Earrings with a shady origin, and staff too scared to say anything?
Palace staffers apparently had a particular fear over Meghan Markle's jewelry choices.
It seems as though Meghan has courted criticism since the moment she met Prince Harry. Meghan has
faced criticism for everything from her alleged attitude with palace staff to how she's acted
in interviews to the accessories she has worn to public events, and much more. For instance,
Piers Morgan has repeatedly grumbled that the "Suits" star reportedly started ghosting
him ever since she went on her first date with the prince, per Page Six.
"We've now seen dozens of other people say they too got ghosted."
It's also worth noting that when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were first dating,
Meghan was reportedly chastised by the palace over her jewelry. The necklace in question
apparently featured the initials "M" and "H," which The Firm felt was encouraging paparazzi,
per Marie Claire. Then of course there was the Duchess of Sussex's famed wedding tiara
controversy. Reports claimed that Meghan threw a fit over not being allowed to
wear the headpiece she wanted, but it remains unclear what really happened.
Meghan created yet another uproar in 2018 during a royal tour that included a visit
to the commonwealth island of Fiji. At a state dinner, she wore a spectacular pair of Chopard
chandelier diamond earrings. However, it was revealed that the accessories had been
a wedding gift from Saudi Arabia's crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, who had just been accused
of approving the murder of The Washington Post journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. According to InStyle,
the earrings were actually given to the queen for her official crown jewel collection,
and the monarch simply loaned them to Meghan for the occasion. Still, the connection was troubling,
and a new book claims that the palace kept their concerns quiet for one particular reason.
In the royal tell-all "Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown," author Valentine
Low digs into Meghan's jewelry scandal. Importantly, Low notes that the Saudi
prince had been implicated in Khashoggi's murder just four days before Meghan wore
the earrings to a Fiji state dinner. In an excerpt shared by the Daily Mail, Low writes,
"The idea that Meghan would, at a state occasion, knowingly wear earrings given
to her by a man accused of having blood on his hands was surprising — to say the least."
According to Low, the royal jewelry curators reportedly noticed the earrings in news photos,
and hurried to alert the palace about their origin. However,
staff reportedly chose to keep quiet, with an inside source telling Low,
"We made a decision not to confront Meghan and [Prince] Harry on it,
out of fear for what their reaction would be."
Only after the duchess wore the diamonds for a second time at King Charles' birthday dinner
did a staffer reportedly mention the issue to Prince Harry, who was apparently shocked.
Though the Sussexes' lawyers deny these claims, Low remains skeptical, finding it particularly
suspicious that Meghan was supposedly clueless about where the earrings came from. He writes,
"Meghan was no airhead princess: she kept up with current affairs."
Of course, Meghan has received backlash for her jewelry choices on multiple occasions.
When Meghan and Harry appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 2021,
the duchess wore a pinky ring that was alleged to be connected to the earrings
gifted by Mohammed bin Salman. At the time, Page Six reported
"Meghan Markle’s new pinky ring is a mystery no more. [...] Lorraine Schwartz [fashioned]
the ring from a gift of diamonds that the couple received from the Middle East."
However, Meghan and Harry were adamant that the ring was given to them by a stylist on
the photoshoot. It's also worth remembering that Meghan is not the only royal whose jewelry has
been under the microscope. Princess Diana caused a stir with her so-called "revenge
necklace," given to her by Queen Elizabeth II, which she wore the night Charles confessed
to his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles during a TV interview. As InStyle noted,
"Glistening at her naked throat, this ornament symbolized Diana's
marriage, rank, and defiant blamelessness in the face of her husband's infidelity."
Basically, the royal family's jewelry collection will never not be in the spotlight.