As we discussed, the Duchess of Cambridge broke protocol. She accepted and wore gifted jewelry. This is not even the first time – I remember stories about various designers (clothing and jewelry) “giving” freebies to Pippa Middleton so she could pass them on to her sister. Maybe that’s the “middleman loophole” to royal protocol. Because as it turns out, there was a middleman in this recent broken protocol too. The jewelry was from the Irish jewelry house All The Falling Stars, and the pieces were bought by Thérèse Tully, then gifted to Kate during their Irish tour in March. So much for Kate personally commissioning that necklace – no, it was a creepy gift commissioned and bought by a royal fan. Kate didn’t spend ANY money on those pieces.
Kate Middleton’s new necklace and earring set was given to her in the most unexpected way! Thérèse Tully, a physiotherapist in Galway, Ireland, met Kate when she and Prince William visited the Salthill Knocknacarra Gaelic Athletic Association club (SKGAA) as part of their tour of Ireland in March. Needing somewhere to change in between engagements, the couple used her treatment room on site — and it was there that she left a note to the couple and a special gift for Kate. Waiting for Kate in the room was a pair of earrings and a personalized necklace that featured her children’s initials.
“It’s so amazing to see her wearing them, she seems to be getting so much wear out of the pieces – I’m just delighted,” Thérèse Tully tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I wanted to give her something handcrafted from Galway, so I called Aisling, a local jeweler and commissioned her to make something bespoke, something fit for a princess. I didn’t give her much notice but she did an amazing job.”
Aisling O’Brien, who runs local jewelry business, All The Falling Stars. got to work, and in just 48 hours she had made a bespoke gold necklace with three gold discs etched with the first initial of Kate’s three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, and a pair of matching gold hoop earrings, all in 14-karat gold, which Tully left in the room with a framed note and her business card.
“There is a royal connection with one of my ancestors, so I explained that to them and wrote that I would love for them to accept the gifts,” recalls Tully, who was raised in Galway and has run her local business Advance Physiotherapy at the club for over two years. After the couple left the room, Tully couldn’t wait to go inside and see if her gift had been accepted. “I came back into the room and the boxes were gone and I was so excited! I phoned Aisling straight away and we just screamed down the phone, we were so happy,” she shares.
While Kate thanked her in person at the event, which saw the couple take part in Gaelic football training drills and hurling, she also sent a more official note in the mail.
“I received a letter from her personal assistant at Kensington Palace, saying that she was so grateful, that she loved the pieces, and that they were sure she would get loads of wear out of them — I’ve kept it and framed it!”
As for the jeweler, O’Brien has been inundated with calls worldwide for both pieces, which are now completely sold out and only available on pre-order with a delivery time of approximately six weeks.
“I just thought it would be a nice thing to do and I’ve always loved her style and her whole ethos,” says Tully, who has fond memories of meeting Kate. “We got talking and she shook my hand, she was so lovely — what you see in the magazines, is exactly what she is like in real life — really polite and so sweet.”
Again, all of this is Kate breaking protocol. If you wanted to stretch it, you could say Kate did the right thing by accepting the gifts to avoid being rude, but it was her obligation – per protocol – to not wear the jewelry. Or, how about this, Kate could have thanked Tully and paid her for the gift if Kate wanted to keep it. Now it looks like Kate is showing partiality (which is apparently a crime among the Windsors) AND she’s allowing an Irish jeweler to profit off her royal connection. I get that this is a situation with nuance, but before all of the Keen Defenders ride in here on their be-wigleted high horses, just pretend that this was Meghan for a second and see if you feel differently. This is tacky and unroyal.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
This is such a weird story. Can royals accept gifts like this from everyday people? As in, this gift didn’t come directly from the jeweler, so is it technically okay?
I sort of feel like this story was not meant to blow up like this. I think its kind of weird that someone just left a present in a room for Kate and Kate just took it, and is now wearing those items.
My question too, from whom can they and can they not accept gifts from? Would an argument be they cannot accept gifts from dignitaries because wearing the gift would mean favoritism to that country? It is just crazy because in the end, the rules are broken to suit their desires.
Both the Queen and Camilla has publicly worn very expensive jewels gifted to them from Saudi princes. I don’t think this gift protocol is very strict. Heck, the aquamarines in the Queen’s hideous Aquamarine Tiara were gifts from the Brazilian government.
@ArtHist – someone was saying yesterday that those gifts are okay because they are considered gifts to “the crown” and are owned by “the crown,” even if they are only worn by the person to whom they were gifted. So that’s different from someone (like a designer) giving Kate a free necklace. But I dunno, that’s just based on comments from yesterday’s post.
