Queen Elizabeth thought Lilibet Diana was going to be named ‘Elizabeth’…?

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex welcomed their daughter on June 4, 2021. They announced her birth and her name, Lilibet Diana, on June 6th, a Sunday. The reaction from the British media was unhinged. The British media spent two solid weeks screaming, crying and throwing up over the fact that Harry named his daughter after his beloved grandmother, and that he used his grandmother’s family nickname. There were transatlantic arguments about whether the Queen had been informed of the child’s birth and name. There were articles written about how Harry “stole” the only thing the Queen had which was hers alone, her nickname. It was pretty bonkers. And the Daily Mail wants to keep the controversy rolling, more than a year later.

The Queen believed that Harry and Meghan would name their daughter Elizabeth – not Lilibet – after a phone call with the Duke of Sussex and was taken aback when their choice was revealed, a friend and interior designer to the royals has claimed.

Socialite Nicky Haslam, whose royal pals include everyone from the Duchess of Cornwall to Prince Michael of Kent, made the incredible claim on a recent podcast where he insisted the Sussexes should have named her Doria. Mr Haslam alleged that the Queen had been under the impression that the child, who was born last June, would be named Elizabeth — and was surprised to discover that the couple had, in fact, called her Lilibet.

He said: ‘I heard he [Harry] rang her and said: “We want to call our daughter after you, Granny”. She said: “How charming of you, thank you”, thinking that it would be Elizabeth. So they got the permission, but they didn’t say the name.’

Speaking on The Third Act podcast, Mr Haslam goes on to question why Harry and Meghan didn’t name the baby after the American former actress’s mother instead.

‘Why on earth didn’t they call that baby Doria?’ he asked, adding: ‘It’s the prettiest name ever.’

A spokesman for the Sussexes did not comment, more than three days after the Daily Mail asked them about Haslam’s claims.

Mystery has surrounded the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s decision to call their daughter Lilibet since the BBC’s royal correspondent, Jonny Dymond, claimed last year that they did not ask the Queen if they could use her family pet name. In response, Prince Harry and Meghan launched an unprecedented legal attack on the BBC, saying the story was ‘false and defamatory’.

Their spokesman said: ‘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.’

Now, Mr Haslam, a friend of the royals has added to the mystery of what they did or didn’t say in their telephone conversation with the monarch.

[From The Daily Mail]

I always believed – and still believe – that Harry did tell the Queen privately about Lili’s birth and name, and that the Queen didn’t tell her aides. I think that was the issue – it wasn’t so much a transatlantic fight as much as the Queen aides throwing a hissy fit that the Queen didn’t inform them about what Harry said when he called her. The aides were not informed of Harry’s plan to name his daughter Lilibet, so those aides did what they always do, they used the Queen as a stand-in for themselves. “I can’t believe he didn’t tell the Queen” = I can’t believe we, the Queen’s aides, were kept in the dark.

As for Nicky Haslam suggesting that Lili should have been named after Doria instead… that message has always been clear as well, that no one in Salt Island wanted a mixed-race child to have a “royal” name. “They should have named the child after her Black grandmother instead!” That’s all it is.

Photos courtesy of Instar, Avalon Red, Backgrid and Misan Harriman.