Harry gives shocking details about Lilibet's special announcement: 'really hard'

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry faced a challenging decision regarding the announcement of their daughter Lilibet's christening. 

The couple, who welcomed their second child, Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, in California on June 4, 2021, held the christening at their Montecito home in March 2023. 

They chose to announce the event on International Women's Day, a date that royal fans noted was also significant for the royal family, reported Mirror.

In the final episode of his Netflix docuseries, Harry revealed that he only realized the coincidence after the announcement. He shared that he had received messages with newspaper clippings showing the front page from February 14, 1984, where Diana announced her pregnancy with Harry. 

"I was shocked. We had no idea. It was just a coincidence, or maybe not a coincidence," Harry said.

"I was shocked. We had no idea. It was just a coincidence, or maybe not a coincidence," Harry said.

Elsewhere, in his book Spare, he drew a link between his late mother and the start of his romance with Meghan. Having stated that the pair began messaging on a social media app before swapping numbers and texting late into the night, the Duke of Sussex added.

"It occurred to me how uncanny, how surreal, how bizarre, that this marathon conversation should have begun on July 1, 2016. My mother's fifty-fifth birthday."

Harry has compared wife Meghan to Princess Diana on a number of occasions. And he was left 'disappointed' when his own family failed to see any similarities between the pair, according to a royal author.

Harry and Meghan started dating in 2016 - and the following year, she famously appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair, along with the headline 'Wild About Harry'. It raised eyebrows amongst Harry's inner circle, including Prince William and Princess Kate .

Writing in his book, 'Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War Between the Windsors', Tom Bower explained: "Since the Vanity Fair article had increased the Cambridges' suspicion of Meghan, the actress discovered that her neighbours in Kensington Palace had even less time for her. By then, Harry had introduced Meghan to Diana's two sisters, Jane and Sarah, and her best friend Julia Samuel. 

Harry assumed that Diana's family and friends would see a similarity between Diana and his fiancee. Both, he said, shared the same problems. He was disappointed. No one agreed that his vulnerable mother had anything in common with his girlfriend. More discomforting for him, they thought Meghan would not fit in with the Royal Family.

The author continued: "Their unease was voiced by Charles Spencer , Diana's brother. At William's request, Spencer weighed in. Three times married, Spencer cautioned his nephew to reconsider his haste towards marriage. 

His advice provoked a bitter reaction. "'This was going to be really hard,' Harry would later reflect on establishing Meghan's place in the family."