Kate Middleton celebrated her 40th birthday on January 9, but kept it under wraps. Speaking with royal family expert Christopher Andersen, Us Weekly's Cristina Garibaldi asked the question on everyone's lips: did Meghan Markle and Prince Harry talk to the Duchess of Cambridge on her big day?

While the relationship between the Sussexes and the Cambridges has reportedly been rather frosty in recent months, royal expert Angela Levine previously told Marie Claire that Middleton acts as a bridge between her husband and her brother, who lives in the United States. And according to Andersen, it seems that on January 9, they all laid down their arms and jumped on another piece of era-defining software, like Zoom, Teams, Google Chat, or hell, even the "I'm not sure what I'm going to do now, but I'm going to do it.

"From what I understand, they did a video call," Andersen said. 'But Harry and Meghan didn't try to post anything, like they did two years ago when Kate turned 38. Both Harry and Meghan showed their love for Kate publicly and celebrated her birthday. This time, they kept it private." Perhaps a wise decision.

As for how the Cambridges actually celebrated the birthday, "It was a small family affair," Andersen explained. 'The birthday party was held at Ammer Hall with family and friends. Like Kate, she has only a very small circle of friends. One of the interesting things is that they bake their own cakes. This is how Carole Middleton basically built this empire by throwing birthday parties for her children and turned it into a big online empire," she said. The Duchess' mother founded the online store Party Pieces.

The pandemic was one of the reasons Middleton didn't make a 40-year-old fuss, but it wasn't the only reason. "But it's very, very low key, and the reason for that is because we have a big celebration this year. William turns 40 in June. 'The Queen has big plans for him and he is going to open something too. And that is if COVID allows such a thing."