At an event in Nigeria, the Duchess of Sussex wore a simple white dress and an equally simple diamond cross necklace. People Magazine exclusively reported, as the Sussexes were still in Nigeria, that Prince Harry had given the necklace to Meghan and it once belonged to his mother. It was the first time anyone saw the necklace on Meghan, and Diana was never photographed wearing it. But given People’s reporting, I feel like Harry or Meghan confirmed the provenance to Simon Perry, People’s royal editor, who was traveling with the Sussexes. Well, as you can imagine, the usual suspects are still super-salty that Meghan gets to wear some pieces from Diana’s private collection. The NY Post published this curious story:
While in Nigeria on her three-day faux-royal tour with Prince Harry last weekend, Markle, 42, displayed a delicate diamond cross that glinted in the sun as she attended a reception for military families in Abuja. Sources told Page Six that the never-before-seen necklace was gifted to Markle by her husband and was from his mother’s private collection.
“Diana remains a prominent force in Harry’s life and as a result, Meghan’s,” a source who knows the couple told us. “So much of his work is inspired by his mum, and it’s evident how much she still means to him. A gift to his wife that once belonged to his mother is incredibly meaningful and that isn’t lost on his wife.”
The appearance of the cross has set off intrigue, however, as to its origin. One London socialite who knows Markle mused to page Six, “Meghan likes to curate her jewelry to tell a certain story. I find it hard to believe that she’s been sitting on this necklace for 5 years.”
Additionally, Diana, who died aged 37 in August 1997, was never pictured wearing the piece of jewelry in public.
“No — I didn’t recognize this at all,” said one insider who worked closely with Diana. “In fact, Diana was ever the professional and she generally avoided wearing religious motifs of any kind because they have the potential to offend people, so she would never usually wear such a thing.”
Indeed, Diana was pictured wearing a cross in public just twice: once, her own, which she donated to charity and once with a cross she had borrowed from a friend.
I think people are trying to cast doubt on the origin of the necklace and they’re trying to say it’s not really Diana’s and the Sussexes are lying? Like… if Harry says a necklace belonged to Diana, I believe him. Now, I also doubt that Meghan would have had this necklace in her jewelry box for five years without ever being photographed in it. Which is why I suggested that Harry perhaps picked up this necklace while he was in London two weeks ago. He had free time, considering his dogsh-t father refused to see him – it would have been easy enough to have a brief meeting with the jeweler who keeps all of Diana’s private jewels. Harry possibly picked up even more pieces. Also: someone suggested that the Spencers might have given him the necklace, which I also think is a possibility.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Why is it upside down?
It’s not. It’s a square cross. It just looks upside down because of the ring that holds it to the chain makes the top look longer.
They really should have it modified to put the bail on the back of the cross so it doesn’t look upside down.
haha – I had the same question. Zooming it makes it clear it’s square
Ha! That’s what I thought too! I’ll need to zoom in.
It could have been Diana’s from before her marriage. A gift from a family member perhaps. It would be so nice if the Spencer’s had recently given it to Harry.
Although I hope that’s not actually the case as William will lay siege to the place to ransack his mother’s childhood belongings.
It’s The Cross of Saint Peter, also known as the Petrine Cross. It is an inverted Latin cross. A Christian symbol as St. Peter was crucified upside-down as he didn’t believe himself worthy to die in the same manner as Christ. It’s deliberately upside-down.
Zoom in on it. The cross is made of equal length bars. It’s the bail on top of the cross that gives it an inverted appearance from a distance.
It is not a Petrine Cross.
Derangers on Twitter were making a huge thing about how the cross was upside down. Lol, I’m not sure what point they were trying to make. Were they trying to imply Meghan is satanic? The reach, omg. It’s the Petrine cross as @alice b. Tokeless says above. Derangers really be out there making themselves look deranged.
