During his family’s visit to the UK during the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, Prince Harry kept making the same request of his grandmother – but she declined
The late Queen was famously fond of Prince Harry, but there was one wish of his she wouldn’t grant.
While the late Queen’s relationship with Prince Harry grew increasingly complicated following his departure from the royal family, the pair were always close. Nevertheless, she repeatedly turned him down when he kept making the same request involving his young family.
In June 2022, Harry and wife Meghan Markle brought their children three-year Archie and one-year-old Lilibet to the UK from their home in California in June for the monarch’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. During the trip, the Queen got to meet her 11th great-grandchild and namesake Lilibet for the first time. And, according to a royal expert, Harry was persistent in his desire for a professional photo of his daughter with the monarch.
Writing in the Telegraph, royal expert Camilla Tominey said: “When the couple made another beeline for Windsor Castle, travelling straight there after landing at Farnborough Airport, she refused their request to have professional photographs taken with Archie, three, and her namesake Lilibet, one.
“Claiming she had a bloodshot eye, she adroitly denied the Sussexes the photo opportunity they craved. Harry was ‘persistent’, according to those party to the meeting, expressing a desire to get an official snap of the two Lilibets together at some point in the future. But of course, it was never to be. She died three months later.”
Harry and Meghan raised eyebrows when they announced they had chosen to give their daughter the Queen’s childhood nickname, Lilibet. Harry and Meghan said at the time they would not have used the name without the Queen’s blessing, with lawyers even telling news organisations such as the BBC to drop “defamatory” suggestions to the contrary.
A spokesperson at the time said in a 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 honour. Had she not been supportive, they would not have used the name.”
But according to Daily Mail writer Robert Hardman’s biography, Charles III: New King, New Court, a palace insider said that Queen Elizabeth was “as angry as I’d ever seen her” over claims she had given her blessing for the girl’s name choice.
The royal biographer also claimed the couple tried to “co-opt” Buckingham Palace aides into “propping up” their version of events, only to be “rebuffed”.
Hardman writes: “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 couple 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’ – the late Queen’s reaction to the Oprah Winfrey interview – as far as Her Majesty was concerned. Those noisy threats of legal action duly evaporated and the libel actions against the BBC never materialised.”
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