Prince Harry naming daughter ‘Lilibet’ was ‘cynical’ attempt for popularity

Royal author Tom Quinn expressed his bewilderment that Prince Harry didn’t think naming his daughter after the late Queen will “cause trouble.”

Quinn recalled his dilemma in his newly-released book, Gilded Youth: A History of Growing Up in the Royal Family: From the Tudors to the Cambridges via Express Daily UK.

“[Harry] surely would have known that appropriating the monarch’s beloved childhood nickname would be perceived by many as disrespectful and intrusive in a way that naming their daughter Elizabeth would have not been.

At the time of Lilibet’s birth, some commentators at the time accused the Sussexes of using a “cynical” attempt to enhance their “royal currency.”

Quinn quoted a comment from royal biographer Gyles Brandreth, who claimed Elizabeth II was “touched” by the gesture, but also acknowledged there is the possibility the late monarch may have been left upset by her grandson “laying claim” on a name that had been part of her private life for decades.

However, he added, “It is perhaps more likely that the flunkeys who surround the monarch and some of the starchier older royals were irritated by what they saw as a presumption.”

He shared, “Meghan would never have thought naming her daughter Lilibet was anything other than a huge compliment; in the UK, it looks like an impertinence, and this is emblematic of many of Meghan’s difficulties.”