Prince Harry and Meghan have hit back at claims that they did not consult the Queen when naming their daughter Lilibet.
According to the BBC, a Palace source has said the monarch was "never asked" about the use of her childhood nickname.
Within 90 minutes of the BBC's report being published the Duke and Duchess of Sussex issued a statement through close friend Omid Scobie insisting the Queen was the first person Harry called after the birth of his daughter.
It read: "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."
Harry and Meghan announced at the weekend that Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, who will be known as Lili, was born at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in California on Friday.
A spokesman for the couple said: "Lili is named after her great-grandmother, Her Majesty The Queen, whose family nickname is Lilibet.
"Her middle name, Diana, was chosen to honor her beloved late grandmother, The Princess of Wales."
The nickname was coined when then-Princess Elizabeth was just a toddler and couldn't pronounce her own name properly. Her grandfather King George V would affectionately call her Lilibet, imitating her attempts to say her name. It stuck and came to be used by close relatives.
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She signed her name as Lilibet on the funeral wreath for one of her closest friends Earl Mountbatten. The Queen's late husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, also called her by the nickname.
Following Lilibet's birth, it was widely presumed that Harry and Meghan had spoken to the Queen about the choice of name.
The Times reported that it understood the Queen had been informed by Harry about the name, but the BBC says this has now been disputed by the Palace.
The BBC's Royal correspondent Jonny Dymond later wrote on Twitter: "A source close to Prince Harry tells BBC that he shared desire of naming his daughter ‘Lilibet’ with the Queen ahead of the announcement and ‘had she not been supportive they would not have used the name’."
It has also been reported that the Queen was one of the first people Harry and Meghan called after the birth of their daughter and that she has received photos of the newborn.
Prince William and Kate Middleton have also reportedly sent a gift to California for their niece.
