Royal Family's Official Website Accidentally Linked to Porn Site

(Image credit: Tim Graham)

published 17 February 2020

This weekend, a technical "blunder" hit the royal family when a link that was meant to send readers to a charity's website was mistakenly connected to a Chinese porn page instead.
The mistake was made on a page on the royal family's official website, Royal.uk.
The link was meant to send readers to the website of Welsh charity Dolen, of which Prince Harry is a patron.

The royal family is having an awkward tech problem. This weekend, the family's official website, Royal.uk, mistakenly sent users to a hardcore porn website instead of one of the family's charity parters.

Need details? Of course you do. Understandably, the royal family's website includes a section about the royals' charities and patronages. One of the organizations being promoted on the page is Welsh charity Dolen Cymru, of which Prince Harry is a patron.

Somehow, however, instead of directing royal fans to the Dolen website, the link on the royal family's site sent users to a Chinese porn page, according to reports from the Daily Mail and The Mirror.

How on earth did that happen? Still unclear. The Daily Mail reached out to Buckingham Palace for comment, but as of Monday morning, had not reported any official explanation from Team Royal. As of now, however, the mistake seems to have been fixed.

FWIW, Dolen, the charity at the center of the snafu, was founded in 1985, and works to create "lasting, positive change in the southern African Kingdom of Lesotho and in communities in Wales," according to its site.

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Kayleigh Roberts is a freelance writer and editor with more than 10 years of professional experience. Her byline has appeared in Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, The Atlantic, Allure, Entertainment Weekly, MTV, Bustle, Refinery29, Girls’ Life Magazine, Just Jared, and Tiger Beat, among other publications. She's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.