This literally just occurred to me: we’re probably about to get another round of fake controversy about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex “monetizing” royalty. That was one of the dumbest complaints a few years ago, when the British newspapers discovered that Harry and Meghan had gotten trademarks for all things “Sussex Royal” and everything related to their titles and names. You know, just like Kate and William did with their Cambridge titles. Because no one wants some peasant to create a line of Duchess of Cambridge-branded doilies or buttons. But with Harry and Meghan, the claim was that they were obviously about to sell a bunch of Sussex-branded tchotchkes. Well, related to that – Harry and Meghan bought domain names for their daughter’s name.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made a modern move before the arrival of their daughter Lilibet Diana earlier this month. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex registered several domains in their second child’s name ahead of the baby girl’s birth on June 4.
“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,” a spokesperson for Harry, 36, and Meghan, 39, tells PEOPLE.
Among the domains purchased were LilbetDiana.com and LiliDiana.com, according to The Telegraph. The domains are not yet active, but the couple’s son Archie, 2, also has a website in his name for the charitable foundation Archewell.
I’m glad they released a simple statement about it, that getting the domain names is about not letting other people get those names. Did they also buy lilibetmountbattenwindsor.com? How about lilidianamw.com? I hope so. Meanwhile, I do wonder if they’ll eventually do something in Lili’s name, like they’ve done with Archewell. Liliwell? The Lili Diana Foundation? It reminds me of Angelina Jolie starting charities and foundations in her children’s names too.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
They had little choice, given what they unhinged have done in the past. The haters registered a bunch of Sussex-related website addresses and put up idiot ‘free harry’ ransom notes on them.
I didn’t know when George was born, people registered an absurd amount of domains before KP did. Now that poor baby is tied to God only knows what URLs
This was smart
I do think Lili will have a charitable foundation named for her. Lovely.
I actually quite like the sound of Liliwell actually.
True but the British media are still twisting it anyway, running with the narrative that they bought the domain names before they asked the Queen’s permission to name their daughter after her. So what if they did? I guess they did that for all the baby girls names they liked.
The hatred the British press have for this couple is inciting hate against them.
That’s what racist thirsty losers do, so to hell with them. The Sussex’s are taking care of their family and quite honestly I am so glad they were on the ball with this. Can you imagine what some of these unhinged dementors would have done if they’d gotten a hold of those domain names? **Shudder**
I think they registered both LilibetDiana.com and LiliDiana.com in case the Queen objected to the name Lilibet. And if they did not ask the Queen before Lili was born, it was only because they did not want her name to be leaked.
The Daily Telegraph ran a story earlier on this. They wrote that the Sussex asked a bunch of domain names before the birth in preparation of a rejection from the queen. The lilibetdiana.com was purchased on June 4 as confirmed by the Sussex PR team. As per the Daily, they wrote that the queen probably ask it. IMO, they requested it after asking the queen permission. Since nobody knew, it also mean the the queen kept quiet about that videocall!
Even people who are not public figures are purchasing domain names for their children before they’re born/are infants. I think it’s fairly common these days that parents want to preserve the option of the child using their own domain name some day. Nothing to do with monetizing or cashing in, just planning for their child’s future.
And it’s not new. My husband did this and grabbed the gmail addresses for our kids nearly 20 years ago. ..
Yup, I have gmail addresses for both my boys lol.
Do you ever send emails to it? I remember reading a story awhile ago about a someone who created an email for their kids and then emailed stories and pictures about memorable times with the intention that when they turned 18 or whatever, they would hand over the login details so their kids would get to see/read about experiences or fun things they may not remember as they get older. I thought that was such a cute idea.
@Christine
that’s a really cool idea
folks who got these accounts well in advance may also want to log into them a couple of times/year just so it doesn’t end up on some list for deletion because it wasn’t used over a long period of time
They were already dragged through the Twitter gauntlet for this as soon as the name was announced, that just shows how many sick people went looking at registering the domain names.
