Royal aides and commentators have revealed that Queen Elizabeth II and the rest of the royal family are pushing back against the Duke and Duchess of Sussex amid the dispute over the use of the name “Lilibet” for their daughter and the claim that they had a video call so she could meet the baby.
Lilibet “Lili” Diana Mountbatten-Windsor was born on Friday, June 4, at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, California. Her birth was officially announced by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle two days later.
Not long after the announcement, a British media source reported that the couple had not consulted the Queen before choosing the name Lilibet for their second child. BBC claimed that they based their reporting on a reliable royal source.
Lilibet was the nickname given to Queen Elizabeth after she could not pronounce her full name correctly as a child. Prince Philip, who passed away in April this year, also used the nickname for the monarch during their 73 years of marriage.
Following the reports, the Sussexes filed a legal claim for defamation against the news outlet. They issued an official statement via a spokesperson who said that they would never have chosen the name had the Queen not been supportive of it.
The representative 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.”
A royal insider has slammed that claim, telling the Mail on Sunday the conversation between Prince Harry and the Queen was “a telling, not an asking.”
It has been revealed that the Queen has been “sent over the edge” by the baby naming scandal. Friends of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have spoken to PEOPLE magazine, claiming that they were quick to introduce baby Lili Diana to the Queen via a Zoom call.
A pal of the power couple shared: “They were very excited and couldn’t wait to share that their daughter arrived.”
However, a palace insider close to Her Majesty has stepped out to deny the story, telling Mail On Sunday that she will change her “never complain, never explain” policies and via her trusted aides and courtiers will now correct the lies and misinformation being spread by the California residents.
The source explained: “No video call has taken place. Friends of the Sussexes appear to have given misleading briefings to journalists about what the Queen had said and that took the whole thing over the edge. The Palace couldn’t deny the story that this was a mistruth.”
Royal editor Rebecca English also said she had spoken to staff at Buckingham Palace and nobody disagreed or “knocked down” the reports that the Queen had not been consulted over the use of the name by the Sussexes.
The royal expert said: “This in and of itself is extraordinary, and if the palace does continue to stand its ground, then this would represent the House of Windsor’s biggest pushback against the rabble-rousing couple since their sensational departure from the palace in January last year.”
She added: “After months of having been the target of the Sussexes’ fusillade of painfully public criticism, are the Queen and her army of courtiers finally starting to far more aggressively – and obviously – fight back?”
She said it set off a “firestorm” and showed the royal family standing up to the claims.