I feel so badly for Meghan when stuff like this gets published! For one, people saying that she’s lying need to realize that they are calling Harry a liar. For another, people have private lives with stuff the public doesn’t see. To say that Diana didn’t wear every article of clothing or jewelry if it wasn’t publicly photographed is just ridiculous.
They won’t say it out loud but they dont want this biracial woman wearing their English Rose jewelry. I’m sure it makes their stomach turn to think that she has anything from Princess Diana.Didnt they deny her access to the royal collection,has that ever been done to any current married in?
Exactly, Nubia!
Yes, they didn’t want her wearing English Rose jewelry or anything from the royal collection (after the Australia and Oceania tour in which they tricked her into the Saudi earrings). The joke is going to be on the BRF, because a lot of the royal jewels are shady, whereas Diana’s own jewelry is less so. Plus, it binds her (via Harry) closer to Diana’s legacy.
There are pictures of Diana wearing the cross on a very long chain, I still can’t figure out what’s the story ??? Camilla is wearing all the Queen’s jewels, you can’t take it with you to the grave 😒😒
Probably, those photos are of the large amethyst and diamond cross that Kim Kardashian bought a while ago. That cross is much, much larger than this one.
Looks like the cross she wore in Brazil in 1991 with the little children at a hospital – I found the picture but can’t figure out how to share it here (lol) it had a longer chain then.
@Holz – I just googled and found the picture you’re talking about, but it’s hard to see. The floral dress obscures it and in most of the photos the children are playing with it.
The gold cross she wore in Brazil (wearing the floral dress) was donated to a charity auction.
It’s just downright mean! Of course Harry wants Meghan to have Diana’s jewelry because OF COURSE HE DOES! I am so tired of all the “Kate’s sweet nod to Princess Diana!” versus “How dare Meghan for thinking she can even breathe in the same room as something that belonged to Diana even if we can’t find photo evidence that she ever wore it and therefore Meghan is a giant liar AGAIN!”
ANY other celebrity couple, this would just be a sweet story, but no. Let’s all whip this into an international incident.
It’s so aggravating!
Yes and I’m sure Meghan wants for Lili to get them at some point.
@ML – agreed. They’re under a microscope and it must be so difficult
It’s because still, almost 30 years after her death, people still feel a sense of ownership and entitlement when it comes to Diana. If “they” didn’t see her wearing something, then she never wore it. There’s this sense – from those who knew her and those who didn’t – that we saw every aspect of her life so there was nothing private, nothing unknown. I saw a picture of Diana wearing what looks like this cross, but even if there was no such picture it doesn’t mean Diana didn’t have this necklace.
But people think they know every aspect of her life, her wardrobe, her jewelry. And a lot of “those people” think they should have a say as to who gets to wear that jewelry today (hint: its not the Black American daughter in law.)
Interesting to see the BM act like they own Diana. Bc if they haven’t seen the necklace before then it must not exist. The idea of her having anything private is apparently beyond the realm🙄
PEOPLE said the cross was a recent gift from Harry, so the idea that Harry picked it up in London when he visited for Invictus makes sense. And if Diana didn’t like wearing religious items, it makes sense that she wasn’t pictured with it. It may have been a gift to her and she just out it away.
I think the theory of the Spencers giving it to Harry on his recent trip makes sense. I also saw a pic on twitter of Diana wearing it (in the days after Meghan initially wore it).
So very very tired of the daily nitpicking of Meghan and Harry. I guess it won’t stop though as long as the Windsors are breathing.
Ok a new article trying to make it something it’s not. It’s just a cross necklace that was Diana’s nothing more. They are so angry that they will make up anything to try to make the Sussexes look bad but it never works.
It works well on the DE and the DM, people who want Meghan to be a bad person because she called out the racism in the RF.
Yep and this is how they get people who are casual or uninterested in royals to form an opinion. The headline will scream something like ‘Mysterious Origin!’ or ‘Called into Question!’ When you actually read it, the story makes no sense but most people just read the HL and the damage is done.
