East Bay Times
Prince Harry has threatened legal action against the BBC after it reported that he and Meghan Markle “never asked” the queen for permission to give their newborn daughter her childhood nickname, Lilibet.
Harry’s threat heralds yet another tense stand-off involving him and his American wife against the British royal establishment — or rather between them and Buckingham Palace courtiers, who are said to never offer comments, even anonymously, without Elizabeth II’s express direction, according to the Daily Mail.
BBC royal correspondent Jonny Dymond, citing an unnamed Buckingham Palace source, reported Wednesday that the queen was “never asked” her opinion on the couple’s decision to give their daughter the first name Lilibet.
“Lilibet” was bestowed on the queen by her father, George VI, when she was a young girl. In recent years, the only person to reportedly call the 95-year-old monarch Lilibet was her husband, Prince Philip, who died in April.
However, Harry hit back within 90 minutes of the BBC report being published, the Daily Mail reported. He had Omid Scobie, his journalist friend and sympathetic biographer, tweet out a statement that insisted that the queen was the first relative Harry called after Lilibet’s birth.
A Sussex source says that the Queen was the first family Harry called after Lilibet’s birth and during that conversation, he shared the couple’s hope of naming their daughter in her honor. Had she not been supportive, they would not have used the name.https://t.co/5rGmk3h3o4
— Omid Scobie (@scobie) June 9, 2021
Harry also took things a step further a few hours after Scobie’s tweet, calling the BBC report false and threatening the venerable broadcaster with legal action, the Daily Mail reported. Through his attorneys, the Duke of Sussex issued another carefully-worded statement: “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,” the statement continued, according to the Daily Mail. “Had she not been supportive, they would not have used the name.”
The dueling statements between Harry’s people and Buckingham Palace add to the ongoing drama surrounding the Sussexes, who stepped away from royal life in 2020 and moved to California to embark on careers as U.S.-based entertainment moguls.
It also adds to the confusion and controversy over the naming of five-day-old Lilibet “Lili” Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, who was born Friday in a Santa Barbara hospital, near her parents’ home in Montecito.
It appears that both sides — Harry and Buckingham Palace courtiers — believe they are telling the truth, the Daily Mail said, but rather than settle the matter, the statements continue to raise new questions and interpretations about what Harry and Meghan told the queen, when they told her and how much they genuinely sought her permission to use her nickname for their daughter, the queen’s 11th great-grandchild.
Sources closes to the Sussexes told People and Page Six that the couple shared the baby’s intended name with the queen ahead of her birth.
Both of Harry’s statements suggest that he and Meghan waited until after Lilibet’s birth — but before issuing their birth announcement — to tell the queen they had named their daughter for her.
If Harry and Meghan in fact waited until after Lilibet’s birth, that raises the question of why the couple didn’t let the queen know months earlier that they were thinking about giving their daughter a name that has intimate family associations. Harry and Meghan revealed during their globally televised interview with Oprah Winfrey on March 7 that they were expecting a girl. They already are parents of 2-year-old son, Archie.
One interpretation of Harry’s statements are that he and Meghan told the queen Lilibet’s name amid the excitement of sharing news about her birth, and perhaps assumed she was happy or gave consent when she didn’t raise a fuss or flat out tell them no.
The Daily Mail added that the palace briefing to the BBC hints at the possibility that the queen felt she was presented with the name in a fait accompli and asked to rubber stamp it.
A royal source told Page Six: “It will have likely been a call saying that she’s arrived and we’d plan to name her after you — it’s not really something one can say no to.” The source added, “I doubt they asked — more likely ‘informed.’”
Royal reported Emily Andrews tweeted that the fact that this information was shared with the BBC is significant. It shows that the queen wanted it publicly known that she was not consulted on the use of her nickname for her new great-grandchild. “‘Shared hope” is not asking for permission or even (being) asked,’” Andrews tweeted.
“Whatever the truth of that conversation between (the queen) and Harry, the queen’s view is that she was not consulted/asked about (Harry and Meghan) giving their daughter her childhood nickname,” Andrews also tweeted. “She hasn’t let it be known whether she is happy or unhappy about the use of #Lilibet. Can we infer latter?”
The BBC has amended its original report to include Harry’s statements denying that the queen wasn’t fully informed or on board with the name choice, the Daily Mail reported, but the BBC report still says that the queen was “not asked” her opinion on using the name. The reporter’s tweet, making this point, also remains online.
“BREAKING Palace source tells BBC that the Queen was not asked by Meghan and Harry over the use of her childhood nickname,” Dymond’s tweet reads. “Reports suggested Harry had sought permission from Queen to call newborn ‘Lilibet’; but Palace source says the Queen was ‘never asked.’”
Meanwhile, Lilibet’s middle name, Diana, pays tribute to Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, who died in a car crash in 1997 when Harry was 12.
To Harry and Meghan’s fanatical supporters, this name choice is a lovely, personalized way to honor Harry’s grandmother and to make sure her special nickname lives on.
Some observers also wonder if the choice could help mend the couple’s rift with the royal family, which grew after they gave bombshell interviews to Winfrey, criticizing the monarchy for being dysfunctional, cruel and for harboring at least one racist member.
Despite that criticism, their supporters insist that Harry and Meghan have only ever shown love and respect for the queen.
To Harry and Meghan’s critics, however, the name choice is a cynical effort by the exiled royals to try to curry favor with the queen and to associate themselves with the trappings of the monarchy, even after their Winfrey interviews damaged the institution’s public image. The critics believe the couple will do anything to grab attention while they build their brand as global mega-celebrities.
“I don’t think it’s right, it’s rude,” royal biographer Angela Levin said on “Good Morning Britain” on Monday. Levin once wrote a sympathetic book about Harry but has since become one of his and Meghan’s fiercest critics.
“It was a very private nickname from her husband, who hasn’t been long dead,” Levin said.
This Story First Appeared At The East Bay Times
