Queen Elizabeth threw her newspaper on the floor in disgust over Lilibet Diana’s name

There are several foundational royal scandals, and “Prince Harry and Meghan naming their daughter Lilibet” is one of them. Incidentally, I would argue that “someone made someone cry just days before the Sussex wedding” and “what happened when QEII offered Meghan a tiara to wear for the wedding” are the other two major foundational scandals. Those three account for some of the most unhinged reimaginings, revisions and retellings. So, in 2021, Meghan gave birth to a daughter in California. Within a few days, they announced the name: Lilibet Diana. Royal reporters threw tantrums, and claimed that their tantrums were on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II. Someone said that the Queen’s “Lilibet” nickname was the only thing which was truly “hers,” which is absolutely wild to say about a literal queen. The palace issued briefings about whether QEII was told about the name, and the palace could not keep their stories straight. I always believed that Harry told his grandmother about the name privately, but the courtiers weren’t informed and that’s why ALL of them freaked out about a mixed-race child being named Lilibet. Anyway, Robert Jobson has told dozens of versions of this one scandal, and wouldn’t you know, he just came up with a new version:

Robert Jobson, the godfather of royal reporting, joined me on today’s Royalist live stream (watch the full show above), and delivered a proper scoop about one of the most bitterly contested episodes of the entire Megxit saga: the naming of the Sussexes’ daughter, Lilibet.

The Sussexes have always maintained they had the late queen’s blessing to use her childhood nickname. The queen’s recollection of the matter, famously, varied. Robert Jobson who first reported her fury in The Windsor Legacy, revealed on the show what actually happened.

“They did have a conversation, but they didn’t say Lilibet,” he said. “They said, ‘We’re going to name our daughter after you.’ And the queen went, ‘How lovely,’ thinking that the daughter would be named Elizabeth. When she found out it was Lilibet, my sources said she only read about it in the paper. And she threw it on the floor in disgust. She was really upset, because she said, that’s my name, that my father and my grandfather used to call me, and it was unique to me.”

[From The Royalist Substack]

“When she found out it was Lilibet, my sources said she only read about it in the paper. And she threw it on the floor in disgust.” Day 35,927 of royal reporters making Lizzy sound like the biggest a–hole in the world. Imagine, a 95-year-old woman throwing her newspaper on the floor IN DISGUST over her great-granddaughter being named after her! And again, who really cares? At this point, who cares? But even back then, in 2021, and in the five years since, I don’t understand why the entire royal industrial complex is still stridently insisting that Harry and Meghan using that name was some kind of breaking point or huge catastrophe. It’s a baby name. Either Lizzy was honored or annoyed or a little bit of both. The only point of nursing this inane scandal is to put a target on a child’s back.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Meghan’s Instagram.