Meghan Markle’s birthday has been hijacked this year. Firstly, the new Duchess had to forego celebrations on her actual birthday, August 4, to attend a wedding where her husband Prince Harry, 33, was the best man.
Now, in a seemingly cruel twist, the newly-minted royal will have to return all of the birthday gifts she’s received.
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Meghan spent her birthday celebrating the marriage of Harry’s prep school pal Charlie can Straubenzee to Daisy Jenks.
The 37-year-old royal would have returned to London from Surry, where the wedding of Charlie can Straubenzee and Daisy Jenks was held, to a pile of gifts waiting for her. Sadly, she won’t be able to keep them, as it’s against royal protocol to receive gifts or freebies from businesses or people they do not personally know.
According to official royal guidelines, “The fundamental principle governing the acceptance of gifts by Members of The Royal Family is that no gifts, including hospitality or services, should be accepted which would, or might appear to, place the Member of The Royal Family under any obligation to the donor.”
That means, gifts from individuals not known personally “should be refused where there are concerns about the propriety or motives of the donor or the gift itself.”
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Meghan will have to return the birthday gifts waiting for her at Kensington Palace.
According to Hello!, the only gifts that can be accepted are flowers, foodstuff and other consumable items (within reasonably quantities), copies of books presented by the author (provided the subject matter is not controversial) and other items of small monetary value (costing less than £150).
Meghan was surrounded by friends on her first birthday as a royal.
Similarly, Meghan and Harry had to return a reportedly $12 million worth of wedding gifts after their May nuptials for the very same reason.
Meghan’s bestie Jessica left a loving birthday tribute online for the Duchess before taking it down.
If returning birthday gifts wasn’t already disappointing, even Meghan’s closets friends have had to edit their birthday messages for the Duchess.
Meghan’s best friend, stylist Jessica Mulroney took to Instagram to leave a sweet tribute to Meghan for her birthday, but deleted it shortly after.
The post featured the a black-and-white photo of the duo in matching white summer dresses with the caption “my favorite birthday girl.”
Eagle-eyed fans were quick to snap a screenshot of the post before Meghan’s unofficial maid of honour took it down.
