Prince Harry and Meghan Markle became parents for the second time after welcoming their first daughter, Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, on June 4, 2021. Shortly after her birth, a lot of news surfaced on why the Duke and Duchess of Sussex chose to name their newborn after her paternal great-grandmother and paternal late grandmother.
Lilibet was the nickname of Queen Elizabeth II during her childhood years, and many of her close family members and friends used to call her that. The name Diana, on the other hand, was a reference to Prince Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, who died in a car crash back in 1997.
Although naming their secondborn after the late Princess of Wales touched many, some question their decision on why they used Her Majesty’s intimate nickname. Now, a royal expert accused Prince Harry and Markle of making a “cynical choice” for the name of their daughter.
In the Palace Confidential podcast, newspaper columnist Sarah Vine said that the Sussexes name choice for their second child was “very odd”. While she said that she understands the two using the name Diana, she thinks that using Lilibet is quite “cynical.”
"It is the Queen’s nickname - it isn’t even a proper name really - and it just seems such an intimate nickname as well,” she said.
Vine explained that Queen Elizabeth II was called Lilibet by her grandfather, father, and uncle because she could not pronounce her own name during her younger years. Her late husband, Prince Philip, also used that nickname to refer to her.
"I honestly think it feels quite cynical. I’m sorry, I just really think it felt quite cynical,” the newspaper columnist added.
She also revealed that a lot of people emailed her, criticizing Prince Harry and Markle’s name choice for their child. They said that it was “shameless that they had done this almost to stamp the royal name on this child’s head.” There have been rumors about the alleged rift between the couple and the Firm.
Prior to the birth of Lilibet Diana, the Sussexes made a series of allegations against the Royal Family in a tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey. The couple stepped down as senior members of the Firm in 2020 and has since left the United Kingdom to settle in the United States.
The recent controversy surrounding them came after BBC published a report claiming Prince Harry and Markle didn’t ask Queen Elizabeth’s permission that they're using the name Lilibet for their daughter. However, the couple denied the allegations, and their lawyer that the claims are “false and defamatory”.