Harry and Meghan ‘NEVER asked’ the Queen about naming their daughter Lilibet, source says

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Prince Harry has threatened the BBC with legal action after it reported that he and Meghan Markle did not ask the Queen for permission to name their daughter Lilibet – as an extraordinary three-way briefing war broke out between the Sussexes, the Palace and the corporation.  

Senior Buckingham Palace sources told BBC royal correspondent Jonny Dymond this morning that the Queen was ‘never asked’ her opinion on the couple’s decision to name their new baby after her childhood nickname.

However, Harry hit back within 90 minutes of the BBC’s report being published through a statement from his and Meghan’s close friend Omid Scobie that insisted the Queen was the first person the Duke called after the birth of his daughter. 

Mr Scobie, who wrote the bombshell Finding Freedom biography of the couple, also claimed the Sussexes would not have used the name Lilibet unless the Queen had supported the move. 

Harry, who together with wife Meghan announced they were expecting a girl during their interview with Oprah in March, took things a step further mere hours after his rebuttal of the report, threatening the BBC with legal action through law firm Schillings. 

Notice of the legal action was followed by a carefully-worded statement that raised more questions than answers over whether the Queen did give permission or if the couple simply informed her of their intentions in a fait accompli. 

The statement insisted that the BBC report was wholly wrong and read: ‘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.’

The BBC then amended its report though the article still says that the Queen was not asked about the name of the baby. Mr Dymond’s tweets citing a Buckingham Palace source also still remain up. 

The BBC report on the Palace’s position and Harry’s fiery reaction implies both parties believe they are telling the truth on the issue. It suggests that Harry and Meghan could have informed the Queen of Lilibet’s name before taking Her Majesty’s non-denial as consent. 

On the other hand, the Palace briefings appear to hint that the Queen felt she was presented with the couple’s decision and asked to rubber stamp it, rather than give permission. 

The explosive row is the latest chapter of Harry’s ongoing feud with the broadcaster after he attacked the BBC following the inquiry into Martin Bashir’s interview with his mother Princess Diana. Harry blasted the 1995 BBC Panorama interview and said his mother ‘lost her life because of this’.  

Despite Harry’s strong condemnation of the BBC report about Lilibet today, Buckingham Palace refused to comment on whether the story was true when approached by MailOnline. 

The aide behind the Palace leak to the BBC is unknown, though it is thought to be a senior official. It’s also unclear if the Queen was aware of the comment, though it is considered almost unprecedented for the monarch not to sign off on quotes from senior officials, even if they are anonymous briefings.  

Royal fans were divided as the row broke out with some slamming Harry for not asking the Queen’s permission to use her name, while others questioned why he would even need to ask for consent to name his child.   

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex welcomed their daughter on Friday morning – before announcing her birth on Sunday – and made headlines after they named her Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor.   

‘Lilibet’ was coined by the 95-year-old monarch when she was too young to pronounce her own name. It was first used by her grandfather George V and also by her husband Prince Philip until he died earlier this year.  

The episode is the latest display of the chasm between the Sussexes and Buckingham Palace, after officials appeared to be caught off guard by the timing of the baby news with a spokesman for the Palace congratulating the couple 90 minutes after the announcement broke on the Archewell website at 5pm on Monday.

Reacting to the briefing war, former BBC royal correspondent Peter Hunt said: ‘Not a good look for the House of Windsor when the briefings and counter briefings are about a baby’s name.’ 

ITV royal correspondent Chris Ship said: ‘Clear push back already from source in Harry and Meghan’s office on this story. 

‘[They said] the Queen was the first family member Harry called about it in advance of the announcement. In those chats, he shared hope of using Lilibet in Queen’s honour. Queen was ‘supportive’.’

