Late Queen’s 5-word remark after scandalous Prince Harry and Meghan Markle move

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex named their daughter Princess Lillibet after the late monarch.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle named their daughter after the late monarch (Image: Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry reportedly took away the “only thing” the late Queen Elizabeth II owned on the day their daughter was born four years ago today. After the birth of their second child on June 4, 2021, in California, it did not take long for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to share their good news with the world.

However, before this public announcement, it is believed Harry spoke to his grandmother the late Queen Elizabeth II both after his daughter was born and when the couple had decided to call her Princess Lilibet – a nod to the late Queen’s family nickname. While it was claimed by Harry, 40, and Meghan, 43, that the late Queen had given permission for them to use the name Lilibet for their daughter, reports over the years have suggested this was not the case.

Lilibet was a term of endearment that was used behind closed doors for Elizabeth by her family and close friends, with her grandfather King George V having originally come up with the name when Elizabeth could not pronounce her name as a toddler.

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Although Harry has always claimed he had the late Queen’s permission to name his daughter Lilibet as a sweet nod to her, it was widely reported that Queen Elizabeth II was upset with the decision.

She allegedly told an aide at the time: “I don’t own the palaces, I don’t own the paintings, the only thing I own is my name.”

In a heartbreaking five-word remark, she added: “And now they’ve taken that.”

In a biography of King Charles, royal insider and Daily Mail columnist Robert Hardman also wrote about how one of the late Queen’s staff told him she was “as angry as I’d ever seen her” after the duke and duchess publicly stated they would not have used her private family nickname if she had not been “supportive”.

As reported by The Daily Mail, the BBC‘s royal correspondent Jonny Dymond also reported being told by a ‘Palace source’ that the late Queen was “never asked” by Harry and Meghan about the use of her childhood nickname.

Princess Lilibet was born in 2021 (Image: Instagram / @meghan)SUBSCRIBE

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Queen Elizabeth II never publicly commented on the matter.

It is believed that the late Queen met Princess Lilibet no more than just a handful of times, however it is reported that she kept in touch with Prince Harry – who quit royal life in 2020 and moved to America – via zoom.

Harry shared details of the moment Lilibet and the late Queen met in 2022 in his memoir Spare, released in 2023. He wrote: “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.”

No photographs of Princess Lilibet and the late Queen have ever been publicly shared.