Harry and Meghan celebrated their daughter’s first birthday in the UK, but reportedly one request during the happy weekend was firmly denied by the late Queen in two words
The Platinum Jubilee in June 2022 marked 70 years of the late Queen Elizabeth’s reign, but it wasn’t the only cause for celebration for Britain’s longest-ruling monarch that weekend, as it was also the occasion that she met Princess Lilibet – the daughter of Harry and Meghan – for the first time.
Lilibet – who is named after the Queen’s family nickname – also celebrated her first birthday on the jubilee weekend, and her parents threw her an informal garden party with face painting in the grounds of Frogmore Cottage, formerly their home in the UK in Windsor Great Park. However, there was reportedly one aspect of the celebratory weekend that Harry and Meghan desired that wasn’t fulfilled.
At the time, The Sun reported that the couple had requested when the Queen met Lilibet, a private photographer would be present to capture the moment when the two Lilibets were introduced, however, this was denied. “Harry and Meghan wanted their photographer to capture the moment Lilibet met the Queen. But they were told no chance. It was a private family meeting,” an anonymous ‘insider’ was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
Further, The Sun reported that the request was denied because “there were fears any photos of the Queen and Lilibet taken by the couple’s photographer would be shared by them with US telly networks.” In his memoir Spare, Harry described recalling a meeting between his children and his beloved grandmother after her death, writing: “Archie making his deep bows, his baby sister Lilibet cuddling the monarch’s shins. “Sweetest children, Granny said, sounding bemused. She’d expected them to be a bit more … American, I think? Meaning in her mind, more rambunctious.”
While little else has been confirmed by Harry and Meghan about their daughter’s first meeting with the late monarch and her namesake, a letter written by the late Queen’s private secretary after the Sussex’s stepped back as working royals has recently been reported on as part of a summary judgment in an ongoing libel claim Harry has launched against the publishers of the Daily Mail – Associated News Limited (ANL). In the extracts made public of the letter, it is made clear that it was incredibly important to the Queen that Harry’s family kept their security, despite the fact they would no longer be working royals.
“You will understand well that ensuring that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex remain safe is of paramount importance to Her Majesty and her family,” the private secretary wrote to the government. Given the duke’s public profile by virtue of being born into the royal family, his military service, the duchess’s own independent profile and the well-documented history of targeting of the Sussex family by extremists, it is imperative that the family continues to be provided with effective security.” Whether or not the Queen denied the Sussexes their request to bring a photographer along to her meeting with Lilibet, the wellbeing of their family was clearly a top priority for the late monarch.
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