Queen Elizabeth met her great-granddaughter Princess Lilibet just one time, but by all accounts, it was a moment worth cherishing.
When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle returned to the UK for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June 2022, they brought with them their two children, and for the first time, the then-one-year-old Lilibet came face-to-face with her great-grandmother for the first time.
Harry and Meghan famously named their daughter after the Queen herself.
Lilibet was the monarch’s private childhood nickname, dating back to when a young Elizabeth couldn’t quite pronounce her own name. Lilibet’s middle name, Diana, is a tribute to Harry’s late mother.
Now, Robert Hardman’s new biography about the late monarch, Elizabeth II: In Private. In Public. Her Story, has shed new light on the Queen’s meeting with Lilibet.
The Queen, say friends quoted in the book, was thrilled as the little girl crawled around her feet.
It was the only time Queen Elizabeth ever met her namesake great-granddaughter before her death on September 8, 2022, at the age of 96.
Hardman also revealed that in her final months, the Queen quietly expressed a wish to gather all her great-grandchildren at Balmoral one last time that summer.
“She wanted to make sure that they all had a really happy memory of her,” a family friend is quoted as saying.
It is not the first time that details of the Queen’s first meeting with her grandchildren, Archie and Lilibet, have been revealed.
In his 2023 memoir Spare, Harry recalled the scene, revisiting the precious memory in the days after his grandmother’s death.
“Archie making deep, chivalrous bows, his baby sister Lilibet cuddling the monarch’s shins,” he wrote.
“Sweetest children, Granny said, sounding bemused. She’d expected them to be a bit more… American, I think? Meaning, in her mind, more rambunctious.”
It speaks to a side of the Queen that Harry clearly treasured.
“In every photo of us, whenever we’re exchanging a glance, making solid eye contact, it’s clear: We had secrets,” he wrote.
The touching news comes as Meghan and Harry prepare for their upcoming trip to Australia later this month.
It’s not yet known whether their children, Lilibet and Archie, will also be making the journey Down Under with them.
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