Meghan Markle accepted pair of £1990 diamond earrings from Dragons’ Den hopefuls – after Prince Harry revealed she ‘kept gifts but shared them out’ in Kensington Palace

Meghan Markle accepted £1990 worth of diamond earrings from a female-founded jewellery business, the owners have revealed.

The Duchess of Sussex, 42, was sent the jewellery by artificial diamond brand Kimai when she was still a working member of the Royal Family in 2019.

The mother-of-two wore the brand’s Felicity earrings, which are sold separately for £995, when she visited the charity Smart Works’ headquarters in London. 

It comes after Prince Harry revealed in his memoir that his wife would keep freebies sent to her at Kensington Palace and distribute them among her staff – despite the Royal Family usually sending back unsolicited gifts. 

Earlier this month, Kimai’s founders Sidney Neuhaus and Jessica Warch appeared on Dragons’ Den where they boasted about the Duchess of Sussex wearing their designs. 

Pictured: Meghan Markle seen wearing the £1990 pair of diamond earrings to visit the Smart Works headquarters in January 2019

The founders – who were looking for a £250,000 investment for a three per cent equity stake in their business – revealed how the royal endorsement boosted their business, just a two months after they first launched. 

They explained: ‘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.’ 

Steven Bartlett – who ended up investing in the business – questioned the duo on how they managed to get the Duchess of Sussex sporting their jewellery.

Sidney said: ‘Cold emails.’ Jessica then added: ‘We’re big believers in cold emails!’ 

Despite also peaking the interest of dragons Deborah Meade, Sara Davies and Peter Jones, the pair ended up choosing Steven.

The entrepreneur said he was convinced to make an offer after seeing that Meghan Markle had worn their designs. 

‘The moment you told be about hounding down Meghan Markle, you had me,’ he said. 

Last year, the Duke of Sussex confirmed that Meghan would accept free gifts before stepping down as a royal in January 2020.

Kimai’s Felicity Earring features 26 lab-grown diamonds, totalling 0.24 carat, and retails at £995 each. 

Dragons’ Den’s Steven Bartlett with Kimai’s Co-founders Jessica Warch and Sidney Neuhaus after investing £250,000 in their business

Writing in Spare, the Duke of Sussex explained: ‘She shared all the freebies she received, clothes and perfumes and make-up, with all the women in the office.’

But this is also said to have caused problems, as Prince Harry claims one assistant was ‘asked to resign by Palace HR after we showed them evidence she’d traded on her position with Meg to get freebies’.

Dresses worn by the Princess of Wales often sell out within minutes of her being pictured in a particular brand or designer item.

With this in mind, members of the Royal family pay for their own clothes in order to avoid being seen as a commercial enterprise.

Elsewhere in Spare, Prince Harry wrote about how believed the Princess of Wales thought ‘Meg had wanted her fashion contacts’.

He added: ‘But Meg had her own. They’d got off on the wrong foot, perhaps?’ 

Meghan Markle wore sheer black Erdem dress during a January 2016 appearance on NBC’s Today

The Princess of Wales seen wearing an Erdem dress to attend the opening of the V&A Photography Centre in October 2018

Following the book’s release, it was also reported that tensions between the two women grew after ‘Meghan Markle found herself behind the Princess of Wales in the queue’ for Erdem’s designs.

During her career as an American actress, Meghan Markle fell in love with clothes from British designer Erdem Moralıoğlu, having worn his dresses to several engagements before entering royal life from 2016.

But upon becoming publicly involved with Prince Harry, the Princess of Wales is said to have been given priority over Meghan as she, too, was an existing customer. 

Meghan wore Erdem’s ‘Davina’ dress from his 2015 collection in early 2016 – before it was available to the general public – for an appearance on NBC’s Today Programme, before she had even met the Duke of Sussex. 

The fact that looks by the British designer, who was born in Canada, were being handed to Kate first is said to have gone down badly with the Sussexes, with Meghan allegedly saying Kate ‘wasn’t even Queen’. 

The dresses saga comes after a previous alleged row between the pair over bridesmaid dresses for Harry and Meghan’s wedding, and a reportedly-awkward first meeting with the Cambridges.