it had been yet another sign that they needed to consider their own path."
However, Harry and Meghan were not completely disregarded in the Christmas Day speech that year.
Footage of the Queen and Prince Philip meeting Archie for the first time with Harry, Meghan and Meghan’s mum, Doria Ragland, watching on, was included.
Just weeks after that Christmas period in 2019, which Harry and Meghan spent in Canada, they announced they would be stepping down as senior royals - and a feud has between Harry and his family seems to have widened ever since.
Now, almost two years on, their family has expanded with the birth of their daughter Lilibet, and they've now settled in California.
Harry and Meghan are thought to be staying in California for Christmas this year rather than returning to the UK.
It has been reported that the Queen had extended an invitation for the couple and their children to spend Christmas with her at Sandringham.
A source told Page Six last month: “There’s a lot that goes into the logistics and the planning of the family Christmas, so of course, staff know that Harry and Meghan are not coming.
“If they were, they would have communicated it to their family by now.
“But this is Her Majesty’s first Christmas without her husband, so one would have hoped they would want to be with her.”
The Sussexes have not commented on the claims.
