THE Duke and Duchess of Sussex have reacted furiously to reports by the BBC claiming they did not ask the Queen about using the name Lilibet for their newborn daughter.

Harry and Meghan celebrated the birth of Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor at a hospital in Santa Barbara in California on Friday. The name Lilibet has personal ties with Queen Elizabeth II.

After multiple reports that the couple had spoken to the Queen about using the name Lilibet, the Sussexes said a report by the BBC that states the Queen was not asked about the Lilibet name are ‘defamatory and false’.

'Had she not been supportive, they would not have used the name,'a spokesman said.

The BBC said a source told them the couple did not ask the Queen about using the name for their daughter.

But Duke and Duchess of Sussex have instructed lawyers to tell media organisations the BBC’s story was “false and defamatory”. A spokesman for the Sussexes insisted that the Duke did discuss his daughter’s name with his grandmother and would never have used it had she not been supportive

When then-Princess Elizabeth was a toddler, she was unable to pronounce her name correctly. King George V, her grandfather, nicknamed her Lilibet as it sounded like her attempts to say her name.

The nickname has become routinely used by close relatives since her childhood. The Queen even used it when signing a funeral wreath for a close friend, Earl Mountbatten.

Lilibet is the couple's second child, after Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, who is aged two.

Her middle name, Diana, has been chosen by Harry and Meghan as a tribute to the Prince's late mother.

This matches Princess Charlotte, the daughter of Prince William and Catherine, who has the middle name Diana, as well as Elizabeth.

The couple and the Royal Family have had a strained relationship in recent months after Harry and Meghan confirmed they would not return as working members of the Royal family.

They also appeared in an interview with Oprah Winfrey in March and said that they would not be planning to have any more children after the birth of their daughter.

During the interview, Harry said that he had a good relationship with the Queen and that they were in regular contact.