I am confused because I understand that some are “The Crowns”. OK, understood, but some are their own private collection. My philosophy is that a gift to them should not be for their personal collection, it should go to the crown because if they were in the positions they are in – they would never have the gifts in the first place. It’s a blurry line. I hope I am wrong.
I think it is a blurry line Seraphina and I find it confusing. So if they go through a third party (like the designer giving the necklace to the therapist who then gave it to Kate), that’s okay? To me, that says they really don’t pay for anything. Catherine Walker et al probably send their clothes, perfectly tailored to Kate, as “gifts” to Pippa and Carole who pass them on. And so on for everything.
It’s considered an “official gift” and she is allowed to wear them. It’s only when it’s directly from the business that it is a problem. Parliament made the rules around the acceptance of gifts and basically everything from official engagements is owned by the government. How expensive the item is and it’s historical importance are the only factors that they use to determine if something can be used. Jewelry like this is definitely something Kate would be allowed to keep and wear whenever.
Okay, thanks, that helps. So if the designer had gifted the items directly to Kate, then it would not have been okay.
This feels like a big loophole to the idea of no freebies for royals – just pass everything through a third party and its given as a gift?
This follow up story makes more sense now though, as a way to backtrack from the “Kate got a free gift from a jeweler” that was going around yesterday.
They get gifted stuff all the time so I don’t understand this. You watch their Royal walk abouts and people are giving them flowers and gifts. When Kate had George, I remember seeing fans giving teddies and stuff. I’d read that most go to charity but a few things get kept. I also think it’s probably notable that this is a small, independent Irish jeweller who is profiting, not some big brand.
They usually get flowers and stuffed toys on walkabouts which get donated to local hospitals. Normally jewelry isn’t given to a royal. Kate should pay the jeweller here. She can certainly afford to and accepting a gift like this from a “fan” and letting the “fan” cover the cost is very tacky.
It’s weird of the fan and underhanded of the designer for sure. But I’m not going to fault Kate for wearing a gift that was customized for her and had thought behind it – it’s not like she just took a big fat diamond. I imagine celebrities must feel weird about getting gifts from fans (saw Timothee Chalamet wearing a tshirt a fan made him, which I thought was sweet but then I thought who would put that much effort into a stranger?)
I get that she isn’t any celebrity so she’s breaking protocol, but to call it “tacky” is pretty harsh and unnecessarily negative. Don’t people complain that the royals are too uptight anyways? Like are they too modern or not modern enough? If the designer wasn’t so obviously thirsty I would think this was a sweet story.
All these excuses being made for Kate… geez. The palace went after designers Meghan was wearing and so did people on this site, yet this is okay?
Nah its tacky for Kate to accept a gift worth this much from a fan and to not pay the designer for it if she wants to wear it. Kate is spending millions on everything else so she is cheap and tacky for not reimbursing the fan. She is not any different than Carole who schemes for freebies for being royal adjacent.
Very sketchy. Cringe. Btw shes gaunt AF.
Royals aren’t supposed to take gifts remember when Megan was given a gift by I think it was Mayhew and it was a necklace and the tabloids was screaming about it and how full of herself she was for ‘stealing ‘ from a charity, despite it being a gift!
They must get a tonne of stuff and just find loop holes to keep them as long as its done discreetly. Even the rich love freebies,i remember what Kim Kardashian sent her gifts and they returned them. Lol
I think the “discreet” part is the problem here. This isn’t very discreet at this point and honestly I think its kind of a bad look for the very rich FFQC to be accepting gifts that she could have easily bought herself.
First Ladies i think also have simillar rules but Nancy Reagan was known to defiantly accept loads of designer stuff. But with the royal family who live on public funds its in poor taste to receive MORE.
A regular person shouldn’t be sending jewelry to Kate and paying for it themselves. Kate should reimburse the jeweller. It looks super tacky not to do so. If this was a homemade gift it would be different, but can “fans” now buy designer outfits for Kate? Vacation trips?
Imagine if Meghan had done this, how the press would react!
This did happen to Megan and I believe I think while she was pregnant or maybe it was just before, she accepted a necklace from Mayhew’s founder and it turned out it was like £1000 and the tabloids were screaming that ‘she STOLE money from a charity’ and was a vulgar cheap tartlet gnash! gnash! gnash!
Man, the sun damage is REAL.
Right??? I know she loves tanning but I was shocked at that! That’s completely irreversible
Stop gifting things to these damn people, they can more then well afford it, gift it to charity, the women down the street or the people in your life that need it, hell gift it to meghan, lord knows she could use the encouragement, but stop gifting these billionaire royals, sycophants need to get their heads checked. That last open mouth pic is so gross.