The baby naming briefing war comes as:

• Prince Harry and Meghan Markle introduced their daughter to the Queen via video call, with an insider claiming: ‘They were very excited and couldn’t wait to share that their daughter arrived’;
• The monarch invited her grandson to join her for lunch at Windsor Castle when he flies over from California for the unveiling of the Princess Diana statue next month;
• Prince Charles, 72, described the birth of Baby Lilibet as ‘happy news’ as he highlighted the importance of leaving a sustainable legacy for future generations; 
• Meghan Markle’s ‘overjoyed’ mother Doria Ragland wasn’t present at Lilibet’s birth but is helping out couple at their $14M Montecito mansion.

Meanwhile, Harry and Meghan are both taking ‘several months off work’ to care for Lilibet with their eldest son Archie ‘excited’ and ‘very happy’ about the arrival of his little sister – but the Queen will have been ‘surprised’ the Sussexes chose to adopt her pet name, it was previously revealed. 

In the first words since Lili’s birth was announced, a source close to the couple told the Evening Standard: ‘Archie and his parents are excited to welcome the new addition to their family. He’s very happy to have a little sister.’ 

And Omid Scobie, a journalist favoured by Harry and Meghan, has revealed that the couple are now taking time off work together. He said: ‘We’re so used to seeing senior royals going back to work but Harry and Meghan are leading by example. They offer up to 20 weeks parental leave at Archewell – it’ll be several months off work for the pair of them’.

Asked if the tribute to Her Majesty could heal the wounds caused by the couple’s damaging transatlantic truth bombs in recent weeks, Mr Scobie added in an interview with Good Morning America: ‘I don’t know about an olive branch but it shows how close they’ve always been with the Queen.’

Harry also has a job as ‘chief impact officer’ at San Francisco-based mental wellness app BetterUp, dubbed life coaching Tinder for millennials. 

Employees are entitled to eights weeks paid leave to ‘bond with your new child’ – MailOnline has asked the Duke’s boss Alexi Robichaux if his royal employee is taking it. 

The Duke is also a celebrity commissioner fighting what he calls an ‘avalanche of misinformation’ as part an American study for the Aspen Foundation, which is funded by left-leaning billionaires – but he is unlikely to qualify for paid leave from there.

Prince William took varying amounts of paternity leave with his three children, taking two to three weeks off duties for George and Charlotte but only two days when Louis was born. Kate took seven months for Louis, four months for Charlotte and only one month for George.  

Experts are split on how the Queen will view the tribute – some have claimed that Her Majesty will have been unhappy about the choice of name – others believe she will be touched.

Russell Myers, royal editor of the Daily Mirror, said: ‘I am told Harry had said to the Queen he may name a daughter after her and so he didn’t really ask for permission as such but it was a nice surprise’. 

He added: ‘It can perhaps have these healing powers, it’s been a turbulent time, the truth bombs all the labelling of the royal family as racist – this seems to be a tremendous gesture’. 

Angela Levin told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that Her Majesty will be upset, adding: ‘I think she’s desperately unhappy because they were desperately rude about her. I don’t think it’s a good idea. I think it’s quite rude to her Majesty the Queen’. 

However, she also claimed: ‘Before she is even a month old, Lilibet could yet prove herself to be a ‘Band-Aid baby’ – a sticking plaster in Royal form to return the family to some form of normality after the turbulent year and a half since Megxit sparked several rounds of very public – and occasionally painful – soul-baring.’ 

Harry and Meghan’s new baby daughter – the Queen’s 11th great-grandchild – will be known as Lili. A variation on Lily, the flower is often seen to symbolise purity, commitment, rebirth and fertility. 

Lili’s middle name Diana honours Harry’s later mother Diana, Princess of Wales. It is no surprise the couple chose to pay tribute to Diana, who died in a car crash in 1997 when Harry was just 12.

Lili has been born almost a month before the princess would have celebrated her 60th birthday on July 1. Her cousin Princess Charlotte also has Diana as one of her middle names, as well as Elizabeth. She is Charlotte Elizabeth Diana.

Harry and the Duke of Cambridge are due to unveil a statue of their mother at Kensington Palace on her birthday, but the arrangements have yet to be confirmed, amid a long-reported rift between the brothers.

