Lilibetdiana.com purchased on day Harry and Meghan’s daughter was born

© Provided by Daily Mail
MailOnline logo

The website lilibetdiana.com was bought up in the US on the day Meghan gave birth to her second child – and two days before the news was made public, it was revealed today.

The owners of the domain has been kept secret because it was purchased via an intermediary in Scottsdale, Arizona, whose motto is: ‘Your identity is nobody’s business but ours’.

But royal experts insist they believe that the Sussexes are behind it because it was registered before the world knew the child, due this week, had been born or named Lilibet Diana by her parents. 

It is also common for celebrities to purchase websites in their child’s name before announcing a birth, to avoid having to buy it at an inflated price later. 

The domain lilibetdiana.co.uk has also been bought up, but this was done yesterday, amid rumours the couple plan to set up a foundation their daughter’s name, just like Archewell for their eldest child Archie.

Royal expert Angela Levin told Good Morning Britain today: ‘They’ve made a domain, Lilibet Diana. The domain is that nobody can use that email and they can use that for any sort of commercial work they want to. They’ve licensed it’.

© Provided by Daily Mail
(

© Provided by Daily Mail
(

Lilibet ‘Lili’ Diana Mountbatten-Windsor was born at 11.40am on Friday at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in California, weighing 7lb 11oz.

On the same day the website in her name was secured, according to a public registry of domain names.

The Sussexes announced her birth and name at 5pm yesterday, UK time, meaning only close friends, family and aides will have known the news when the URL was set up.

It was bought up via US company Domains By Proxy, which calls itself the Internet’s very first privacy service and charges people a fee to buy up websites for anyone who does not ‘want their personal information available for everyone to see’. 

As a result the owner of lilibetdiana.com is not contained on the ‘Whois’ record – a register that shows the owners of the world’s websites. MailOnline has asked the Sussexes to comment.

Harry and Meghan stepped down as senior working royals in early 2020 in a quest for personal and financial freedom after struggling with royal life. They have signed multimillion-pound deals with Netflix and Spotify, and set up their Archewell Foundation.

In February last year, a month after they emigrated, the Queen ordered they must drop their ‘Sussex Royal’ label after deciding to step down as working royals.

© Provided by Daily Mail
(

Her Majesty and senior officials are said to have agreed it is no longer tenable for the couple to keep the word ‘royal’ in their ‘branding’.

Harry and Meghan spent tens of thousands of pounds on a Sussex Royal website to complement their hugely popular Instagram feed.

They also sought to register Sussex Royal as a global trademark for a range of items and activities, including clothing, stationery, books and teaching materials. In addition, they took steps to set up a new charitable organisation: Sussex Royal, The Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

But they were later forced to accept defeat and changed to Archewell. 

Harry and Meghan first began using the Sussex Royal branding in 2019, after they split their household from that of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge – known as Kensington Royal. 

Dozens of trademark applications were made for everything from bandanas to notebooks – although sources have always stressed that these were preventative measures to protect the trademark from others, and never intended for commercial use.

It placed the Queen in an invidious position, given her long-held conviction of refusing to allow working members of the family to profit from their positions. 

If Harry keeps true to his pledge, their daughter will be their last child. He told activist and chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall in 2019 that he would only have two children for the sake of the planet.

Home for the new family-of-four is Harry and Meghan’s £11 million forever mansion in Montecito, California.

Read more