Prince Harry and Meghan stay silent as Prince Philip birthday tributes flow

On what would have been a devastating day for the Queen, Meghan and Harry failed to publicly support the monarch in any way.

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Romeo thought he knew a thing or two about the thorny issue of names.

“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” he crooned to Juliet, proving that teenage boys will say anything when attempting to woo a girl.

However, the events of this week in the royal world would seem to prove names do matter – enormously – after a storm erupted over Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s sensational choice of name for their second child, Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor. 

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The choice to name their daughter ‘Lilibet’, the Queen’s nickname, raised eyebrows this week. Picture: AFP.

But in all the fuss and flap over whether the Queen gave her OK to the couple to use her lifelong pet moniker for their little girl, another far sadder and colder situation, also involving Her Majesty and the Sussexes, has been playing out.

Thursday, June 10 was meant to be a joyful day for the Queen. Her Majesty’s extended family should have descended on one of her various vast, draughty homes for a lunch to celebrate what would have been her husband Prince Philip’s 100th birthday.

Instead, the Iron Duke and gaffe-prone patriarch sadly died in April after months of illness and a lengthy hospital stay.

RELATED: Prince Charles reacts to Lilibet’s birth

The Queen is said to be “not the same” following her beloved husband’s death. Picture: AFP.

And so it was, that in the early hours of Thursday morning, the tributes for Philip began to flow.

William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge honoured the Greek-born prince, posting on their social media channels “Today we remember His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, on what would have been his 100th birthday” alongside a touching shot of the Queen accepting a rose created by the Royal Horticultural Society named after Philip.

Today we remember His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, on what would have been his 100th birthday.

Last week, The Queen was gifted a Duke of Edinburgh rose by @The_RHS, of which Her Majesty is Patron.

Visit @RoyalFamily to see more🌹 pic.twitter.com/hjsNWUQlhq

— The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) June 10, 2021

Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall’s Clarence House account shared heartwarming shots of the Duke of Edinburgh, including one of him as a young father holding a three-year-old Charles’ hand.

Princess Eugenie took to Instagram to post a lovely shot of her beaming grandparents at her 2018 wedding, captioning it: “Thinking of Grandpa on what would have been his 100th birthday.”

Prince Edward and Princess Anne were dispatched to give rare TV interviews to mark what would have been their father’s milestone.

Even Dr Jill Biden, the United States’ First Lady found the time to take to Twitter to post: “We are holding the entire Royal Family in our hearts today, and wishing them peace and comfort on what would have been Prince Philip’s 100th birthday.”

But from Harry and Meghan, there was nothing publicly.

As of well gone midnight Thursday, UK-time, the Sussexes had failed to publicly acknowledge the sombre occasion or to share any sort of public message on what must surely be a sad day for Harry’s 95-year-old grandmother.

It was radio silence from Meghan and Harry.

The issue here surely cannot be that they are operating in a different time zone as they seem to have no trouble on this front when it comes to legal threats.

Early on Thursday morning, UK time, the BBC’s royal correspondent Jonny Dymond reported that, according to a palace source, “The Queen was not asked by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex about naming their daughter Lilibet.”

Then, just after 8am (or 1am in Montecito) in London, lawyers acting for the Sussexes sent out warning letters to media organisations saying the claims were “false and defamatory”.

So, if the duke and duchess can move with such agility and urgency when it comes to calling in their retinue of legal bigwigs, why not the same forcefulness and energy when it comes to publicly showing their support for Her Majesty?

This latest situation highlights what has become a recurring theme this year, that is, the disconnect between their claims about how much they admire Her Majesty and then their repeated barrage of palace criticism.

Thursday would have been a deeply sad day for the Queen. Picture: AFP.

Asked by Oprah Winfrey during the couple’s incendiary March interview about whether the couple had blindsided the Queen with their decision in January 2020 to quit royal life Harry denied the charge, saying “No, I would never blindside my grandmother, I have too much respect for her”.

And yet, during the same prime time outing they levelled a series of devastating claims against The Firm, aka, the institution of which the Queen is head.

In May, while appearing on actor Dax Shepherd’s Armchair Expert podcast, Harry described royal life as a “mixture between The Truman Show and being in a zoo” and said he wanted to “break the cycle” of the “pain and suffering” of his own upbringing for his children.

Harry’s mental health TV series The Me You Can’t See premiered in late May in which he criticised his father saying the now 72-year-old had made him “suffer” when he was a child.

Prince Harry in The Me You Can't See. Picture: Apple TV

“My father used to say to me when I was younger … ‘Well, it was like that for me, so it’s going to be like that for you’,” Harry told co-producer Winfrey.

And yet, only a month after these salvos, they announced they want to name their little girl after the woman who heads up the institution of which they have been so vocally and repeatedly critical. 

Here is the only good news in this latest dispiriting contretemps: The Sussexes’ girl is responsible for knocking Prince Andrew down a peg in the line of succession. Nice work Lili, very nice work.

Daniela Elser is a royal expert and a writer with more than 15 years experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.