Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Baby Name Left Queen Furious

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle left Queen Elizabeth II furious over their decision to name their daughter in tribute to her childhood nickname Lilibet.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced in June 2021 that they had a newborn daughter named Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor.

And in a statement, the Sussex camp confirmed: "Lili is named after her great-grandmother, Her Majesty The Queen, whose family nickname is Lilibet. Her middle name, Diana, was chosen to honor her beloved late grandmother, The Princess of Wales."

The Times reported that the queen was told by Harry about the name and Vanity Fair suggested Harry told friends he sought his grandmother's permission.

However, the move sparked a transatlantic briefing war after a BBC story appeared casting doubt on the account.

Now, author Robert Hardman, who spent a year shadowing King Charles III for a BBC documentary, has suggested the dispute put the queen at her angriest in his new book The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy, published in America by Pegasus.

Describing Harry's memoir, Spare, he wrote: "Throughout the book, however, Prince Harry was keen to stress his devotion to the Queen and Prince Philip.

"Later, reflecting on his grandmother after her death, he wrote: 'We had secrets. Special relationship, that's what they said about us, and now I couldn't stop thinking about the specialness that would no longer be.'

"He did not, however, hold back in Spare when attacking some of her staff. They did not respond, though they were interested by what had been omitted from his book.

"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.

"The couple had 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 action against the BBC never materialized."

At the time, a palace source told Newsweek the key element of the rebuttal was that Harry "was not asked" for permission, while a Sussex spokesperson said: "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 dispute therefore appeared to focus on whether Harry actually asked for permission or simply told the queen of his intention.

Either way, the queen has been a regular battle ground between the Sussexes and the palace, with Harry stressing his closeness to the late monarch.

At the Invictus Games, he told Hoda Kotb in an interview with Today: "She's always got a great sense of humor with me and I'm just making sure that she's, you know, protected and got the right people around her."

"We have a really special relationship," he added. "We talk about things that she can't talk about with anybody else. So that's always a nice piece to it."

The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy is due to be published on January 18 by Pegasus.

Jack Royston is Newsweek's chief royal correspondent based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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