The Sussexes’ tribute to the Queen is likely to be seen as an olive branch to the monarch and the rest of the family.

Harry and Meghan plunged the Windsors into crisis with their Oprah Winfrey interview in March when they accused an unnamed royal of making a racist remark about their son Archie’s skin tone before he was born.

They also said the institution failed to help Meghan when she was suicidal. But during the televised interview with Winfrey, the Sussexes lauded the Queen.

Harry spoke of his respect for his grandmother, while Meghan said: ‘The Queen… has always been wonderful to me.’ 

On Monday, the delighted Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced: ‘On June 4, we were blessed with the arrival of our daughter, Lili. 

‘She is more than we could have ever imagined, and we remain grateful for the love and prayers we’ve felt from across the globe. Thank you for your continued kindness and support during this very special time for our family.’

Lili – who is eighth in line to the throne – was born in Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in California, a private facility where births cost up to £20,000. 

The Queen, senior royals and the Prime Minister led worldwide tributes, with Boris Johnson tweeting: ‘Many congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on the birth of their daughter.’

Meghan’s estranged father Thomas Markle, who has met neither Harry nor grandson Archie, said: ‘I am very pleased with the announcement of the safe and healthy delivery of my new granddaughter, and I wish her and her mother all my love and best wishes!’

Lili is the couple’s second child after Archie, who is two years and one month older than her.

The new baby is the Queen’s 11th great-grandchild, and the first to be born outside the UK.

The tribute to the Queen may be seen as an olive branch after Meghan, 39, and Harry, 36, plunged the Windsors into crisis with their explosive Oprah Winfrey interview in March, when they accused an unnamed royal of making a racist remark about Archie’s skin tone and claimed the royals failed to help the duchess when she was suicidal.

Buckingham Palace officials were unaware the baby had been born until the announcement came out at 5pm last night on social media.

They finally released a statement hailing the ‘happy news’ at 6.34pm, emphasising the gulf that now exists between the Sussexes and the palace. 

The name Lilibet was coined by the Queen and used by her younger sister Margaret and their parents.

George VI once said: ‘Lilibet is my pride. Margaret is my joy.’

Lili arrived six days before what would have been the Duke of Edinburgh’s 100th birthday. 

It comes after the Duke of Sussex dropped a series of nuclear ‘truth bombs’ on the Royal Family during recent interviews.

Opening up in his new five-part AppleTV+ docuseries with Oprah Winfrey, Prince Harry accused them of ‘total silence’ and ‘neglect’ when Meghan was suicidal, claiming his father Prince Charles made him ‘suffer’ as a child and insisting he would not be ‘bullied into silence’ when he alleged ‘The Firm’ ‘trapped’, smeared and dumped them. 

In candid interviews, the Duke of Sussex said he and his wife felt abandoned by his relatives and this was one of their ‘biggest reasons’ for leaving for California last year.

He told Oprah: ‘Certainly now I will never be bullied into silence’, adding: ‘I thought my family would help, but every single ask, request, warning, whatever it is, just got met with total silence, total neglect. We spent four years trying to make it work.’

‘We did everything that we possibly could to stay there and carry on doing the role and doing the job. But Meghan was struggling.’

He added: ‘That feeling of being trapped within the family, there was no option to leave.

‘Eventually when I made that decision for my family, I was still told, ‘You can’t do this’, And it’s like, ‘Well how bad does it have to get until I am allowed to do this?’. She [Meghan] was going to end her life. It shouldn’t have to get to that.’

The Buckingham Palace statement on Lilibet came more than an hour after Hollywood stars such as William Shatner had shared their best wishes on Twitter.

The palace said: ‘The Queen, The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, and The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have been informed and are delighted with the news of the birth of a daughter for The Duke and Duchess of Sussex.’

Lili is entitled to become a princess and Archie a prince when the Queen dies and Charles becomes king.

She is eighth in line to the throne, coming after Archie, and before Prince Andrew, who has dropped down a place to ninth. 