Exactly. Kate can afford to buy her own jewelry. This wasn’t a homemade gift and it’s tacky as hell not to pay the jeweller.
What if she wore it on purpose to garner attention to take it away from something else?
I don’t think it’s a “creepy” gift, I think it’s nice. I always have a good laugh when Kate breaks protocol and suddenly none of the Royal watchers seem to care, though.
I am surprised that none of of you caught onto the fact that the gift giver did not receive an actual thank you card from Keen, but from her social secretary!!! Even Diana wrote personal thank you notes, but Keen is too busy and it’s beneath her to write a thank you note to someone who bought her a pricy set of 14kt jewelry?? That is what gets my goat! How disrespectful!!
Tacky by Kate on so many levels. She really is an ungrateful person with her privilege but then again she’s with William who is just as bad and lazy n
I thought they can accept gifts from individuals so long as that individual isn’t affiliated with whatever they’re gifting.
I mean, if they aren’t allowed to accept any gifts then accepting the flowers they’re handed would also be a breach of protocol. They all do that at practically every event, and sometimes the arrangements are clearly worth more than this jewellery. Where exactly is the line?
Those flower arrangements aren’t kept by the royals. They all get stuck in the trunk of a car by assistants and then donated to local hospitals or other charities. Otherwise, they would be a security threat.
Sure, but they’ve still accepted the gift publicly even if they ‘regift’ it later, and if it’s an event in a smaller town the florist responsible often gets a little press out of it, so it’s not like it’s a gift free from promotion.
I always wondered about that because it be so easy to sprinkle something like anthrax on the petals of a bouquet and get a Royal to sniff it or smthn like that,
I’ll never understand why fans gift rich people stuff they can buy for themselves, ESPECIALLY the ones already living off the general public.
It’s the people that have that get. People will be sending shoals of presents to the royal children when they have birthdays but they will possibly go on to charities. I do think some could be kept though. Didn’t President Obama give George a rocking horse when he was born or as a gift for some reason?
48 hours bespoke piece ROFLMAO!!
I mean it’s a nice gift and gesture but I still don’t think Kate should have worn it. It’s things like these that cause lines to be blurred on whether or not you broke the rules.
First of all, the jewelry is not Kate’s usual style but I think always in the back of her mind is her competition with Meghan so it led her to accepting and wearing the gift. As far I’m aware, Royals are not allowed to accept free gifts from companies, they have to pay for them. So it could be that Kate did send a cheque for the jewelry but the Kate stan and the designer don’t want to mention that. A stan would want the world to believe she really gave Kate a gift not that she was paid for it.
If THIS story is true, then why have a different version the other day? It’s a stupid necklace, not a suitcase full of cash. These people would complicate making Jello. I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear version number three of “The Neckace Chronicles “ tomorrow.
Right? These people love to come up with conflicting excuses and the press/their fans will readily parrot them.
They act very similar to the dump White House in many ways.
Everything she wears is a boost to the label/business- isn’t that like 90% of her usefulness as a royal to promote local designers? I know none of the “protocol” stuff makes any real sense, but… is the only problem that someone gave it to her for free? The gifter doesn’t even work for that business. Is it because it’s an Irish business? Don’t individuals send them gifts all the time, especially gifts for her children? QEII has tons of jewelry gifts that she wears all the time. This is so dumb.
The gifter spent money to give something to a royal, who has more than enough income at their disposal to commission their own pieces of jewelry if they desired. That’s the problem. There is a significant income disparity between these two people. Kate gets enough unearned money and material goods to live a life few have the privilege to share. She doesn’t need this. There’s a reason why gifts have rules attached to them when it comes to royalty–its because, like it or not, there is a significant difference between their socioeconomic levels. Gifting of this type can easily give way to exploitation, which is precisely what the rules are constructed to avoid. They are enforced without any exceptions because these people have power they didn’t earn rightfully, and the trade-off for that is having to contend with checks and balances to what they can do.
I totally agree that we peasants shouldn’t be giving them anything [more], but they do wear other jewelry gifts that are much more expensive/valuable, so why is this one such a problem? (I know, there’s no good answer because the whole institution is such a dumb, outdated concept.)
Not everything she wears. Apparently her favorite bag/purse designer is closing London stand-alone stores. It is a huge seller in other countries though.
No because everything she wears is almost £4000 literally no one can afford that, and the jewellery average is about 10 grand, they just use that as a lie to pretend she’s doing some work.
Well done Therese and Aisling. Well done.
They knew who to play and it played well. Now a small business and a charity benefits from that clowns entitlement, which is more that any charity Cathy is apart of has seen success with.
