After attending a joint baptism for two of her great-grandchildren, many are wondering when Queen Elizabeth’s christening for Lilibet will take place—and whether it will ever take place in Windsor after all.
The monarch, 95, attended a joint christening in Windsor for Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank‘s 9-month-old son, August, and Zara and Mike Tindall’s 8-month-old son, Lucas, at the Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park in Berkshire, England on November 21, 2021, per the British Press Association. The event, which marked the first time in recent history that a double royal christening took place, was attended by other close friends and family of the royals. Notably, however, the Queen’s great-granddaughter, Lilibet Diana, was missing from this round of royal christenings.
The Queen’s grandson Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle welcomed their daughter Lilibet—who was named after the Queen herself—on June 4, 2021. She is the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s second child after their son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, who was born in May 2019. Archie, for his part, was christened at a private chapel at Windsor Castle in July 2019. Meghan and Harry have reportedly wished to have Lili christened at Windsor too so that the Queen may attend the ceremony, yet the couple has seemingly run into some roadblocks on this front. According to NBC royals correspondent Neil Sean, Prince Harry’s older brother, Prince William, denied the couple’s request to have their daughter christened at Windsor in October 2021.
“One of the bigger problems that Meghan really encountered of later is that she wanted her daughter, Lilibet Diana, to be christened in the place she was married alongside her husband Prince Harry. And then the christening of her firstborn, Archie,” Sean said via Express. “But that came to a grinding halt. Both Harry and Meghan were very keen to make that return and make sure that christening happened, particularly in front of Her Majesty The Queen.”
According to Sean, Prince William told Harry and Meghan that Lilibet’s christening at Windsor wasn’t “going to work.” He continued, “But moving forward there was one person who basically decided there wasn’t an appetite for this and the person that seemingly is, so far, not willing to kiss and make up with his younger brother. According to a very good source, Prince William was the one who basically said ‘no, we don’t think this is going to work,’ it wasn’t a particularly good idea.”
Later that month, a rep for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex appeared to dismiss these claims in a statement to E! News, telling the publication, “Plans for the baby’s christening have not been finalized and as such, any assumptions about what will or will not take place are mere speculation.” At the time of writing, plans for Lilibet’s christening have still yet to be confirmed.