Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Introduced Baby Lilibet to Queen in Video Call: 'They Couldn't Wait'

After the Duke and Duchess of Sussex welcomed their daughter Lili into the world, she had a very important engagement to attend with her namesake, Queen Elizabeth

Not long after Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor was born on June 4, she had a very important meeting on the books — the introduction to her namesake, Queen Elizabeth.

The daughter of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who has already made history in her first week as the first child of senior members of the royal family to be born in America, met the Queen via a video call.

According to a source in this week's issue of PEOPLE, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, "were very excited and couldn't wait to share that their daughter arrived" as soon as they returned home from Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, not far from the family's home in Montecito, California.

The couple had shared the baby's name ahead of her birth with his grandmother, whose childhood nickname provided inspiration for Prince Harry, 36, and his wife, 39. For Lili's middle name, they looked to Harry's late mother, Princess Diana. And the name also serves a loving nod to Meghan's mother Doria Ragland, who gave Meghan the childhood nickname "Flower."

According to royal historian Robert Lacey, Prince Harry and Queen Elizabeth share a "remarkable bond" that has grown in the years since Diana's sudden and shocking 1997 death.

Meghan Markle, Prince Harry and Queen Elizabeth. Chris Jackson/Getty; Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty

"She was a sort of stepmother for both Harry and William," notes Lacey. "We have all focused on her coaching of William as the future King, but we are realizing now the importance of the emotional bonds that she's been able to establish with Harry and their ability to talk to each other directly. That affection remains."

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And it's an affection that cannot be dampened by distance. Harry told Late Late Show host James Corden in February that the Queen, 95, and his grandfather Prince Philip, who died in April and whose 100th birthday would have been this Thursday, had taken to Zoom to see the growing family he and Meghan were creating.

Harry even shared that his grandparents were keeping up with their 2-year-old son, revealing, "They've seen Archie running around."

Meghan Markle and Archie. The Duke of Sussex/@SaveChildrenUK

As for when Harry and Meghan will introduce Lili to her great-grandmother and the rest of the royal family, the couple may decide to spend Christmas in Sandringham (COVID-19 restrictions permitting), as they did in 2017 after their engagement.

The Sussexes will also likely make their way back to the U.K. in June 2022 for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations, which will mark her historic 70 years on the throne. Before then, Harry will make a solo trip to London for the July 1 unveiling of the Kensington Palace statue in honor of his mother.

After a whirlwind few years that saw the Sussexes exit their roles as working royals and relocate to America amid the onset of a global pandemic, it will be a long-awaited chance for Harry — who returned to the U.K. solo for Prince Philip's funeral in April — to introduce his now-complete family of four to his extended royal family.

Updated by

Lanford Beard

Lanford Beard

Lanford Beard has been with PEOPLE since 2015. In addition to serving as the Senior Digital TV Editor, she has edited for Lifestyle and News verticals across the site. Lanford previously worked at Entertainment Weekly, NBC News and Ralph Lauren, to name a few. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Middlebury College and a Master's of Science degree from Columbia University's School of Journalism.

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