It can be safely assumed that Princess Lilibet remains unaware of her parents’ past. The young girl was born in the US after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had moved to Montecito, California, and her upbringing has been markedly different from her father’s. Lilibet actually celebrated her first birthday in the UK, but even that paved the way for speculation and gossip.
Her royal aunt and uncle, Prince William and Kate Middleton, and her cousins, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis, were all absent from Lilibet’s 1st birthday party. The late Queen Elizabeth was there, but she reportedly refused to take a picture with her great-granddaughter.
It wasn’t long after Lilibet’s birthday that people reacted to the fact that William and Kate weren’t in attendance. Sure, the relationship between the Waleses and Sussexes was at an all-time low, but one of Meghan’s friends refused to accept that as the reason, even mocking Kate publicly.
On June 4, 2021, Harry and Meghan announced the fantastic news that their daughter, Lilibet, had been born. Royal enthusiasts will know that the girl is their second child after Archie, their son, was born in 2019.
Princess Lilibet
A spokesperson for the couple said at the time: “It is with great joy that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, welcome their daughter, Lilibet “Lili” Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, to the world.”
Royal family members also congratulated Harry and Meghan on the birth of their second child, including Prince William and Kate Middleton. These days, though, relations between the Waleses and Sussexes is frostier than ever before.
Lilibet was born in the US after her parents had already left the Royal Family. As a result, the paparazzi press that had hounded Harry and Meghan was on the other side of the world, and as such Lilibet could benefit from a calmer, more private introduction to the world.
Naturally, since the Sussexes live in the US, it took a while for Lilibet’s UK family to get the opportunity to meet her.
Finally, at Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee Celebration in 2022, Lilibet was introduced to her great-grandmother. On June 4, 2022, Lilibet celebrated her first birthday, and her parents decided to have the party at their then-UK base of Frogmore Cottage.
Meghan and Harry arranged a backyard picnic for their daughter’s big day. Their friend, Misan Harriman, released a wonderful picture of the little girl celebrating her birthday, and that remains one of the few pictures of Lilibet the public has seen.
Queen Elizabeth refused to take picture with Lilibet at 1st birthday party
The picnic at Frogmore Cottage marked the first time that Lilibet met her great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, and her grandfather, then-Prince Charles.
Yet, while they both must have been pleased to see Lilibet, no photos of their first introduction were made public. As The Sun reported, Queen Elizabeth actually banned Harry and Meghan from having a photographer present.
“Harry and Meghan wanted their photographer to capture the moment Lilibet met the Queen,” an insider told The Sun. “But they were told no chance. It was a private family meeting.”
According to royal expert Camilla Tominey, the queen refused to take a photo with the little girl because she had a bloodshot eye. Tominey claims that the monarch did not want to be in any images that would be made public.
At the time, Tominey wrote in The Telegraph that Harry was rumored to have expressed his desire to get a photo between the two “at some point in the future.”
Today, new reports suggest that Queen Elizabeth decided not to take a picture with Lilibet for a whole different reason.
According to royal expert Phil Dampier, the queen had a “lack of trust” for Harry and Meghan at the time, as they had taken part in the infamous Oprah Winfrey interview just months earlier. As a result, she wanted to avoid a picture being taken with her great-granddaughter.
