The Diocese of Los Angeles announced that “acting on behalf of Presiding Bishop Michael Curry,” Bishop John Harvey Taylor baptized Princess Lilibet Diana, 21-month-old daughter of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, on March 3.
The ceremony took place privately at the couple’s Montecito (Santa Barbara) home, the diocese said.
“Prince Harry and Meghan were gracious hosts to the congregation of family and friends who were present,” Taylor told The Episcopal News, the diocesan publication.
According to news reports, guests in attendance included Lilibet’s brother, Prince Archie, 3; her grandmother, Doria Ragland, and her godfather, filmmaker Tyler Perry. Reports from the BBC said that members of the royal family had been invited, but did not attend.
Although the family has said they will use the titles only on formal occasion, the official announcement of the baptism from Buckingham Palace for the first time styled the Sussexes’ son and daughter as Prince and Princess. They are grandchildren of King Charles III of the United Kingdom.
The couple stepped back from their royal duties and relocated to Southern California in 2020 amid fraying relations with the prince’s family, partly over their treatment of his wife, an American and former actress, noted Episcopal News Service in this story. Harry further detailed the rift with his father and brother, Prince William, in the recently published bestseller “Spare.”
Married in the Church of England in May 2018, the couple asked Curry to preach at their wedding in St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle. That sermon brought international attention to Curry’s Christian message of the power of love, ENS said.
