Meghan Markle’s ‘mouthpiece’ fires back over Lilibet row claims

Royal author Omid Scobie has weighed into the row surrounding claims about the naming of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s daughter Lilibet.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s “mouthpiece” has hit out at claims surrounding the naming of their daughter Lilibet in a social media post that takes aim at the late Queen.

Omid Scobie, who co-penned the 2020 book Finding Freedom and last year’s tell-all Endgame, said the latest revelations were not “doing the late Queen any favours”.

It comes after the new book Charles III: New King, New Court The Inside Story, by Robert Hardman, claimed that the monarch was furious with grandson Prince Harry and Meghan Markle after they said they had received her blessing to call their daughter Lilibet.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry maintain that they asked for the Queen’s blessing. Picture: AFP

Lilibet was the Queen’s family nickname during childhood and was also used by her beloved

husband, Prince Philip, throughout their relationship.

Taking to X, formerly Twitter, Scobie wrote: “None of these Lilibet ‘revelations’ are doing the late Queen Elizabeth II any favours.

“Not only do they contradict details shared by the Palace with a cooperatively written biography in 2022, they also depict the monarch in a way the public haven’t known her to be.”

A new book claims Harry and Meghan Markle never asked the Queen for permission to name their daughter after her. Picture: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

The book, serialised by the Daily Mail, states: “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 claim comes more than two years after a palace insider told the BBC that the late Queen, who died in September 2022, was “never asked” her opinion on Lilibet’s naming before the birth of the Sussexes’ first daughter in June 2021.

Lilibet’s first birthday portrait. Picture: Misan Harriman/Supplied

“Palace source tells BBC that the Queen was not asked by Meghan and Harry over the use of her childhood nickname; reports suggested Harry had sought permission from Queen to call newborn ‘Lilibet’; but Palace source says the Queen was ‘never asked,’” BBC royal correspondent Jonny Dymond tweeted at the time.

The Sussexes with children Archie and Lilibet in 2021. Picture: Alexi Lubomirski/Handout/The Duke and Duchess of Sussex

However, royal sources confirmed to the New York Post that Prince Harry did call and speak to his grandmother after Meghan gave birth at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.

Though another insider added, “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. I doubt they asked — more likely informed.”

The Sussexes announced their baby girl’s arrival in a statement, writing, “She is more than we could have ever imagined, and we remain grateful for the love and prayers we’ve felt from across the globe. Thank you for your continued kindness and support during this very special time for our family.”

They added, “Lili is named after her great-grandmother, Her Majesty The Queen, whose family nickname is Lilibet. Her middle name, Diana, was chosen to honour her beloved late grandmother, The Princess of Wales.”

Notably, Buckingham Palace celebrated Lilibet’s birth days later in a statement on behalf of the royal family.

“The Queen, The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, and The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have been informed and are delighted with the news of the birth of a daughter for The Duke and Duchess of Sussex,” a spokesperson said.

Prince William and Kate Middleton added in a tweet, “We are all delighted by the happy news of the arrival of baby Lili. Congratulations to Harry, Meghan and Archie.”

Originally published as Meghan Markle’s ‘mouthpiece’ fires back over Lilibet row claims