Also, Kaiser. I know you pick the header pic because of that Angel’s facial expression, right?
You cannot fool children. They now. They now.
That’s such a personal gift from a complete stranger, a “fan” no less. I would be too creeped out to wear the jewelry, I wouldn’t even consider it. This is all so weird
I mean. How much did all of this cost this person? A bespoke piece of jewelry fit for a royal, created in 48 hours? That must have come with a fucking hefty price tag attached to it. I know fans gift celebrities all sorts of strange and expensive things, but, come the fuck ON girl, use your head! Why put your money towards something like this? How much does one make in the physiotherapy business line of work anyway?
Also–really fun how they gave her business a shout out in this article too. That can’t possibly be a benefit to this person in terms of advertising at all. All for the price of, again, bespoke jewelry crafted in 48 hours. How much do the costs compare to hiring an Instagram influencer I wonder.
Also, the whole gift itself is sort of creepy, no offence. I’m not a mom, so I don’t know. I’ve also never really received a gift like this. But from a lay person’s point of view, spending this sort of money is just weird. Like, Kate isn’t her friend. She isn’t family. She isn’t a spouse. This person is not a head of state, or a professional, meeting with Kate in some official capacity, for which a gift of this nature would be more appropriate. It’s an oddly personalized gift for, again, a perfectly random stranger to give, in this context. Just saying. And yes, imagine the horror-struck screeching from the likes of Ingrid Sewage if Meghan were to do the same thing.
On a side note–I’ve heard from other people that Camilla likes to receive books as gifts, and will often reply with a personalized note. Apparently, she reads a lot, esp on vacation. That’s pretty nice of her, I think.
The jewellery the brand sells is fairly cheap, and ‘bespoke’ in this case just means they let people choose what they want engraved. They didn’t make any custom pieces for Kate, they just personalised the necklace with initials, a service they offer to everyone.
The pieces cost a little over $250, which is a stupid amount to spend on a gift for a royal, but people regularly hand the Queen floral arrangements with $250 worth of pricy flowers, so it’s not unusual.
She’s a Stepford wife who likes shopping and shiny objects.
Exactly what I was thinking!
Clever ladies! They made a brand internationally know with one clever gift.
Meh no one really buys what Kate wears tbh, unlikely to make as huge as a difference as they thought!
So by this logic “fans” will be able to buy Kate designer outfits. Where is the line drawn in terms of what “fans” can get them?
I think it’s creepy to go into a room to change, see the jewelry boxes, and pop them in your handbag and toodle off. The b*tch inside wants to know if she took the soap from the bathroom too? Personally, if it was me I would say no, thank you, it’s a very kind gift. But why don’t you wear it? And if I really liked the jewelry I’d purchase it myself. If the room was part of a small business then the loss of revenue from lending the room for Kate to change has already cost this lady, without even taking into account the cost of the jewelry. It’s really quite easy for a Royal to order something online if they like it. That woolly hat Archie was wearing in the photo with Harry? Ordered online, and paid for, months before Archie wore it. The ladies who run that business only realized exactly who ordered it after seeing Archie and then going back in their orders to find an order from a Kensington address.
Or is this going to be another long winded explanation like the Kate cried stories over tights, or was it the way Charlotte’s dress fitted, or whatever?
Those eyebrows distract me
Wait what???
“Needing somewhere to change in between engagements, the couple used her treatment room on site — and it was there that she left a note to the couple and a special gift for Kate. ”
This story seems like its damage control after how the first story of her accepting it from the designer was received(even with DM trying to make it as a diplomatic move during beexit).
The fact that this women is INSISTING about her commissioning this and somehow kate using her office or something(not a security breach🤔) which is also problematic in itself as she can pay to rent a place to rest in herself is even harder to believe.
I domt know, I guess I’m being paranoid but if the Ireland tour wasmt a late last minute arrangement then why did she need the psychotherapist help ????
As we have seen from the enablers around Dump, there are people willing to lie for others even for the most bizarre reason. It’s quite possible this entire fan story is a lie. It’s not like Kate is an honest person, after all she pretends she doesn’t wear extensions and that she doesn’t use botox. She lies as easily as the grifters in the WH.
Sorry, but who is Dump?
Trump.
What stands out is how this person could just leave a package in a dressing room for the royals to open. It’s nice that it’s jewelry but what if it was something harmful? Seems like a security breach and yeah, the whole thing is confusing in terms of what is allowed. And as noted above, no way would Meghan be allowed to accept this. It would be turned into a major protocol scandal.
Can you picture her biting the gold like a pirate biting a coin to see if it was real gold?