Writer Robert Hardman is clarifying a declare made in his new e-book that Queen Elizabeth II didn’t give Prince Harry and Meghan Markle her blessing to call their daughter Lilibet.
“I think there has been a lot of attention given to that part of the book, which I understand,” Hardman solely advised Us Weekly on Tuesday, January 23, of The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Fashionable Monarchy, which hit cabinets on Thursday, January 18.
“The root of the issue was not Harry and Meghan naming their daughter Lilibet; It was what happened afterwards,” Hardman persisted. “It was when they said that this had all been done with [the queen’s] blessing.”
In Hardman’s newest free up, a former member of the queen’s personnel claimed that Elizabeth, who died at age 96 in September 2022, used to be “as angry as I’d ever seen her” after Harry, 39, and Meghan, 42, publicly claimed that they consulted with the monarch ahead of naming their now 2-year-old daughter.
“The BBC reported very factually that the queen hadn’t actually been asked for her blessing,” Hardman advised Us, doubling down on his e-book’s aspect of the tale. “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.”
In line with Hardman, the queen’s “anger” at the subject got here right down to Harry and Meghan looking to get her to “endorse” a tale line that didn't happen. Us has reached out to Harry and Meghan for remark.
Previous this week, a supply solely advised Us that Harry and Meghan, who additionally percentage son Archie, 4, are bewildered by way of the new 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 pronouncing Lilibet’s start in June 2021, Harry and Meghan famous by means of their Archewell web page that their daughter’s identify is a nod to Elizabeth’s “family nickname.”
Regardless of the drama surrounding the moniker, Hardman emphasised that Elizabeth “adored Harry,” who's 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 defined, including that the queen used to be “more than conscious” of the struggles Harry confronted within the shadow of his older brother, Prince William.
Whilst William, 41, is now first in line for the throne — Charles, 75, become king after Elizabeth’s demise — Harry and Meghan stepped down from their senior tasks in 2020. They now are living in California with Archie and Lilibet.
With reporting by way of Christina Garibaldi