When Archie was born in 2019, Harry and Meghan went to extraordinary lengths to keep it a secret and even refused to confirm, either before or after the birth, where he was delivered.

The Daily Mail later revealed that the Duchess had given birth in the exclusive London Portland Hospital. It is not known when the Royal Family will get to see their newest member. They have not seen Archie since his parents left the UK in November 2019.

Julie Burchill claims she has been ‘SACKED’ as a Daily Telegraph columnist after sparking fury by saying Harry and Meghan could call their baby ‘Georgina Floydina’

Telegraph columnist Julie Burchill claims she has been ‘sacked’ – after she sparked fury by saying Prince Harry and Meghan Markle could call their baby ‘Georgina Floydina’. 

Ms Burchill, who lives in Brighton, deleted her Twitter account after making the comment about the Sussexes’ second child. 

She today posted on her Facebook page that she had been let go from her newspaper position, adding: ‘It’s been a lovely five years, and I’ll always be grateful to them for ending my Wilderness Years. 

‘However, I’d be lying if I said that I hadn’t often moaned to my husband recently about them always rejecting my *edgy* column ideas and giving me more pedestrian ones – which I’ve done splendidly anyway. 

‘I hope you can see my archive here. Onwards and upwards!’

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex had announced the arrival of their second child on Sunday. 

Ms Burchill then tweeted: ‘What a missed opportunity! They could have called it Georgina Floydina!’

The post is a reference to George Floyd, who was murdered by a US policeman.

The killing sparked worldwide Black Lives Matter protests.   

While Ms Burchill has claimed she was ‘sacked’, MailOnline understands that the Telegraph has not ruled out the possibility of using her as a contributor again in the future.  

MailOnline has contacted Telegraph Media Group for clarification. 

Following on from the Lilibet row, barrister Joanna Toch, 59, was suspended from her legal practice the Family Law Cafe in London over a ‘racist’ tweet posted in reply to Ms Burchill’s original remark. 

Referring to Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland, Miss Toch wrote: ‘No Doria? Don’t black names matter?’

Ms Burchill wrote back: ‘I was hoping for Doria Oprah, the racist rotters’ – a reference to chat show star Miss Winfrey, who had hosted Harry and Meghan’s infamous interview back in March. The family law barrister then replied: ‘Doprah?’

After a furious backlash online, Miss Toch apologised ‘unreservedly’ and said she herself had ‘children of colour’. 

Before deleting her Twitter account, Miss Toch – a former British Olympic rower – wrote: ‘I am very sorry for the comment and what I saw as a joke. I’ve fought during my professional life against racism which is abhorrent.’

But her company Family Law Cafe then said it had suspended her ‘pending an internal review’ into the remarks.

Ms Burchill had sparked controversy late last year after telling a Muslim journalist that her following of the Prophet Muhammad was the ‘worship of a paedophile’.

She then apologised ‘unreservedly and unconditionally’ and revealed in a statement published on Twitter that she had agreed to pay Novara Media reporter Ash Sarkar ‘substantial damages’ for the ‘distress’ caused by the row last December.

The spat started when Ms Burchill defended journalist Rod Liddle after Ms Sarkar hit out at a 2012 article in the Spectator where Mr Liddle said he did not become a teacher because he would want to sleep with pupils.

Ms Burchill then claimed Ms Sarkar’s reverence of the Prophet was the ‘worship of a paedophile’, referring to the 7th-Century leader’s marriage to his third wife when she was around 10, and that she was an ‘Islamist’ and a ‘hypocrite’.

Ms Burchill also ‘liked’ posts which said Ms Sarkar should kill herself and even suggested that she was a victim of female genital mutilation. 

Ms Sarkar brought defamation complaints, claiming they played into ‘damaging tropes of anti-Muslim hate’.

In a statement in March this year, Ms Burchill said she accepted that her statements were ‘defamatory of Ms Sarkar and caused her very substantial distress’ and agreed not to contact her directly except for legal reasons.