Meghan Markle, Prince Harry Bought 'Lilibet Diana' Domain Before Getting Queen's Approval: Report

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry purchased the "Lilibet Diana" domain name before getting Queen Elizabeth II's approval for their daughter's name, a report says.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex previously stated that the Queen was consulted before they bestowed the monarch's childhood nickname on their second child, whom they welcomed on June 4. Now, U.K.'s The Telegraph has reported that Prince Harry and Markle purchased domain names that included the Queen's moniker before she gave them her permission.

The domain name lilibetdiana.com was purchased in the U.S. on the day baby Lili was born and two days before her parents announced her arrival, the outlet noted. Meanwhile, the domain name lilidiana.com was registered a few days earlier on May 31, the report said.

A spokesperson for the Sussexes said in a statement to The Telegraph's royal correspondent Victoria Ward that the couple bought a "significant" number of internet domain names for several names they were considering for their daughter, including Lilibet Diana and Lili Diana.

"Of course, as is often customary with public figures, a significant number of domains of any potential names that were considered were purchased by their team to protect against the exploitation of the name once it was later chosen and publicly shared," the spokesperson said.

The name Lilibet 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, and the nickname came to be used by other family members.

The Queen's late husband, Prince Philip, also called her by the pet name. At his funeral in April, the monarch reportedly left a handwritten note on his coffin and signed it "Lilibet."

Earlier this month, Prince Harry and Markle hit back at the BBC after its royal correspondent Jonny Dymond claimed in a report that they "never asked" the Queen for permission to use her intimate nickname. In a legal letter, the Sussexes' lawyers called the report "false and defamatory" and warned that "the allegations within it should not be repeated."

"The duke spoke with his family in advance of the announcement - in fact his grandmother was the first family member he called," a spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said in a statement.

"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," the statement continued.

Some royal experts believed that Prince Harry and Markle naming their daughter after the Queen was their way of extending an olive branch to the royal family. Roya Nikkhah, the royal editor at the U.K.'s Sunday Times, told Today that though she believes it's going to take more to "heal the rift," this was a start.

"A lot of people here are interpreting it as an olive branch from Harry and Meghan to the queen to show everyone that that bond is still very strong in spite of a very turbulent year we've had in the royal family," she said.