The late Queen Elizabeth II was reportedly upset over a claim made by Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.

The late Queen and Meghan and Lilibet

The late Queen was reportedly ‘outraged’ by Meghan’s ‘lie’ (Image: Getty/Instagram/meghan)

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry left the late  Queen Elizabeth II angrier than one staff member “had ever seen her” after a claim that they got permission for their daughter’s name, according to a royal expert. The couple, who welcomed their daughter in June 2021, said that they asked the late monarch for her permission to use the name – which was a sweet nickname that the late monarch had used all of her life.

Lilibet was an alternative to Elizabeth after she could not pronounce her name as a young child. It later stuck and became one of the adorable names that the late Prince Philip used for his adored wife.

But Robert Hardman’s book ‘Charles III: New King, New Court. The Inside Story’ – which was released in 2024 – revealed that one member of staff claimed that the late Queen was “as angry as I’d ever seen her” after hearing Harry and Meghan’s comments.

Despite Meghan and Harry’s comments, the BBC later reported that the late Queen, who died aged 96 in 2022, had not been asked for her blessing to use the name for their daughter. Other reports have claimed that whilst she was contacted by Harry, she was not in a position to say no.

A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex previously said that the couple would not have used the name if the monarch had not been “supportive”.

Following the birth of Lilibet, a 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 honour. Had she not been supportive, they would not have used the name.”

Princess Lilibet
Princess Lilibet was born in California in June 2021 (Image: Instagram/meghan)

Law firm Schillings – which acted on behalf of Harry and Meghan – wrote a letter to some news broadcasters and publishers. They said, at the time, that the claims that the pair had not asked the Queen for permission was incorrect and defamatory.

The book read: “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.”

Mr Hardman added: “The couple [Meghan and Harry] 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’.”