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Meghan Markle denies pinky ring was gift from Middle East, slammed as 'phony baloney'

After initially denying claims that the highly talked about diamond was a gift from a mystery Middle Easter donor, the Sussexes left it cryptic

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's appearance on the cover of Time Magazine has been overshadowed by a never-ending buzz surrounding the jewelry she chose to flaunt. Among them, the most controversial seems to be a giant custom-made ring on her left pinky finger which is rumored to be made of diamonds and supposedly gifted to the Sussexes by a mystery friend from the Middle East.

What has made chatter around the ring even more intense, is the shocking U-turn Meghan and Harry's spokesperson took after claiming that rumors of the mystery donor were absolutely false. Through a statement, the couple clarified that they were talking about the diamonds on her right pinky finger and chose to not address the actual ring in question, thus raising the possibility of Meghan having "something to hide", writes Daily Mail.

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Crafted by celebrity jeweler Lorraine Schwartz and worth an estimated $62,000, the giant rock on Meghan's left pinky has clearly stolen all the spotlight from the couple. And even though she reportedly flaunted a whopping $445,000 worth of jewelry while posing for Time's most influential people alongside her husband, this is not the first time Meghan is flaunting the Schwartz piece. In fact, she debuted the ring in another Time shoot that dates back to October 2020. And at the time, it was Page Six which had alleged that Schwartz had "fashioned [the ring] from a gift of diamonds that the couple received from the Middle East."

The Middle East connection was further amplified by Meghan wearing diamond earrings gifted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on her Fiji tour of October 2018. The controversial prince was accused of ordering the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi just three weeks ahead of Meghan's appearance flaunting the wedding gift. And while there are no confirmations on whether or not the diamonds in the Schwartz piece were also from the prince, it isn't taking tabloids and social media much to draw the potential link and reach that conclusion. 

"Meghan Markle's $62,000- diamond pinky ring from mystery donor! Mystery donor? Another shady gift from Mohammed bin Salman? Who in the world accepts gifts from a mystery donor?" asked one user on Twitter. Another accused the Duchess of Sussex, slamming:  "Woe is me, what a phoney baloney." One more asked with a few angry-red-face emojis, "And how many blacks were used to dig for those diamonds, bloody hypocrites".

Carrying on with the name calling, another wrote: "Meghan Markle was accepting gifts as a Royal and not declaring them at the time. That is a clear breach of the law. The is the real diamonds for honours scandal. Dirty little sk*nk." Others found this odd display of "wealth" suspicious, as one user tweeted: "If your supposed to be recognized as a huge help & supporter to the common man than shouldn't u be a little more discreet regarding your wealth?" Another criticized the Duchess, saying: "I always thought that she was in it for the money."