Prince Harry was seen for the first time on Tuesday morning with a scowl on his face following claims that he and Meghan Markle angered Queen Elizabeth II when they chose to name their daughter Princess Lilibet.
The Duke of Sussex stepped out for a run in Santa Barbara, California wearing black jacket and shorts and a blue beanie. Photos obtained by the Daily Mail captured the 39-year-old royal sporting a serious look on his face and biting his lips. He was "glowering" as the publication puts it.
Living Legend inductee Prince Harry 🫡🫡 pic.twitter.com/46tIPOUfbK
— Coyote Fan (@Coyoteband2) January 17, 2024
The sighting comes after royal author Robert Hardman, in his new book "The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy," cited an unnamed palace aide who claimed that Queen Elizabeth II was left furious over the use of her childhood nickname "Lilibet" to name the Sussexes' daughter.
The royal staff member said she was "as angry as I'd ever seen her" after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle publicly announced that Her Majesty has given them her blessing to name their second child Lilibet.
A representative for the couple said at the time: "The duke spoke with his family in advance of the announcement - in fact his grandmother was the first family member he called. During that conversation, he shared their hope of naming their daughter Lilibet in her honour. Had she not been supportive, they would not have used the name."
The Sussexes then asked their legal firm, Schillings, to issue a letter contradicting claims that the Queen was not asked for permission, calling them "false and defamatory and should not be repeated".
However, the Queen was reportedly so upset that she told aides: "I don't own the palaces, I don't own the paintings, the only thing I own is my name. And now they've taken that."
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have remained mum on Hardman's revelations. But his leaks has sparked backlash, with some suggesting that they only tarnished Queen Elizabeth II's legacy.
Fellow royal author Omid Scobie, whose book about the royals called "Endgame" also caused a furore over the past two months, wrote on X: "None of these Lilibet 'revelations' are doing the late Queen Elizabeth II any favours. Not only do they contradict details shared by the Palace with a cooperatively written biography in 2022 (see pic), they also depict the monarch in a way the public haven't known her to be."
None of these Lilibet “revelations”are doing the late Queen Elizabeth II any favours. Not only do they contradict details shared by the Palace with a cooperatively written biography in 2022 (see pic), they also depict the monarch in a way the public haven’t known her to be. pic.twitter.com/si5D4EtV9X
— Omid Scobie (@scobie) January 16, 2024
Others on X, formerly Twitter, also shared the same sentiments. One commented: "This is what happens when a man is too coward [sic] to go on record and hide behind Palace's anonymous sources. Charles has chosen to destroy his own mother's legacy."
A second wrote: "Exactly. I don't believe TQ was upset. But they think showing TQ as being "angrier than ever" reflects badly on H&M, when in fact it's actually making her appear like a horrid individual."
"So the motive is to tarnish her name, reputation and legacy - even by those who worked for her. Simply because they didn't like the fact that a grandmother and her grandson were close! And that the mixed race great-granddaughter shouldn't be named in honour of her," a third commented.
Hardman's revelations contradict those found in Gyles Brandreth's book, "Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait". In it, he suggested that Queen Elizabeth II had some reservations with the use of "Lilibet" but found "Lili" to be "very pretty and seems just right".
He wrote: "According to the Queen, Harry told her the Sussexes wanted to call the baby 'Lilibet' in her honor and she accepted their choice with a good grace, taking it as the compliment it was intended to be.
"Others in the family found the choice 'bewildering' and 'rather presumptuous' given that 'Lilibet' as a name had always been intimately and exclusively the Queen's. Later the Queen said, 'I hear they're calling her 'Lili' which is very pretty and seems just right.'"
On June 6, two days after her birth, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their daughter's name to the public as Lilibet "Lili" Diana Mountbatten-Windsor.
