London CNN  — 

Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, said Britain’s Prince Philip would be “greatly missed” in a statement following the news of the death of Harry’s grandfather on Friday.

Set on a full-screen dark background, the message, which was posted on the front page of the couple’s Archewell charity, simply reads: “In loving memory of His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, 1921-2021. Thank you for your service… you will be greatly missed.”

The Sussexes stepped back from the royal family last year, giving up their royal titles and saying at the time that they wanted to be financially independent.

The couple have largely kept a low profile and have relocated to Markle’s hometown of Los Angeles. But last month they sparked a heated conversation about racism, the British tabloid press and the royal family following their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey.

The couple told Winfrey that there had been several conversations within the royal family about how dark their unborn baby Archie’s skin would be while she was pregnant, and Meghan admitted that she felt suicidal during her time as a royal. The allegations were splashed across newspapers across the world.

Winfrey later said Harry told her that the Queen and Prince Philip did not take part in conversations about Archie’s skin tone.

Throughout their two-hour TV special, both Harry and Meghan spoke with eye-opening candor, delivering criticisms of the royal family that were as explosive as comments made by Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, in a famous BBC interview in 1995.

At the time the pre-recorded interview aired, Prince Philip was in hospital for treatment of an infection and observation of a preexisting heart condition.

In February, Prince Harry spoke to James Corden about how he had kept up with his grandparents via Zoom after leaving the UK.

“Both my grandparents Zoom. We’ve Zoomed them a few times, they have seen Archie running around,” Harry said. “My grandfather, instead of, like, pressing ‘leave meeting’, he just goes doof,” Harry said, pretending to slam down a laptop.