30 January 2024 , 14:04
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Kimai, a female-founded jewellery company, has hit back against accusations that Meghan Markle was gifted earrings by them when they claim she really bought them.
The Duchess of Sussex, 42, recently came under fire for allegedly accepting £1,990 diamond earrings from the Dragon’s Den hopefuls. She was said to have been sent the jewellery in 2019 - when she was still a senior working member of the Royal Family.
It was previously reported that the artificial diamond brand gifted the Felicity earrings, which are sold individually for £995 each, to the former Suits star at her offices in Kensington Palace. But in a comment to The Mirror, the company rebuffed such claims and said Meghan Markle purchased the earrings from Kimai, revealing they were not gifted or a freebie.
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Meghan wore the earrings in 2019 (WireImage)
The earrings retail for £995 eachWhile it’s not against royal protocol to accept gifts, it is common practice for senior royals, including Kate Middleton and Prince William, to send the gifts back for fear of stoking outrage over ‘freebies’. However, Meghan was spotted wearing the earrings while visiting the Smart Works charity in London back in 2019, shortly after buying them.
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Earlier this month, Kimai's founders Sidney Neuhaus and Jessica Warch appeared on BBC Two show Dragons' Den, and they revealed Meghan wore their designs after sending her office regular emails. “We've launched without investment, and then two months after our launch we got Meghan Markle to wear our pieces, which enabled us to grow the revenue significantly, and from there we raised $1.2 million,” they told the dragons.
When asked by Steven Bartlett how they got the Duchess of Sussex to wear the earrings, Jessica laughed: “Cold emails. We're big believers in cold emails!” He later invested £250,000 in their business, and said it was their link to Meghan that sealed the deal. “The moment you told me about hounding down Meghan Markle, you had me,” he quipped.
Harry admitted Meghan accepted gifts during her time as a working royal (UK Press via Getty Images)
Steven Bartlett invested in the business because of Meghan Markle (BBC Studios/Simon Pantling)But just because Meghan didn't get these earrings as a gift, that doesn't mean she hasn't accepted freebies before. Prince Harry revealed his wife accepted free gifts that were sent to her at Kensington Palace, and would distribute them among her staff.
“She shared all the freebies she received, clothes and perfumes and make-up, with all the women in the office,” he wrote in his memoir Spare. However, this stirred up trouble for Meghan, as one assistant was fired after she “traded on her position with Meg to get freebies”, Harry shared.
Clothes and jewellery worn by Meghan and Kate Middleton are always quick to sell out, and many members of the Royal family pay for their own clothes in order to avoid being accused of keeping freebies donated by fashion brands. Harry speculated that Meghan and Kate’s frosty relationship was down to the Princess of Wales believing that she could help the new addition to the monarchy with her fashion contacts. “But Meg had her own. They'd got off on the wrong foot, perhaps,” he wrote.