Racheli Plant Rosen, knitted news03.10.22 12:49 PM in Tishrei Tishpag
(Photo: Shutterstock)
During Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal tour of Fiji in 2018, they attended a state dinner with the president, where the Duchess wore a pair of eye-catching diamond earrings. The dominant earrings surveyed those present who asked where they were from, and answered that they were borrowed, but Kensington Palace refused to say from whom.
In an article published in Dailymail, the reason for the reluctance to answer the true origin of the earrings is revealed. A new book about Meghan Markle tells about the behind-the-scenes behavior of Markle in the royal house, and about the valuable piece of jewelry he wore that had diplomatic implications.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
Photo: shutterstock By Lorna Roberts
The diamond-encrusted chandelier earrings were designed by renowned Belgian jewelry designer Chopard, according to palace sources, but were “too flashy for the royal family,” as London-based antique jeweler Sandra Cronen was quoted in royal historian Robert Lacey’s book.
But the problem with the earrings was not the attention they attracted or their price, but the timing in which the duchess chose to wear them, and its diplomatic significance.
In the palace they refused to tell where the earrings came from, and they didn’t just evade. The explanation became known more than two years later, when it was discovered that the same earrings were a gift for the upcoming marriage of Harry and Meghan from the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
Meghan wore the earrings only three weeks after the murder of the Saudi-American journalist Jamal Khashoggi, on October 2, 2018. The journalist was a critic of the regime, and was murdered by Saudi agents in the consulate in Istanbul. According to the CIA, the Saudi crown prince is the one who approved the murder. On October 20, just three days before the royal dinner in Fiji, Saudi Arabia admitted the crown prince’s officials had murdered Khashoggi.
In Lacey’s book, it is claimed that Merkel must have known that Samman gave her the same earrings as a gift, but it is possible that she did not know the story about the murder of the journalist during the visit to Fiji. However, when she wore them again for then-Prince Charles’ 70th birthday, the murder was a famous international news story, and it’s hard to believe that the Duchess didn’t know the details.
If so, who was responsible for Mekel wearing jewelry given to her by a well-known personality responsible for a publicized murder? When the earrings started appearing in the pictures, the staff in charge of registering royal gifts in London recognized them and alerted the palace. Despite the warning, a palace source said that “we made a decision not to confront Meghan and Harry about it, out of fear of their reaction.”
Later, Meghan Markle’s lawyers argued that the duchess “at no point said the earrings were borrowed from a jeweller, as this was untrue and the idea that she encouraged them to lie to the media, is baseless.” They added that she may have said the earrings were loaned “which is true, as gifts from state approval to the royal family are gifts to Her Majesty the Queen, who can then choose to loan them.”
Markle’s lawyers added that the duchess had no idea about the Saudi prince’s involvement in Khashoggi’s murder. This claim does not sound credible, considering that Merkel was up-to-date on current events and even said that she reads the Economist to look for “press that really covers things that have an impact”. At that time, the Economist published at least two articles dealing with the murder case and the relationship of Lamohad bin Salman.
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