The birth of Prince Harry’s and Meghan Markle’s first child will happen any time soon. Everyone is waiting for the arrival of the new royal baby. But the proud soon-to-be parents already received many presents for their baby.
But something that you possibly didn’t know is that every present they receive while they are on official business doesn’t technically belong to them. And we will share with you why.
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What happens to baby gifts?
There are a lot of rules when you are a member of the royal family, and this is just another one. Every gift that was given to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle for their baby, while they are on official business, they can’t keep. That means that if a world leader, a fan or any other person gives them a gift before the baby is born when the baby is born or even when the child is older, they can’t keep. And that’s because when they are on an official business they are representing the queen, and all of the gifts that are being accepted while on those kinds of duties are being accepted on behalf of the queen, and that means that the queen owns them all.
But that’s just a rule that is on paper. And we know that Queen Elizabeth II is not a bad person, so she will never forbid them to have those gifts. But there are some other rules and reasons that let Prince Harry and Meghan Markle keep the gifts, and those rules don’t allow them to keep certain gifts from their baby.
Source: People
What is the protocol for royal family gifting
Like any other royal protocol, this one regarding gifting is also very strict, and it is especially strict when it comes to accepting gifts from the public.
When a member of the royal family receives a gift, first the royal family’s security team needs to examine that gift very carefully. And when they are certain that the gift is safe, they can accept it. But that’s not all, they can only accept gifts that are valued to be less than $200. If they can’t accept and keep the gift they need to donate it to a charity. And that’s a rule when they are accepting gifts from the public.
But when it comes to the gifts that are given to the member of the royal family from the world leaders, for example, the rules are slightly different. It, of course, depends on the item that was gifted. Some gifts they get when they are on an official business go to the royal storage if the Royals can use it. But taking into consideration the amount of the gifts the member of the royal family get, and the size of the storage they need to have for those gifts they have an annual clean up. Every year, a panel of Royal Collection representatives and a senior member of the royal household review all of the gifts that they have in the storage. And when they review them, they decide what they will keep, what they will loan, what they will donate to a charity, and what they will get rid of.
Source: WireImage
So the same goes for the gift that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle received from world leaders. If they can use them, they will donate the gift to an appropriate charity. And another marvelous think that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex did, was that they asked the public to instead of sending them gifts for the birth of their first child, they donate to any charity that they choose. That means that anyone can choose to which charity they want to donate. And the people are already donating, the money and items were raised for charities like Well Child, Baby2Baby, The Lunchbox Fund, and Little Village HQ.
This is a great opportunity for people to donate to charities, and also to regulate the issues of gifts from the public ahead of time. This way a great cause will be fulfilled, and the security team will spend a lot less time checking all of the gifts. And this is also a great way for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to teach their public and fans to give back to their communities and share the love around the world.
Source: cheatsheet.com
