Over the summer, a terrible gossip story happened. It involved Prince Harry and Meghan’s daughter Lilibet Diana and the official line of succession, which is posted on royal.uk and updated regularly when babies are born. The royal (or royal adjacent) babies born before Lilibet were added to the line of succession within two weeks or so after their births. Buckingham Palace failed to update the list for over seven weeks when Lili was born. They were that petty and racist and everyone noticed. What was designed as a royal snub of the Harry and Meghan obviously boomeranged back onto the Windsors and their racist, lazy courtiers.
I bring all of that up because whoops, I forgot to keep checking the line of succession after that. So I didn’t even notice that the same royal website people also failed to include Sienna Elizabeth Mapelli Mozzi to the line of succession list for almost five full weeks.
Princess Beatrice’s daughter has formally secured her spot in the line to succeed Queen Elizabeth. Sienna Elizabeth, who was born on September 18 to Queen Elizabeth’s granddaughter and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, has been added to the line of succession to the throne on the royal family’s official website. She is listed at the 11th spot, just behind her mother, as “Miss Sienna Mapelli Mozzi.”
Sienna’s birth means Princess Eugenie and all the royals behind her are now bumped down a notch in the royal pecking order.
The website took nearly five weeks to make the update after Sienna’s birth, but the delay is fairly typical. Royal.UK took just seven weeks to add Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s daughter Lilibet Diana to the list after her birth in June. When Beatrice’s sister Princess Eugenie welcomed her son August in February, the website did not add him for nearly two months.
No, the delay is not “fairly typical,” although I think in Sienna Elizabeth’s case, the delay was because the family formalities only happened about three weeks ago. End of September/early October, that was when Prince Andrew finally returned from Balmoral and met his only granddaughter, and that was when (I assume) the Queen was informed of the baby’s name. Obviously, the line could not be updated before the name had been announced, so really it was a three-week delay. And ten bucks says that they delayed it on purpose so that Lilibet Diana’s delay would look retroactively “better.” It’s typical royalthink: “look, we’re not racist and petty, we’re just chronically terrible at our jobs!”
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Getty and Backgrid.
They had been updating it regularly until Lili came along.
Why make excuses for racism?
Eugenie’s baby came before Lili.
This is the point. Lagging to add the baby born after Lili, and then pulling a, “See? There’s nothing to see here!”, just underscores that they know exactly how racist they are.
Whatever, they are just trying to cover their racist asses. They can all go F off
Yup. We know it, the public knows it, the Pope knows it. Who am I missing? That’s right, my grandfather knows it, who has been dead since my mother was 4.
I still side eye this guy. He seems like a snake but I hope he proves me wrong.
I really don’t understand this People article’s framing of having one’s name put on the Royal website as being the “formal” or somehow official moment that the person is added to the line of succession. It’s obviously not and has no bearing whatsoever on when someone legally (royally?) would have a right to assert their right to a particular place, not that I can imagine why it would matter unless their were some arcane twin situation- which even that I believe is provided for.
The line of succession changed the moment this baby was born. At most, I suppose the website “formally” informs the public of a change to the list of succession that *already* formally occurred at the birth/death of someone.
But, seriously no one, not even the nasty courtiers, is delusional enough to think that they could ever say “but, she’s not on our website!!!” about a royal. like wut. The way people talk about this website is kind of over the top and gives it a totally false importance and official status.
I was too late to edit my comment! Here’s my ETA:
Just to be clear, the delay in putting Lili on the website was a disrespectful, hateful, racist act. BUT. I really wish the proper framing were given to it instead of implying that these idiot people can actually hurt Lili or have any control/power over the line of succession. Like: “No matter what the reason the Palace has for its website delay, their actions have zero effect on Lili’s place in the line of succession, which goes into effect at her birth and can not be in any way effected by a website.” Suck it courtiers, Lili is ROYALTY and you ain’t. Haha
The issue wasn’t whether she was officially in the line. The issue was that by delaying the update they were targeting an infant and fueling haters. That’s the harm. They were enabling a hate filled environment that is potentially dangerous. Never forget. There are two young men who are in jail because they were plotting to kill Harry because he “tainted the bloodline” by marrying Meghan. The BRF’s actions marginalized Lili which encourages bias, prejudice and hate.
Yeah the addition of Sienna’s name was much faster than Lili’s. We know why.
It sounds like Eugenie’s son took as long as Lili’s. I think we’re looking at sheer incompetence here.
One of my colleagues is constantly failing to tell me necessary information, or consult on mutual areas of responsibility, and there comes a point where it’s no longer a mistake, it’s a pattern. Whether incompetence or malice (with my coworker, it’s both), it’s not something you want to have to deal with. Thankful H&M (&A&L) made it out to a better life.
I think a delay is normal but 7 weeks was too much in Lili’s case. We definitely can make a case that they’re incompetent (and they are) but everyone else got added within 5 weeks, right? So why wait another 2 weeks to add Lili?
The article says Eugenies son wasn’t added for two months. So it seems that there is a general lag going on? I’m all for a royal conspiracy & absolutely believe these folks are garbage… but it seems that there’s a pattern here for these last three babies. Two months, 7 weeks, 5 weeks….