A former employee who served Queen Elizabeth II has alleged that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex declined the monarch's invitation to celebrate Princess Lilibet's first birthday.

Paul Burrell, a former Buckingham Palace footman, asserted that the royal couple, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, turned down the Queen's invitation for Lilibet's first birthday celebration in June 2022, coinciding with her Platinum Jubilee festivities.

According to Burrell, even though the Queen had seen her great-granddaughter the day before Lilibet's birthday, the couple did not attend the celebration. The Queen had arranged a birthday cake with a single candle for the occasion, but the candle remained unlit.

In the previous year, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had traveled to the UK with their two children to participate in the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, which commemorated her 70 years on the throne. It was during this visit that Harry reportedly introduced his daughter to her great-grandmother the day before Lilibet's first birthday party, which was held at Frogmore Cottage on June 4th.

On the same day as the celebration, the Queen had planned to attend the Epsom Derby in Surrey as part of the jubilee festivities. However, she had to cancel her attendance due to ongoing mobility issues. Burrell now claims that the Queen extended an invitation to Harry and Markle to join in celebrating Lilibet's birthday, but the couple chose not to attend.