I’ll never find it now but I saw a picture on twitter of Diana wearing this cross. So whoever her “close friend” or “expert” is who said she was never photographed in it is a liar. What else is new, someone lying about Meghan and trying to damage her character.
Saw this same post and photo. Also the people trying to discredit this are don’t like that Harry gifted it to Meghan. It’s a gesture of love and probably an anniversary gift.
For what it’s worth, during the trip when the photos came out, a Diana fan on X pointed out the necklace and said it looked like one of Diana’s. They also showed some photo of her in a cross.This was way before this article came out. Also some say it looks upside down because the loop which the chain goes through is fairly long, and elongates the top of the cross. They’ll dissect every aspect of this trip because hey are still so mad about it. The people who are salty about Meghan’s jewelry definitely don’t care about Diana or her legacy.
Diana did wear it with the mauve colored gown with the high collar
Is BP getting nervous? This could be debilitating for Charles!
Meghan has the audacity to wear a cross!
Meghan (probably) uses garlic when cooking!
Charles is a ?? descendent of Vlad the original vampire.
Ergo: she’s out to kill the king! Horrors!
Seriously, these folks are out of their pea-pickin minds!
What’s next? A review of her underwear?
There actually was a thread on Twitter with various pictures of Meghan’s bust. They were analyzing how her bust size looks different in photos. Have they never heard of different bras and dresses that are cut differently? The seriousness of their poring over these pictures was insane.
@Renae, you gave me a chuckle! 🤣
“Also: someone suggested that the Spencers might have given him the necklace, which I also think is a possibility.”
That was my first thought too. I hope that’s what happened, and I hope it pisses off WanK, since they seem to make it a point to snub the Spencers.
This necklace is one of the few times (actually, the only time) I think she missed the mark when it came to jewelry. Nigeria has the largest Christian AND the largest Muslim populations in the world and a history of really ugly sectarian violence beyond Boko Haram. Personally, I would have stayed away from anything that could have been construed as religious especially since she isn’t known to be particularly religious.
I keep getting tired of comments like this especially the ones criticizing her outfits in Nigeria. Yes we have a large Muslim population but we also don’t care about wearing jewelry or clothing especially as Meghan visited the Capital and Former Capital ( Abuja and Lagos respectively). If she had visited northern states it would have been not appropriate but i believe she would have been better informed .
I’m tired of people telling us to be angry at her clothing / jewelry choices, we literally don’t care.
I am not Nigerian but I am African and my country is one of the secular countries on the continent. And yes, we really don’t give a hoot what our guests wear, jewelry or clothes etc, when they come to visit us; they are our guests and we don’t get to dictate what they should or shouldn’t wear. It is a gesture of respect and honor when someone accepts your invitation to come visit you and getting angry at their choice of clothes or jewelry would be in very bad faith where I come from. I’m sure this is the case in Nigeria where the Sussexes were invited guests. Nigeria welcomed the Sussexes warmly and there’s absolutely no need to start going on and on about any religions or politics in the country, the Sussexes were there for IG and other charities, not to broker peace between Muslims and Christians. People need to quit telling POC how to feel, we were colonized once and fought very fiercely for our freedom. Even though we are POC, we still are people that have brains, we are individuals with our own agency, we can form our own opinions without having foreigners telling us how to feel or behave, its tiring.
Was she there brokering a peace deal? Luckily the folks in Nigeria weren’t as bothered by it as you are.
I must admit that I thought it less than sensible there. Perhaps she was meeting a lot of Christians on that occasion.
Even if she was meeting Muslims it wouldn’t have mattered. Shes a foreigner and she visited the capital with a mixed percentage of Muslims and Christian’s
Nigeria is a secular country.
As far as I’m aware Nigeria is a secular country just like the UK and the US, so Meghan’s free to wear whatever religious jewellery she wants. People need to stop being weird about African countries.
Word.
What? No.
Meghan is recently wearing designer clothes from 2018 collections so it’s totally plausible that she even has more pieces of clothing / jewelry from years back that we haven’t seen. Was Diana photographed every single day of her life that we would know every single piece of jewelry she ever owned? Must you wear every single piece of jewelry you own?
