The Real Reason Meghan Markle, Prince Harry Aren’t Sharing Dog News With Fans

It’s believed that the Sussex household gained another member over the summer with the adoption of a rescue dog, but don’t expect Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to reveal details like their pooch’s name and breed with the public, as the couple is electing to keep their pet private.

However, while the move not to share details about their pet may seem bizarre to some, one royal expert claims that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are actually following a standard royal tradition in this regard, as they aren’t the only ones who have stayed quiet about their pets.

“Animals are quite off-limits, or pets are off-limits, for all members of the Royal Family,” royal expert Omid Scobie told Yahoo’s The Royal Box. “I remember when the Cambridges first got Lupo, there was such a furor over the name of the dog. I think it drove press secretaries crazy that they regularly had all of us asking what was the name of this dog.”

Prince William and Kate Middleton reportedly kept details about Lupo, who they got shortly after their wedding in 2011, private for some time before the Duchess of Cambridge let slip about the dog’s name to a child during a public engagement.

However, it appears Markle may have an easier time keeping quiet about her pets than her sister-in-law, as she and her husband reportedly adopted a black lab after their wedding, who was reported to be a male named Oz. The dog being a girl was eventually revealed, but to date, the couple has not revealed her name. They also still have one of her two rescue dogs from Toronto, Guy, on their Frogmore Cottage estate as well.

While the Cambridges did also keep their dog’s name a secret at one point, the decision to do the same has some questioning the need for secrecy that Prince Harry and Meghan seem to covet, specifically since they have since publicized a decision to sue three different newspaper and tabloid publishers for the ways they have obtained private information.

Of course, not all members of the royal family are private when it comes to their dogs. Queen Elizabeth’s love for her Corgi dogs is well-known and has been publicized throughout her reign. Though she reportedly stopped breeding them in 2015 to make sure she didn’t leave any behind following her death (according to Express UK), the monarch still does own two pups, Vulcan and Candy, who are the result of cross-breeding between her corgis and Princess Margaret’s dachshunds.