That private conversation between Prince Harry and his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, around the time Meghan Markle would have given birth to their daughter, Lilibet Diana, is still making headlines.
In June 2021, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry delighted royal fans with the announcement of the birth of their second child.
The power couple, who have a little boy named Archie, welcomed a baby girl, and they named her Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor.
The announcement was followed by a mountain of controversies that led to Prince Harry and Markle tangling in a legal fight with the BBC. For almost a year now, the story had died down.
However, the fact that Prince Harry and Markle recently traveled to London, where Queen Elizabeth met her great-granddaughter for the first time, has sparked renewed interest in the origin of Lilibet’s name.
In his brutal smackdown of BBC, Prince Harry was adamant that he asked Queen Elizabeth permission to name his baby girl after her.
The former solider said via his spokesperson: “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.”
However, according to socialite Nicky Haslam, Prince Harry left the Queen a bit surprised after he revealed the name of his daughter to the world.
After the private conversation with Prince Harry, the Queen was under the impression that the Sussex couple had chosen the name Elizabeth for the infant.
The talkative interior designer claimed that Her Majesty was taken aback by the choice of name.
Haslam, whose pals around with many high-profile royals, including the Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Michael of Kent, made the revelations on The Third Act podcast.
He claimed: “I heard he [Harry] rang her and said: “We want to call our daughter after you, Granny.” She said: How charming of you, thank you”, thinking that it would be Elizabeth. So they got the permission, but they didn’t say the name.”
Prince Harry was left frustrated after BBC’s royal correspondent, Jonny Dymond, claimed last year that Prince Harry and Markle did not explicitly ask the Queen if they could use her family pet name, which was originally given to her by her father, George VI, because she had trouble saying Elizabeth.
The Queen’s late husband, Prince Philip, affectionately called her Lilibet. According to The Daily Mail, this time around, a spokesman for the Sussexes declined to comment on Haslam’s claims.