This socialite / person who worked closely with Diana are all William’s minions angry that Harry has access to sentimental pieces and has chosen to gift his wife
When it comes to Meghan and Diana’s jewellery, the royalists and British press are always upset and weird about it. Wasn’t it reported that Harry only gave Meghan the necklace recently? So she wasn’t “sitting on it for five years”. My guess Harry gave Meghan it on Archie’s birthday. He strikes me as the type of person who would do that kind of thing.
Or he gave it to her for Mother’s Day.
Could be, but she wore it the day before Mother’s Day.
Sure, sometimes people give gifts early so they can be worn on a special occasion. But pretty much any guess is possible here.
Derangers say that Meghan only got copies not the originals even the tiara at the wedding. And then claim things like Kate is keeping the crown jewels and so much other nonsensical talk.
They’re projecting, Kate got a copy of her sapphire ring that’s why she’s so careless with it
@Em: That would explain, Kate going deep sea diving with her engagement ring.
I think this story is a plant by KP. The Spencers did not attend the christenings of William’s kids. Kate was never seen in the company of the Spencers outside their wedding. The Spencers may be giving some of Diana’s jewelry to give to Meghan. Meghan is part of the Spencer family by marriage. (See Meghan’s coat of arms; the Spencer shells are on the left side that represents Harry.) Archie and Lilies are Spencers by blood. The BM is mad Diana’s jewels are going done the American side of the family and Kate only gets jewels worn by Diana that are part of the Royal Collection.
I would never look at this necklace and call it a religious cross. It looks like a plus sign.
I think the proper name of it is Greek cross. It’s not meant to be a crucifix, it’s meant to show the four directions north south east and west for the spread of the gospels.
Thank you for the information,@Chaine. I was wondering about the size of it also.
The headline on this post could have ended here: People are suspicious of Duchess Meghan. Period.
She is put under the microscope for even existing. It’s exhausting to witness. I cannot imagine living with this incessant racist scrutiny.
Hard agree. Meghan gave birth to two of Diana’s grandchildren, acting like she’s not worthy of wearing her jewelry is the antithesis of who Diana was as a human being. It’s completely nasty.
How can that Black woman be wearing dear Diana’s jewelry?!? *sarcastically grasps non-existent pearls*
Man, it really yanks so many people’s chains that Meghan has nice things because in their world view, non-white people are destitute and grasping…or certainly should be. They’re big mad because in their eyes, Meghan should be “put in her place”.
These numnuts writers are trying to twist themselves into a pretzel to come up with some angle. That Harry and Meghan were in Nigeria trying to front as an official royal tour.
She wore tangentially related royal jewelry from Princess Diana. It’s a royal tour! If Meghan wore her Mother in Law’s necklace it’s a lovely gesture. Since Diana did so much to bring awareness to countries that need it. Like removing landmines in Angola. It’s her necklace now and she can wear it on the moon if she wants. God knows Kate loves to raid Diana’s jewelry box.
I hope Harry and Meghan go on a world tour. It would be 10x more work done by them as private citizens of the world. Then any official royal tour of late.
I think I read somewhere that Diana liked crosses and collected them. She may have declined to wear them on public occasions, and therefore not photographed with them. The cross pendant strikes me as a piece of jewelry one might get on a church Confirmation; perhaps it was a gift from her parents, or a family gift. And we don’t know where Diana’s personal jewelry is kept or how the boys divided it. I don’t think teen-aged William and Harry would have each taken their share to keep in their homes after Diana died. I can’t believe that a whole article is written about it.
Wouldn’t it be sweet if the Spencers gabe it to Harry to give to Meghan 🥹
This is been posted since the Invictus Nigeria visit AND PICTURES OF DIANA WEARING THE SAME NECKLACE have been posted. Whomever is questioning saying that the necklace hasn’t been seen before is full of it.