Of course they vilified them saying they were marketing their baby already, but any high profile person almost has to do this in today’s hateful society. I know regular women who do this before filing for divorce also. (Registering their own names not just children’s)
More media pearl-clutching over a smart move. Now The Telegraph is running headlines saying the Sussexes’ buying the domains before talking to the Queen is more proof that H&M told the Queen instead of asking her permission.
They don’t have to ask the queen jackshit. She doesn’t own the name
Well, if she has “ownership” over the name Lilibet, maybe her advisors should have bought the domains for her before anyone else… like good servants of the crown. At least now her grandson owns them and not some porn star or something.
Or it could mean that they talked with the Queen about it months before the baby was born. They knew they were having a girl, probably knew when they made the announcement on Feb 14 and it would make sense that they would run the name by the queen at that time. The rags are just mad no one leaked it to them.
It’s also possible they wanted to call her Lilibet Diana so asked the Queen if it could be used. If she said no, they would use Lili Diana instead. So Lili was always going to be her name (I’m assuming), it was just a matter of would it be her nickname or legal name
Dan Wooten already has a column up about this. He is calling for a sick bucket to vomit in as he can not stomach the news that instead of “concentrating every fibre of their being on making sure their newborn had a safe and happy arrival into the world, Harry and Meghan were buying up Lili and Diana domain names for their new daughter.” Apparently, Wooten has looked at the websites for the Cambridge kids and there are no misuses of their domain names. How Hollywood this all is! What a weird weird twisted thing to have a tantrum about.
Does he really think they personally are filling out paperwork and writing checks? I’m sure they have legal people who take care of these things.
Screeching Dan—as if H&M we’re spending one second on this—a couple of paralegals at their IP firm handle that task as they probably do for every client their firm has.
Wootton himself is sick bucket of vomit. He would never say anything positive about H & M. He saves his positive, loving words for Will.
Odds are Harry & Meghan discussed the Lilibet name with the Queen before Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor was born.
This is from 2014..
https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/461514/Princessbeatrice-org-Royal-family-registers-30-website-domains-to-stop-cybersquatters
It’s a smart move for H & M to do.
If they registered more than one domain names, then surely it means that they already had backups in case she refused. I’m sure they would have still called her Lili or a variation thereof. Why are they obsessed with a baby’s name? They are so angry that a mixed race baby is named after the queen they can’t let it go.
Technically the Sussex’s now own the name 🤷🏼♀️ So once again they are angry at being outsmarted..
Liliwell Kaiser, you have me laughing hard.
I remember a lot of people took Archewell related domain names after it was revealed they trademarked it so maybe they learnt something from that and took domain names just in case. Don’t blame them.
“It reminds me of Angelina Jolie starting charities and foundations in her children’s names too.”
This makes me want to see Duchess Meghan and Dame Angelina work together on a project. Now that would be so awesome!
This seems pretty routine, no? Plenty of famous people trademark their children’s names and buy up domains whether they do anything with them or not.
Aw the critics will be critics no matter what. These people are getting more unhinged daily.
Oh by the way, trust and believe a whole host of so called hater don’t believe most of the garbage propaganda being peddled. Some are paid bots, dome are fragile, traumatized staff, some are do called journalist, some are members of the Brf, and others, are cowards, and racist.
I think it’s tacky to name charities after your child’s name. Imagine the ego of the child. Though Jolie-Pitt kids are more than well-adjusted, I’m aware. But still it’s Beyonce/Jay-Z level of bad parenting.
Archewell was not named after Archie though. The Greek word “arche” was the inspiration for both Archie and Archewell foundation.
And Bey/Jay are bad parents because?
You not liking someone doesn’t make them bad parents. That’s more of a personal problem you should work through.
What’s wrong with Beyoncé and Jay Z’s parenting?
You know nothing about Beyonce and Jay as parents and the blanket assumption based on seemingly nothing is quite offensive.
You can’t go around accusing people of being bad parents. What an awful thing to write.
I guess i’m horrible parent and the feeling of pride my daughter has is really ego. Shame on me for giving my daughter a constant reminder that her parents love her and think she is special.
