Princess Lilibet Diana Sussex’s fourth birthday is coming up this week, on the fourth. I imagine Lili’s mom will post something on Instagram and we’ll all talk about how crazy it is that Harry’s ginger genes took over. Ahead of Lili’s birthday, the British media wants to remind everyone of the “controversy” over Lili’s name. When the Sussexes announced the name in 2021, the palace and the media threw an unhinged tantrum over Harry using QEII’s nickname for his daughter’s legal name. Remember how the palace dragged their feet over adding Lili’s name to their online line of succession too? Good times. The name furor got a second life last year, when King Charles’s biographer Robert Hardman published a book in which Charles’s courtiers insisted that Queen Elizabeth was incandescent with rage over Lili’s name. Then Hardman and other royal reporters spent weeks bizarrely walking back those claims and doubling-down at the same time, all of which made the late queen sound like a petty a–hole. Well, an update and reminder for Lili’s birthday:
When Meghan Markle issued advice to expectant mothers this week to never tell anyone what you’re planning to call your child, it was a timely reminder that she has experienced the furore a baby name can cause.
In June 2021, Harry and Meghan announced the birth of their daughter Lilibet – named in honour of the affectionate childhood nickname given to the late Queen and used by her parents, King George VI, the Queen Mother, and her sister, Princess Margaret, as well as her husband, Prince Philip, and a handful of close friends.
The couple insisted that the Queen was ‘supportive’ of them using the name, however in his biography ‘King Charles III The Inside Story, royal insider and Daily Mail columnist Robert Hardman revealed how the monarch was infuriated by their claim that she had given her blessing.
So, when the Sussexes fired off a legal letter to the BBC for an article saying they didn’t ask permission, Buckingham Palace refused to back up their version of events.
Now a source has told MailOnline further details of how the baby name announcement unfolded, and say it was a case of the couple telling the Queen of their intentions than seeking her permission.
‘Harry and Meghan presented this to the Queen as: “We’re going to call her Lilibet. Isn’t that great?”,’ the source said. ‘The palace version was that they didn’t ask.
‘The Queen was asked to prop up their version of events that didn’t match her own. She wasn’t furious about using the name Lilibet, it was the way it was handled.’
It echoes the claim made in Hardman’s biography by a member of palace staff who said the monarch was ‘as angry as I’d ever seen her’ over the Sussexes’ attempt to get the palace to support their version of events.
I’ve always maintained that Harry asked/informed his grandmother privately, and she didn’t inform her staffers about the call. Meaning, Buckingham Palace courtiers threw a fit because they didn’t know what Harry said to QEII, which is how we’ve gotten four f–king years of slippery stories about what exactly QEII was mad about – the name itself, the conversation with Harry, the way it was announced, or nothing at all. They can’t make up their minds about why it was all so terribly offensive, but they insist that it was the worst thing ever!
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Meghan’s Instagram, Misan Harriman for the Sussexes.
