Author Robert Hardman is clarifying a claim made in his new book that Queen Elizabeth II didn’t give Prince Harry and Meghan Markle her blessing to name their daughter Lilibet.
“I think there has been a lot of attention given to that part of the book, which I understand,” Hardman exclusively told Us Weekly on Tuesday, January 23, of The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy, which hit shelves on Thursday, January 18.
“The root of the issue was not Harry and Meghan naming their daughter Lilibet; It was what happened afterwards,” Hardman continued. “It was when they said that this had all been done with [the queen’s] blessing.”
In Hardman’s latest release, a former member of the queen’s staff claimed that Elizabeth, who died at age 96 in September 2022, was “as angry as I’d ever seen her” after Harry, 39, and Meghan, 42, publicly claimed that they consulted with the monarch before naming their now 2-year-old daughter.
“The BBC reported very factually that the queen hadn’t actually been asked for her blessing,” Hardman told Us, doubling down on his book’s side of the story. “Harry and Meghan then resorted to lawyers and started firing off legal letters saying, ‘If anybody says this, we’re going to come after you.’ At which point they then tried to enlist the palace to support their version of events, and the palace didn’t.”
According to Hardman, the queen’s “anger” on the matter came down to Harry and Meghan trying to get her to “endorse” a story line that did not occur. Us has reached out to Harry and Meghan for comment.
Earlier this week, a source exclusively told Us that Harry and Meghan, who also share son Archie, 4, are bewildered by the recent claims.
“Meghan and Harry 100 percent got permission from the queen to use the name Lilibet,” the insider claimed. “The report is not true. [Harry and Meghan] don’t know where this is coming from. They’re shocked that this is coming now; It seems out of nowhere and out of left field. They just feel like it’s more of the same spear campaign that continues against them.”
Upon announcing Lilibet’s birth in June 2021, Harry and Meghan noted via their Archewell website that their daughter’s name is a nod to Elizabeth’s “family nickname.”
Despite the drama surrounding the moniker, Hardman emphasized that Elizabeth “adored Harry,” who is the son of King Charles III and Princess Diana.
“She had great sympathy for [the] No. 2 child, generally. She’d watched her sister, [Princess] Margaret, how difficult it was for her being a second child. [Elizabeth’s] own father, [King George VI], was a No. 2 child. I mean, he only inherited the throne because his older brother abdicated,” Hardman explained, adding that the queen was “more than conscious” of the struggles Harry faced in the shadow of his older brother, Prince William.
While William, 41, is now first in line for the throne — Charles, 75, became king after Elizabeth’s death — Harry and Meghan stepped down from their senior duties in 2020. They now reside in California with Archie and Lilibet.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
