A new book by royal biographer Robert Hardman has set off waves of drama between Prince Harry and the royal family—especially thanks to a former staffer's unverified claim that the late Queen Elizabeth was upset over the Sussexes naming their daughter Lilibet.
According to Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story, which is being serialized in the Daily Mail, one of the Queen's staff members "privately recalled" that Her Majesty had been "as angry as I'd ever seen her" when Harry and Meghan Markle said the Queen had given them her blessing to use her nickname.
But Us Weekly spoke with a source who fully shut this down:
"Meghan and Harry 100 percent got permission from the queen to use the name Lilibet," the insider said. "The report is not true. [Harry and Meghan] don’t know where this is coming from. They’re shocked that this is coming now; it seems out of nowhere and out of left field. They just feel like it’s more of the same spear campaign that continues against them."
The insider also noted that "multiple people are aware" the Sussexes got the Queen's blessing, and "they feel it’s convenient [that] this is surfacing now when the queen is not here to defend herself and can’t say what is true or false."
FYI, back in 2021 the BBC reported that Harry and Meghan didn't ask the Queen's permission to use her nickname, which their spokesperson firmly denied. "The Duke spoke with his family in advance of the announcement, in fact his grandmother was the first family member he called," they said in a statement at the time. "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."
That settles that!
