Getty Miss Harriman Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Lilibeth Diana
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry celebrate the christening of their daughter Princess Lilibeth Diana.
PEOPLE can exclusively confirm that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had their 21-month-old daughter christened last Friday in a small and intimate ceremony at their home in Montecito, California.
When contacted by PEOPLE, a spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said, “I can confirm that Princess Lilibeth Diana was baptized on Friday, March 3 by the Archbishop of Los Angeles, the Most Reverend John Taylor.”
According to a source, Meghan, 41, and Harry, 38, extended an invitation to King Charles, Queen Camilla, Prince William and Kate Middleton, but they did not attend.
After their grandfather became monarch following Queen Elizabeth’s death last September, Archie, 3, and Lilibeth were given the titles Prince and Princess under rules laid down by King George V in 1917.
An insider tells PEOPLE that there were between 20-30 guests at Friday’s intimate gathering, including Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, Lilibeth’s godfather, Tyler Perry, and an unnamed godmother. After the ceremony, attendees were treated to an afternoon of food and dancing – with Archie enjoying a dance with his little sister!
Perry was spotted arriving in Montecito last week before the christening. He flew in for the ceremony from his home in Atlanta with a 10-piece gospel choir, who sang “Oh Happy Day” and “This Little Light of Mine,” a song that played at Meghan and Harry’s wedding.
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Netflix/Youtube Prince Harry and Meghan Markle with Lilibeth and Archie
In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE in January, Prince Harry talked about his desire for his children to have meaningful relationship with the royal family.
“I’ve said before that I wanted a family, not an institution – so of course I’d like nothing more than for our children to have relationships with members of my family, and they do with some, which makes me very happy,” she said. Harry.
Harry also told of his children’s special visit to their great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth before her death in his memoir, Spare.
“I couldn’t stop picturing them with Grandma. The last visit. Archie makes deep, knightly bows, his little sister Lilibeth hugs the monarch’s shins. The cutest children, Grandma said, sounding confused. She expected them to be a little more “American, I think?” Which means, in her mind, more exuberant,” Harry wrote.
Netflix Prince Harry and Lilibeth
In December, Tyler Perry revealed that he is the godfather of Lilibeth, who was born on June 4, 2021, in Santa Barbara, California.
The director recalled in the latest episode of Netflix’s Harry and Meghan docu-series that the couple asked him to take on the role in 2021 after Lily was born.
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Perry said Harry and Meghan “were quite serious on the phone” when they called to ask when their conversations were usually more light-hearted.
“I go, ‘OK, what’s up?’ They said, ‘Well, we’d like you to be Lily’s godfather.’ I’m like, ‘Wow,'” continued Perry, who offered his California home to the couple after they left the UK in 2020. “I had to take a minute to think about it.”
“And I thought, ‘I’d be honored. I would absolutely be honored,” he added.