Harry and Meghan 'request meeting' with Queen Elizabeth II; palace aides shocked at 'sheer nerve'

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have requested a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II, a move that has not gone down well with senior royal aides.

According to a report in The Sun, the Duke and the Duchess of Sussex want the Queen to meet her youngest great-grandchild, whom they have named Lilibet after the moniker the monarch coined for herself when she had difficulty pronouncing Elizabeth in her childhood. Harry and Meghan have offered to fly to the UK with their four-month-old daughter in the coming weeks and visit Windsor Castle if the Queen agrees to the meeting.

If the Sussexes' olive branch is accepted, it will be Meghan's first trip to the UK since she quit as a senior royal and left to establish a financially independent life in California. However, the senior staff at Buckingham Palace are not too happy with their proposal, and are reportedly stunned that they had the audacity to ask it after the allegations they have made about the royal family in their interview with Oprah Winfrey.

This also comes at a time when the royal aides are considering legal options to prevent Harry from making further revelations about the monarchy in his upcoming memoir.

A source said about royal aides' reactions to the couple's request, "Harry and Meghan have made this offer but a lot of people are shocked by the sheer nerve of it. They may genuinely want to see the Queen but it's breathtaking given what they've put her through this year."

The insider noted that the palace has not yet responded to the Sussexes' request. Instead, there have been discussions happening at the palace about whether the couple should be invited for the annual Christmas celebrations at the Queen's Sandringham estate, especially since they skipped last year's gathering.

"The Queen is still very fond of Harry, and would love to see Lilibet and her brother Archie. But courtiers are surprised by the move, especially from Meghan, after what has happened," the source said.

The report comes days after "Finding Freedom" author Omid Scobie claimed that Harry had two private meetings with the monarch when he visited his homeland in April for his grandfather Prince Philip's funeral.