Lilibet Line Of Succession Delay Stirs Controversy

It’s no secret that there has been bad blood brewing among the royal family, and with the talk of Prince Harry’s explosive new memoir coming in 2022, it’s possible that the late addition was intentional.

There has been another controversy regarding the one-month-old’s name. Lilibet is the nickname of Queen Elizabeth II, who had trouble pronouncing “Elizabeth” as a child.

It’s is rumored that the royal couple did not seek permission from the Queen to use her nickname as their daughter’s first name, which has caused an added layer of tension in their relationship.

The name was seemingly added after the public started asking questions about Lilibet’s absence from the list. Chris Ship, a royal editor for ITV, discussed the controversy on his “Royal Rota” podcast.

“You have got to ask what has taken them so long,” he said. “All they have got to do is hit the paragraph button and put in a different number. They must have done I before. They did it for Archie. Clearly they did it for Louis when he was born. So where’s Lilibet? I can forgive them for a week or two, but a month?”

It is also possible that the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 Delta variant has caused interruptions in updating the website. The author of “Prince Philip: I Know I am Rude,” Nigel Cawthorne suggested COVID-19 may be partially responsible for the delay.

“Buckingham Palace is a bureaucratic machine that works at its own pace,” he explained. “There could, of course, be COVID delays, but given the continuing royal turbulence around the Sussexes, such as Harry’s surprise memoir deal and naming the baby Lilibet, it is certainly possible that courtiers are working to rule on this matter.”

A Sussex spokesperson insisted that the naming controversy was simply a rumor, saying, “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 honor. Had she not been supportive, they would not have used the name.”

Although she now appears as the eighth name on the website featuring the royal line of succession, there are still questions as to why Archie has a profile feature on the Buckingham Palace website, while Lilibet does not.