The birth of a royal baby should be an exciting event in Britain. Usually, it is. People send congratulations to the couple, coo over first pictures and praise the meaningful tributes usually found in the babies name. Except of course, when it comes to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry – because they literally can’t seem to do anything, even as joyous as having a baby, without people picking them apart.
This weekend, it was for their baby's name: Lilibet ‘Lili’ Diana Mountbatten-Windsor. A touching homage to both Harry’s Grandmother and mother, it became the talk of social media extremely quickly. Why? Because according to the trolls, Harry and Meghan shouldn’t be allowed to pay tribute to their relatives.
‘World’s most hypocritical pair name daughter after the 95-year-old woman whom they have repeatedly insulted in public & betrayed over & again’ one person tweeted, to thousands of likes. ‘Why not name her Doria? After all they hate the RF, they hate the titles & therefore it would make sense to name her Doria, right?’
That’s right, not only are some people claiming Meghan and Harry are hypocrites for naming their child after their royal relatives, but also that Doria Ragland – Meghan’s mother – has been ‘snubbed’ by the couple.
‘I wonder how Doria feels. Looks like she’s been Markled,’ one person tweeted. ‘What about Doria, her mother, friend, confidant, free spirit, she's just the babysitter?’ another added.
In actual fact, Lili is in itself could be seen as tribute to Doria, because her nickhame for Meghan still to this day is 'Flower'. Really then, they combined the nicknames and names of all three incredible women in their life to create the perfect homage - and yet people are still finding fault with that.
One royal blog has even claimed that Meghan and Harry are stealing from the Queen by naming their daughter after her nickname.
Honestly, reading the barrage of tweets about what should be such a beautiful moment is exhausting. The insidious ways people choose to pick apart the couple, no matter what they do, proves one thing: there was not one name they could have chosen that wouldn’t have drawn backlash.
And it’s ridiculous, because when you think about it, they’ve done exactly what the public should want. Rather than further distancing themselves from the monarchy, they chose to honour the two women in Harry’s life that obviously mean so much to him. If they were sending any type of message with the name, it was that distancing themselves from the monarchy is not the same as hating actual royal family members.
As Harry has said time and time again, there’s his family, then there’s the institution his family is a part of (or ‘trapped in’ as he says). There’s the royal family, and there’s the business of the royal family – clearly he sees them as entirely separate. Because, it’s entirely plausible that you can love your grandmother, but still choose to reject her way of living, business or belief system. Just as many of us may not agree with the lives our relatives lead, it doesn’t mean you love them any less nor are you intent on never having a relationship with them. In Harry and Meghan’s case, choosing to reject the level of royalty that has brought pain and suffering to their life is not the same as rejecting the individual family members that raised Harry.
Harry has been clear all along that he is not rejecting his family, but rather the institution they belong to.
When you think about it, isn’t that kind of obvious? Harry has been clear in that message all along, and yet every move he or Meghan make is dubbed a snub against his relatives, as opposed to the institution they belong to – which, according to the Sussexes, appears to be run by the ‘men in grey suits’ as oppose to the Queen herself.
Choosing to admonish them for their name choice then, is just another grain of sand in the desert that is hating-Meghan-and-Harry-for-no-reason-other-than-the-obvious. That’s clear by the fact that Kate Middleton and Prince William also named their child the exact same thing (Princess Charlotte’s middle names are Elizabeth Diana) and yet no one batted an eyelid. No mention of ‘stealing’ the Queen’s name, nor snubbing Kate’s mother Carole – in fact, judging by the number of people googling ‘Princess Charlotte middle name’, that tribute wasn’t even noteworthy enough to remember.
If only Meghan and Harry could be so lucky to name their child and only hear a chorus of congratulations.
Read More:
How The Royal Family Reacted To Harry And Meghan's Baby News
Legitimate Royal Scandals Show A Lack Of Proportion In How We Treat Meghan