Queen Elizabeth was enraged by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s claim she had given them her blessing to name their daughter Lilibet, according to a new book.
One of her staff members claimed the Queen was left “as angry as I’d ever
Queen Elizabeth II was ‘furious’ over Harry and Meghan’s use of her childhood nickname Lilibet
NZ Herald
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The Queen was reportedly furious at Harry and Meghan's claim she had given them her blessing to name their daughter Lilibet. Photos / AP, Misan Harriman
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The revelation comes after Hardman shared a memo summing up the Queen’s final moments, now with the Royal Archives, recorded by her private secretary, who wrote that she had “slipped away” quietly after finishing her final box of paperwork and leaving two letters for her son.
Hardman writes that Harry and Meghan’s decision to name their second child Lilibet raised some eyebrows, as it was the Queen’s own childhood nickname.
The nickname, which came about because Elizabeth could not pronounce her own name as a child, was only used by her parents, King George VI and the Queen Mother, her sister Princess Margaret, her husband Prince Philip and a few close friends.
At the time, the BBC reported a palace source said the Queen had not been asked by the Sussexes whether they could use it.
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Others told outlets including the Daily Mail that when called by her grandson and his wife, the Queen felt she could not say no. However, a spokesperson for the Sussexes doubled down on claims that they would not have used the name without the Queen’s support.
“The Duke spoke with his family in advance of the announcement - in fact, his grandmother was the first family member he called.
“During that conversation, he shared their hope of naming their daughter Lilibet in her honour. Had she not been supportive, they would not have used the name,” they said at the time.
Hardman adds the late Queen’s household was “interested” in the fact Harry left the naming debacle out of his memoir Spare, despite including other private information about the royal family.
“One privately recalled that Elizabeth II had been ‘as angry as I’d ever seen her’ in 2021 after the Sussexes announced that she had given them her blessing to call their baby daughter ‘Lilibet’, the Queen’s childhood nickname,” Hardman writes.
“The couple subsequently fired off warnings of legal action against anyone who dared to suggest otherwise, as the BBC had done. However, when the Sussexes tried to co-opt the Palace into propping up their version of events, they were rebuffed.
“Once again, it was a case of ‘recollections may vary’ - the late Queen’s reaction to the Oprah Winfrey interview - as far as Her Majesty was concerned.
“Those noisy threats of legal action duly evaporated and the libel actions against the BBC never materialised.”
Hardman writes of Harry’s relationship with Charles that the King is “extremely sad” about where things stand with the Sussexes at present, adding that “there is a sense of exasperation”, according to one of his friends.
