Late Queen ready for Lilibet with birthday cake on her huge day was ‘blown off’

Queen Elizabeth II was absolutely smitten with her 12 great-grandkids, but she had a special spot in her heart for Prince Harry and Meghan’s daughter Princess Lilibet.

The nickname that stuck with the late Queen since she was a young girl became the first name of Harry and Meghan’s secondborn, along with Diana as a middle name as a tribute to Harry’s mum.

But it wasn’t all royal cheer for the Queen as Harry and Meghan‘s move stateside left her feeling cut off from her precious Lilibet during her golden years. Despite health woes, the Queen was all geared up to spend quality time with Lilibet who shares her childhood moniker.

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Paul Burrell, the Queen’s one-time footman, revealed how even the Platinum Jubilee in June 2022 didn’t bring Lilibet and the Queen together for birthday celebrations. “Even on Lilibet’s first birthday the Queen didn’t see her,” said Burrell, chatting exclusively to The Mirror.

“She saw her the day before. But on her birthday, the Queen had a birthday cake made with one candle in it. And they never turned up. That candle was never lit.”

The family marked Lilibet’s birthday with a quaint backyard picnic at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor. The Queen, due to attend the Epsom Derby for the jubilee celebrations, had to bow out owing to her mobility woes, reports the Mirror.

“The next day she asked if maybe they’d like to come up for tea again and was told they’ve gone,” Burrell recalls. “‘What do you mean they’ve gone?’ she said. They’ve gone back to America. ‘Oh no, they never said goodbye’.”

Burrell reveals the Queen was left “confused” and somewhat hurt by the hasty departure. “How could you offend our Queen?” he questions.

“Well, I don’t understand anyone that could do that. Not her family, why would you want to? She was devoid of jealousy, anger, envy, all those traits that we associate with other people she didn’t have. She was just a very simple soul. I wish the world could have known her the way I knew her.”

As the first anniversary of the Queen’s passing approaches, it’s bound to be a sombre time for the royals who adored her. “All the family dearly loved our Queen, and they will all be remembering her in their own particular ways,” says Burrell.

“She was a mother, a granny, a great granny to all of them. And they all miss her. Even Harry and Meghan, from their home in Los Angeles, will be reflecting on the Queen’s memory because Harry was especially dear to her.”

Burrell has opened up about maintaining a “communication” with the Queen right until she passed away, aware of the distinctive hurdles she encountered nearing the end. Despite the fact the Queen kept her kin tight, her darling grandson Prince Harry dramatically split from The Firm barely two years before she died.

While Prince Archie was welcomed into the world in London, his sibling Princess Lilibet entered the scene on June 4, 2021, by which time Harry’s brood had already set up shop a whopping 5,000 miles apart, in sunny California.

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