I totally agree with the thought of the cross having been given to Harry by the Spencers.
This piece of jewellery looks very much like something one might give as a gift to a young girl and maybe it sat with her siblings ever since.
Having once belong to Harry’s mother takes off the “juvenile” aspect and makes it a cherished memento to be worn now by H’s wife and later handed on to her daughter.
What they big mad about is that Prince Harry has laid claim to being Diana’s heir and that the Spencer’s are close to him and Meghan. She gets to wear the jewelry that Harry inherited from Diana and there is nothing they can do about it.
I like the theory of the Spencers giving it to him. It could very well have been something she had when she was young! I have all sorts of jewelry from when I was a kid that is actually quite nice but has been sitting in a jewelry box for over five years!
Didn’t Diana famously wear a giant purple cross, which Kim Kardashians got at an auction a few years ago? To suggest that Diana didn’t wear religious symbols is absurd. These people…
It’s interesting that it’s Page Six. Just goes to show they must be scraping the bottom of the barrel for something to fill the columns with. Are they REALLY calling Harry a liar?
They are so MAD lol. For so long Kate copied whole outfits from Diana in a desperate bid to be relevant and they acted like that was perfectly healthy and normal. Now Kate is away getting “treatment” and Meghan wears a necklace that Harry gave her that used to belong to his mother and there are questions?
Some people really thought everything would go to Willy and his family alone and they are being reminded that Diana was free woman when she died. Which meant she could leave her wealth and jewels to her sons EQUALLY. Unlike the Windors where everything would default to Willy.
And for sometime derangers thought Kate was gifted the Spencer tiara. Totally untrue. The earl Spencer’s own the tiara and lend it out upon request.
The cross Meghan is wearing is an orthodox or Byzantine cross (square) cross vs the one we are used to (Roman cross). Greece was part of the Byzantine empire.
It also translate in the church buildings which mainly have a cross in square plan or a “basilica plan”. The basilica plan coming from old Roman public buildings for hearing, judicial and meeting called basilica. Emperor Constantine used the basilica plan to build the first public churches. I believe the square cross plan comes from the early Christian symbol which was Chi-Rho, the 2 first letters of Christ in Greek. Chi is a letter X.
Meghan’s cross looks funny because we are just not used to see orthodox symbols in Western Europe.
Hope that helps.
So this is what they chose to twist themselves in knots about today. I’m surprised they didnt try to play it like they stole it off her body.
I guess it’s impossible for Diana to have had jewelry in her collection that her friends didn’t see. It so easily could have been a childhood item she hung onto. These people are wild.
Mr. Bad Janet’s mom died before we started dating, and she set aside some jewelry for his future wife and potential grandchildren. I thought that was incredibly sweet, and I love having a couple of things that were meaningful enough to her that she kept them for years. I may not have ever met her, but she made someone I love, so I still care deeply for her, and wearing a piece of jewelry she picked out for me helps me feel closer to her. They cannot ruin this sweet story for me. 💜
I’d always assumed that Diana’s sisters would have taken custody of her personal jewelry, since the boys were still children when she died. I can also see William and Harry deciding to leave it in their hands as adults, until they wanted to pass a piece along to a wife or daughter. I’d guess that most of it is kept in a box at the bank like the rest of the family special-occasion jewelry.
Why would you assume that? Diana had a will and my assumption is that she would have left her jewelry to William and Harry. Especially Harry since she knew Williams wife would have access to the whole royal collection.
Diana’s mother and one of her sisters were executors and trustees of the will.
“I find it hard to believe she’d be sitting on this for 5 years” the People Exclusive literally says that she was NOT sitting on this for years. People said it was a new gift from Harry. Page Six is so ridiculous. How are you going to steal a story from another outlet and then ask your fake source something that the original story already clarified? Chances are Harry got it from the Spencers while he was in the UK
I am tiyad for Meghan.
Everyday more nonsense and stories to other her.
It just feels all too familiar.