Piers Morgan says Harry and Meghan’s decision to use the Queen‘s nickname for their new baby daughter is ‘ironic’ given the couple spent weeks ‘trashing the royal family and the monarchy’.
The Daily Mail Australia editor-at-large was responding to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announcing the birth of Lilibet ‘Lili’ Diana Mountbatten-Windsor on Sunday.
Whether the couple had consulted the Queen before using her nickname for their second child – who was born on Friday evening British time – was unclear.
It came after Harry and Meghan had made explosive claims about the Royal Family and complaints about royal life during Oprah Winfrey interviews in recent months.
‘It’s quite ironic isn’t it,’ he said when asked by Today show host Karl Stefanovic what he thought of the name.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex (pictured with their first child Archie in May 2019) have announced the birth of Lilibet ‘Lili’ Diana Mountbatten-Windsor. Daily Mail Australia’s editor-at-large Piers Morgan has mocked the ‘irony’ of Harry and Meghan’s decision to use the Queen’s nickname ‘Lilibet’ for their new baby daughter
‘You have this couple who have been trashing the royal family and the monarchy for the last few weeks and they have named the baby after the Queen.’
Meghan, 39, and Harry, 36, plunged the Windsors into crisis with the televised interview in March, when they accused an unnamed royal of making a racist remark about their son Archie’s skin tone and claimed the royals failed to help the Duchess when she was suicidal.
Last month, Harry also spoke out during a series with Winfrey on mental health for Apple TV+ and suggested his father, Prince Charles, had allowed his children to ‘suffer’ when it came to the media because of his own negative experience.
Morgan – a fierce critic of the couple – said he wondered if the decision to honour the Queen with their daughter’s name was Harry and Meghan’s way of mending fences.
‘Maybe it’s their way of reaching out, as the Americans say, to the royals and wanting some kind of end to this on-running feud,’ he said.
Morgan, 56, then offered a few words of support to the couple – adding the birth of a child was not the right moment to put across a negative opinion.
‘I always think when a new baby is born, I’ve had four myself it’s churlish to put any negative slant,’ he said.
Morgan pictured right on Monday morning appearing on the Today show. He has mocked the ‘irony’ of Harry and Meghan’s decision to use the Queen’s nickname ‘Lilibet’ for their new baby daughter
Sweet family nickname for Queen that inspired Harry and Meghan’s name for their baby daughter
Lilibet – the Queen’s family nickname – was first used when Princess Elizabeth was just a toddler and unable to pronounce her own name properly.
Her grandfather King George V would affectionately call her ‘Lilibet’, imitating her own attempts to say Elizabeth.
The sweet nickname stuck and she became Lilibet to her family from then on.
The Duke of Edinburgh also referred to his wife as Lilibet, writing to his mother in law after their wedding: ‘Lilibet is the only ‘thing’ in the world which is absolutely real to me.’
Harry and Meghan’s new baby daughter – the Queen’s 11th great-grandchild – will be known as Lili. A variation on Lily, the flower is often seen to symbolise purity, commitment, rebirth and fertility.
Lili’s middle name Diana honours Harry’s later mother Diana, Princess of Wales. It is no surprise the couple chose to pay tribute to Diana, who died in a car crash in 1997 when Harry was just 12.
Lili has been born almost a month before the princess would have celebrated her 60th birthday on July 1. Her cousin Princess Charlotte also has Diana as one of her middle names, as well as Elizabeth. She is Charlotte Elizabeth Diana.
Harry and the Duke of Cambridge are due to unveil a statue of their mother at Kensington Palace on her birthday, but the arrangements have yet to be confirmed, amid a long-reported rift between the brothers.
The Sussexes’ tribute to the Queen is likely to be seen as an olive branch to the monarch and the rest of the family.
Harry and Meghan plunged the Windsors into crisis with their Oprah Winfrey interview in March when they accused an unnamed royal of making a racist remark about their son Archie’s skin tone before he was born.