Huh… I am not a fan of either but how are Beyonce and Jay-Z, bad parents. Giving their child all the opportunities that they can afford, giving her a healthy sense of self, showing pride in their offspring is not bad parenting. If what they are giving their children is bad parenting then I wish that kind of bad parenting on every child
You don’t even have to be Beyonce and Jay-Z levels of rich to give your child every opportunity to succeed. If giving your kid opportunities and being proud of them is bad parenting then I’m a bad parent.
this is such a dumb take @luna
This is a non-story. The haters were the first to find out this, probably because they were going to buy the domain name and link it to some porn site or something.
I work in PR and this is so so common. You buy up every domain you can so someone doesn’t launch a fake or parody site.
Exactly. I own three, one of which I have an old website on, just in case they’re needed.
Someone else could buy the domains then try to ransom them for crazy amount of money. It also keep porn sites from using their child name.
Meghan and Prince Harry are smart people with commonsense. BM trying to twist this into somethings else shows the rotas lack of respect for their readers/audiences. I’m starting to think the rotas are people who fail journalism school. I hope Meghan and Harry own very possible alliteration of the name on web.
thank god they did that . the internet is the new world, one needs to register names before they tell the world they pregnant, so many haters out there might have already register , Doria Diana, Lily Diana, but no one guess Meghan will spell it Lili ,and other names they was guessing Meghan might name her child. some people even steal rich and famous people names and then try to sell it back to them.. better safe than sorry .
Dan Woottan’s column about this contains a racial slur. I’m surprised no one has picked up on this and reported it. He is a disgusting man.
I do not read the tabloids or articles except screenshots on Twitter or here.. is there a link where I do not have to click on the actually article?
I don’t know about another link, but I think she’s referring to this quote if you’re curious about the slur:
“But after the BBC reported the Queen was spoken to before the birth, Harry went tonto as he often does and released a statement to People magazine, of all places.”
The entire article is demented and insane, I wouldn’t waste your time.
Thank you Kebbie. I was referring to that and was disgusted but, I guess, not surprised. Unfortunately comments are being monitored on this article so I can’t even leaving my own scathing comment. However, I am going to find a way to complain, anyway.
As a wiser person noted, they bought up the domain(s) to prevent their daughter’s name to be attached to a porn site. That is the disgusting part.
This is standard, nothing to see here at all.
I bet augustbrooksbank.com is taken, too. What a load of cr*p from the tabloids, and crazy people, screaming at nothing. It is normal procedure.
This is absolutely standard practice. They are public figures, as soon as the baby’s name is announced, someone would have gone and purchased a domain and capitalised off of it. Business so this also, they register every version of their brand name to stop others from stealing it and profiting from it. I got into a twitter argument with a deranged troll about this and I then searched all the domain names for Prince George and Princess Charlotte and it’s no surprise that have also been bought. I would suspect it was KP, and I’m not mad at that, like I said it’s standard practice,
I just read on twitter that Meghan wrote a book titled A face without Freckles is a night without stars when she was in 8th grade. they said it was copyright in 1996.. Any of you heard about this book? i hope its not a joke. https://twitter.com/LibnOfCongress/status/1407422748612202497
And sure enough the editorials are off and running already about monetizing the Little baby girl’s name. Now who in the world who has had children boy or girl, and not start contemplating baby names long before the actual birth. I dare say most men and women, even before they’re married or have a child promise, dream about naming their offspring after those who came before(mothers, fathers, grandfathers, grandmothers, sisters, brothers, etc.) So what’s the big deal? And lets get real millions of baby girls have been name Lillibeth, and they didn’t need a royal edict or permission to do so.
The British press has proven once again that journalists like Dan Wotton can write spiteful and malicious articles about Prince Harry and Meghan and get away with it scot free.
the haters demographic is my age, boomers. A lot of older people still don’t understand how the internet works and are not used to buying up domain names (I have 5) in order to protect names, brands etc. They relying on racism, hatred and unending ignorance