The Queen took Harry and Meghan calling their daughter Lilibet as the ‘compliment it was intended to be’, new book claims
- Harry and Meghan’s daughter Lilibet Diana was born in California in June 2021
- The couple chose the name Lilibet in tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth
- It was a personal nickname used by her father King George V and her husband
- New book says late monarch took the name as ‘compliment it was intended to be’
The late Queen Elizabeth took Harry and Meghan naming their daughter Lilibet as the ‘compliment it was intended to be’, according to a new book.
Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait by Gyles Brandreth, which is slated for release next month, features numerous vignettes about life inside the Firm.
Mr Brandreth, who occupies a unique position as a friend and biographer of the Royal Family, write about the relationship between Her Majesty and the Duke, 38, and Duchess, 41, of Sussex.
The couple, who welcomed their second child on June 4, 2021, decided to call their newborn Lilibet Diana Mountbatten Windsor, now one, in honour of the Queen, Harry’s grandmother, and his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.
The late Queen Elizabeth (pictured here in June 2022) took Harry and Meghan naming their daughter Lilibet as the ‘compliment it was intended to be’, according to a new book
The first picture of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s daughter Lilibet was released in a Christmas card on December 23, 2021
And while it is said that some members of the Royal Family were less than impressed with the couple choosing the use the moniker, Mr Brandreth writes that the Queen took it as the ‘compliment it was intended to be’.
The rare name, which is based on the way the young Princess Elizabeth pronounced her name when she first began to talk, was very personal, and used only by a small number of people – notably her father King George V and husband Prince Philip.
Mr Brandreth writes that some members of the Firm found the use of the name ‘bewildering’ and ‘rather presumptuous’ as it had always been ‘intimately and exclusively the Queen’s’.
But, he adds, the Queen accepted the choice with ‘good grace’.
She is reported as saying: ‘I hear they’re calling her ‘Lili’, which is very pretty and seems just right.’
The second official portrait of Lilibeth Diana Mountbatten-Windsor (pictured) was released during the Platinum Jubilee this year, on the youngster’s first birthday
Lilibeth Mountbatten-Windsor is seventh in line to the throne following the death of the Queen, one place behind her big brother Archie, 3.
Harry and Meghan have chosen to keep their children largely out of the spotlight, and few pictures have been seen of Lilibet.
The first official public image of the one-year-old was released on December 23 last year on the Sussex family’s Christmas card.
A solo image of Lilibet was released on her first birthday this year, during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
The Queen receiving Liz Truss in the Drawing Room at Balmoral Castle on September 6. This is the last photo of Her Majesty
The Queen with the Duke of Edinburgh in Windsor in 2013
The snap, which was taken at Frogmore Cottage by the couple’s friend Misan Harriman, shows the young royal with reddish locks, smiling and dressed in a pale blue frock with a white bow in her hair.
As well as detailing the relationship the Queen shared with the Sussexes, the book also details how the late monarch coped with the death of her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip.
According to Mr Brandreth, the royal told a lady-in-waiting that she was determined to keep busy as it helped her cope with her loss.
However, he writes, by Autumn last year, the Queen had pushed herself so hard that she suffered a sudden ‘energy low’ and was urged to take it more easy by doctors.
Written by author and broadcaster Gyles Brandreth, Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait – which is serialised in the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday from today – is littered with fascinating vignettes about our longest-serving but still so enigmatic sovereign
‘I’ve got to be sensible,’ she said reluctantly, a rare acknowledgment of frailty from a woman for whom duty was paramount, despite the personal cost.
The biography tells the story of Queen Elizabeth’s life and reign, from Mr Brandeth’s unique perspective having been one of the few authors to have met and talked with her.
He also knows the new King and Queen Consort well and was a confidant of the Duke of Edinburgh.
Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait is published by Michael Joseph on December 8.
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