They also said the institution failed to help Meghan when she was suicidal. But during the televised interview with Winfrey, the Sussexes lauded the Queen.
Harry spoke of his respect for his grandmother, while Meghan said: ‘The Queen… has always been wonderful to me.’
‘At such a moment. I wish them all the very best. There is four in the family now. I wish them every success and a long and happy life.’
On Sunday night, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced: ‘On June 4, we were blessed with the arrival of our daughter, Lili.
‘She is more than we could have ever imagined, and we remain grateful for the love and prayers we’ve felt from across the globe. Thank you for your continued kindness and support during this very special time for our family.’
Lili – who is eighth in line to the throne – was born in Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in California, a private facility where births cost up to $37,000.
The Duchess of Sussex has given birth to a daughter named Lilibet ‘Lili’ Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, after the family nickname for the Queen and the duke’s mother Princess Diana, who died in 1997. Pictured: Harry and Meghan in February
Omid Scobie, a journalist favoured by Harry and Meghan, tweeted the couple would ‘not be sharing a photograph at this time’ of Lili and that they were now on ‘parental leave’.
He said the couple’s office was encouraging anyone who wanted to send gifts to instead donate to organisations working for women and girls.
Morgan on Sunday evening meanwhile sounded off Meghan, calling her a ‘downright liar’ in an explosive interview with Stefanovic on 60 Minutes.
The 56-year-old sensationally left his hosting role on ITV’s Good Morning Britain in March after a clash with the show’s weatherman Alex Beresford, who castigated Morgan on air for his questioning of Harry and Meghan’s claims in the Oprah interview.
Morgan had declared he didn’t believe her claims during her blockbuster interview, and after the Duchess lodged a complaint, he was pressured by ITV executives into making an apology and was investigated by the UK media regulator Ofcom.
One of the Sussex’s claims he took aim at was that the Duke and Duchess tied the knot in private three days before their official ceremony at Windsor Castle in 2018.
‘Well, that’s not true. They couldn’t have got married three days before they said they did because that would make the Archbishop of Canterbury a criminal,’ Morgan said.
‘There were a lot of things coming out of Meghan Markle’s mouth that I knew to be untrue.’
Morgan (pictured) on Sunday evening also launched a fresh attack on the Sussexes in a heated interview on Australian TV
‘I’m sorry to call her that but she tells lies… We’ve proven that,’ Morgan said about Meghan
One of Morgan’s biggest critics in Australia has been Karl Stefanovic (pictured)
‘There were downright lies coming out of the interview and I saw my job to hold these two people to the same account I would hold a government minister.
‘For doing that, within 36 hours I had to leave the job.’
Unbeknownst to the morning TV host at the time, Markle had personally contacted the station’s top brass to complain about his criticism.
The bestselling author of ‘Wake Up: Why the World has Gone Nuts’ said nowadays your ‘not allowed to have strong opinions’.
Piers Morgan took issue with Markle’s claim she tied the knot with Harry three days before their official ceremony at Windsor Castle in 2018
‘You’re not allowed to disbelieve a liar like Meghan Markle. I’m sorry to call her that but she tells lies… We’ve proven that,’ he said.
Australian TV veteran Stefanovic has as times been one of Morgan’s fiercest critics in Australia and previously defended the young couple against Morgan’s attacks.
Talking about Morgan’s feud with Meghan, Stefanovic said in 2018: ‘I mean, what is that guy on? He’s lost the plot completely.
On Sunday night, Stefanovic asked Morgan if he’s just an ‘angry old man’ – triggering laughter from the media veteran
‘I don’t know how his poor co-host puts up with it. Imagine putting up with a dude like that who is so up himself and so egotistical that he would assume to say those things about her.’
‘It’s disgusting. You wouldn’t put up with it. He needs to go. He’s off the mark here.’
In Sunday night’s TV confrontation, Stefanovic asked Morgan if he’s just an angry old man’ – triggering laughter from the media veteran.
Morgan hit back by insisting that ‘freedom of speech is actually more important than the Meghan Markle debacle’.
Related Post
