According to royal insiders, the late Queen was ‘so upset’ by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s after they claimed they had her blessing to use the name Lilibet – the former monarch’s old nickname
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are celebrating their youngest daughter Princess Lilibet’s birthday – with the adorable youngster turning four today. The little princess, who goes by the name of Lili, was born on this day in California in 2021, just over a year after her parents and older brother Prince Archie quit the UK to carve out a new life in America.
Her birth also came just weeks after Harry and Meghan’s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, with Meghan heavily pregnant at the time of the chat. When her daughter was born, the Sussexes revealed that her name was a tribute to both the late Queen as well as Harry’s late mother Princess Diana, with Diana being her middle name.
However, the couple’s decision to name their daughter Lilibet reportedly left the late Queen feeling like they had taken the only thing she owned.
Harry and Meghan announced at the time of Lilibet’s birth, she would be given the late monarch’s childhood family nickname as a first name. A spokesperson for Harry and Meghan insisted at the time that the duke spoke to his grandmother in advance and would not have used the name had the monarch not been supportive.
However, in his biography King Charles, royal author Robert Hardman alleges the late Queen was furious over Harry and Meghan’s decision to call their daughter Lilibet in 2021, and their claim they asked for her permission.
And according to the Daily Mail, the late Queen was so upset by the situation, she reportedly told her aides: “I don’t own the palaces, I don’t own the paintings, the only thing I own is my name. And now they’ve taken that.”
In Hardman’s book, it tells how a member of staff recounted Elizabeth II’s fury following Harry and Meghan’s announcement in 2021 over the use of her childhood family nickname. The BBC later reported that a Palace source said the Queen was not asked by the Sussexes whether they could use Lilibet. But the Sussexes’ lawyers fired off legal letters to the broadcaster and other publishers, saying the claim was false and defamatory.
Hardman, however, claims the Queen’s aides painted a very different picture. “One privately recalled that Elizabeth II had been ‘as angry as I’d ever seen her’ in 2021 after the Sussexes announced she had given them her blessing to call their baby daughter ‘Lilibet'” The author said Buckingham Palace then refused attempts by Harry and Meghan to confirm their version of events. “When the Sussexes tried to co-opt the palace into propping up their version of events, they were rebuffed,” he writes.
Lilibet was first used when Princess Elizabeth was just a toddler and unable to pronounce her own name properly. Her grandfather King George V would affectionately call her Lilibet, imitating her own attempts to say Elizabeth. The sweet nickname stuck and she became Lilibet to her family from then on.
Just last week, Meghan seemingly referenced the row while expressing her admiration for podcast guest Sara Blakely, founder of the shapewear clothing company Spanx and a mother of four on the her podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder.
During the chat, the pair discussed the pressure of choosing a name for their business, with Meghan opting for the name As Ever for her lifestyle brand. And she shared her own advice for those expecting children when it comes to names saying “Don’t ask anyone’s opinion”.
Meghan talked about the pressure to get “everyone’s approval” for a brand name and added: “You’re like, ‘What do you think?” And she added: “It’s no different — I will say this to every woman in the world or every person in the world who’s going to have a child — if you have an idea about what you are going to name that baby, you keep it so close to your heart until that baby is born and it’s named. Don’t ask anyone’s opinion.”
Harry and Meghan’s youngest child, now a princess following the accession of her grandfather, was born in California on June 4 2021. Today, Meghan posted intimate family photos of her daughter to mark her fourth birthday. The Duchess of Sussex shared a black-and-white snap of herself cuddling Lili, who was sat on her lap, with the pair both sporting windswept hair, seemingly on a boat.
The second image showed Meghan tenderly cradling newborn Lili as she enjoyed skin-to-skin time with the new addition to her family in 2021. Meghan wrote: “Happy birthday to our beautiful girl! Four years ago today she came into our lives – and each day is brighter and better because of it. Thanks to all of those sending love and celebrating her special day!”
