Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s claim that Queen Elizabeth II gave her blessing for their daughter to be named Lilibet—the late queen’s pet name based on her childhood mispronunciation of ‘Elizabeth’— so infuriated the monarch that one source described her as being “as angry as I’d ever seen her” as a result.
The revelation is made in a new book, Charles III: New King, New Court. The Inside Story (published as The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy in the US). The book is being serialized by the Daily Mail.
“On top of all the other breaches of trust, here was Harry making a blatant attack on Catherine. For William, this was the lowest of the low,” one source is quoted as saying.
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William is described as being “mortified by the casual betrayal of so many fraternal secrets” in Harry’s memoir, Spare, and neither he nor Kate have read the book, instead receiving briefings from aides on key points.
One of his staffers says that William has said of the affair: “Whatever the rights and wrongs, I hope that people feel I behaved properly in keeping my counsel.”
The palace fear that there may be either “a sequel [to Spare] or, perhaps, a memoir by Meghan in due course.”
King Charles is said to have learned how to “compartmentalise” issues such as the rift with his son.
One friend is quoted as saying: “Of course the King is extremely sad about Harry and Meghan but there is a sense of exasperation, that he has done what he can and now he is king, there are many more things to think about…He has tried listening. Now he just says, ‘I don't want to know what the problem is. I’m just getting on with my life.’”
A source described as a senior official says: “You’d always like your child back. But when your child has decided that, at the moment, they want to do things differently, you have to give them the space to do that. The door is always open, though.”
Hardman’s book sheds new light on the bizarre row that developed after the queen's team denied she had given her approval for the name to the BBC, only for Harry and Meghan’s team to insist she had.
As The Daily Beast revealed at the time, newspapers were threatened with legal action by Harry and Meghan if they repeated the BBC claims, but the threat was never actioned.
The affectionate nickname Lilibet was used by the late queen’s parents, King George VI and the Queen Mother, and a handful of other people, including her sister, Princess Margaret, and her husband, Prince Philip.
As soon as the name was announced by Harry and Meghan, gossip started emanating from the palace that the queen disapproved.
However, things took a surreal turn after the palace briefed that the queen had not been asked for her permission, and a spokesperson for the Sussexes responded: “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 honor. Had she not been supportive, they would not have used the name.”
The Daily Mail, which is serializing extracts from the new book, published a preview of Monday’s extract on Sunday evening.
The Mail says that Hardman writes: “One source 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.
“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 materialized.”
Hardman notes that Harry mysteriously ‘omitted’ the entire incident from his memoir, Spare.
The Daily Beast has contacted Harry and Meghan’s office for comment.
