Princess Michael of Kent has apologised after coming under fire for wearing a ‘blackamoor’ brooch to the Queen’s Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace, attended by Prince Harry’s mixed race fiancée Meghan Markle.

A spokesperson for the royal said that she's 'very sorry and distressed' for wearing the brooch, adding it was a gift she's worn many times before, without controversy.

The full statement said: 'The brooch was a gift and has been worn many times before.

'Princess Michael is very sorry and distressed that it has caused offence.'

Princess Michael, who is married to the Queen’s cousin, Prince Michael, could clearly be seen wearing the jewellery on her coat as she drove through the gates on Wednesday.

Princess Michael of Kent found herself under fire yesterday after she wore a ‘blackamoor’ brooch to the Queen’s Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace, attended by Prince Harry’s mixed race fiancée Meghan Markle

She was not sat at the same table as Miss Markle, 36, who was attending the event for the first time, but would have been introduced to her at the intimate, private gathering.

The royal bride-to-be, whose former lighting director father, Thomas Markle is white, and mother, Doria Ragland, is black, has often spoken about the racism she experienced both as a child and as a grown woman.

The royal, who is married to the Queen’s cousin, Prince Michael, could clearly be seen wearing the jewellery on her coat as she drove through the gates on Wednesday (pictured)

Bride-to-be Meghan flashed her dazzling engagement ring from the front seat of Prince Harry's Land Rover as she left the Queen's annual Christmas lunch

Blackamoor: 18th century art and jewellery linked to 'racial conquest' Blackamoor art in Shirley Bassey's bedroom Blackamoor jewellery and art was extremely popular in the 18th Century. But they are now considered to be highly racially insensitive and the word blackamoor has been condemned as a term of abuse for anyone with a dark skin. In recent years there have been petitions for galleries and hotels to remove them, Blackamoors first emerged during the Middle Ages when Europeans first encountered the Moors, dark-skinned Muslims from North Africa and the Middle East who came to occupy various parts of the continent. The African figure is typically depicted with a turban, dressed in lavish jewels and are commonly fixed in positions of servitude—such as footmen or waiters. They are usually carved from ebony or painted black in the case of porcelain. While they became an art form in the 17th and 18th centuries, particularly in Italy, many believe the figures suggest ‘racial conquest’. Advertisement

Blackamoor are a genre of figurines, small sculptures or jewellery which depict largely men, but sometimes women, with black skin usually from the 18th century.

Many will be worth £10,000 or more.

The princess lives in an apartment at Kensington Palace, just a stone’s throw from Harry and Meghan’s cottage in the grounds.

But she was roundly condemned on social media with comments ranging from: ‘Has no-one noticed the blackamoor pin that Princess Michael of Kent is wearing.? Really? Meghan Markle official meets the family and is greeted by THIS?’

Another attacked her for her ‘racist jewellery’, while a third added: ‘I hope the Queen is going to ban this racist, horrible woman from any further gatherings. This woman is an embarrassment to the Royal Family.’

It is not the first time that the royal, dubbed Princess Pushy, has found herself at the centre of a racist row.

In 2004 she was accused of insulting a party of black diners at a smart New York restaurant by allegedly telling them to ‘go back to the colonies’ in a row over noise.

The princess strongly denied the allegations, claiming to have said she would be ‘ready to go back to the colonies’ during a dispute about noise with the other table.

But she subsequently went on to make a series of toe-curling remarks in a television interview about the incident, referring to African people as 'adorable'.

Talking of her extensive travels through Africa she said: ‘I even pretended years ago to be an African, a half-caste African, but because of my light eyes I did not get away with it, but I dyed my hair black.

‘I travelled on African buses. I wanted to be a writer. I wanted experiences from Cape Town to right up in northern Mozambique. I had this adventure with these absolutely adorable, special people and to call me racist: it's a knife through the heart because I really love these people.’

The invite to the Queen's lunch was the first time that Meghan will have met much of Harry's family, and the invitation is a further sign that she is well and truly part of the royal establishment

Harry and Meghan released the official engagement portraits, almost a month after announcing their plans to get married

Bi-racial Miss Markle has told how she feels compelled to speak out about racism after being subjected to years of prejudice by people unaware of her heritage.

She claimed that some who believed she was Caucasian even made distasteful 'black jokes' in front of her.

She has also told of her anger and hurt at hearing her mother called ‘the ‘N’ word’ when she was pulling out of a parking space.

‘My skin rushed with heat as I looked to my mom. Her eyes welling with hateful tears, I could only breathe out a whisper of words, so hushed they were barely audible: 'It's OK, Mommy’,’ she said.

How Princess Pushy ‘told black diners to go back to the colonies’ and was ‘shocked’ to discover her father was a Nazi SS officer

Princess Michael's decision to wear the blackamoor brooch is not the first time she has been embroiled in controversy after allegedly telling black diners to 'go back to the colonies' and claiming not to know her father was an SS officer.

In 2004 she was branded a racist by a group in a New York restaurant after a row erupted over the noise she claimed they were making.

The royal was accused of slamming her hand down on the group's table, telling them: You need to quiet down.'

The princess, pictured with husband Prince Michael, claimed to be shocked by revelations that her father was a high-ranking SS officer

Restaurant boss Silvano Marchetto offered to move Princess Michael and her party to another room.

Before switching tables the royal is alleged to have said 'you need to go back to the colonies'.

The princess was reportedly challenged at the time and was said to have replied: 'I did not say "back to the colonies", I said you "should remember the colonies".

'Back in the days of the colonies there were rules that were very good.'

She is alleged to have continued: 'You think about it. Just think about it.'

One of the group, Wall Street banker Merv Matheson, who said: 'She has a problem and that problem is racism. She needs help.'

AJ Callaway was also caught up in the alleged row and was surprised to find out she was a member of the Royal family.

'I thought she was just a crazy woman. I still think she's a crazy woman,' he said at the time.

A spokesman denied that the princess made the slur, which reportedly arose from a confrontation about the group making too much noise in the Da Silvano restaurant.

In 2014 it was revealed her father, Baron Gunther von Reibnitz, was a high-ranking SS officer, which the Princess Michael claimed was shocking news to her.

Baron Gunther von Reibnitz (pictured) joined the Nazi party three years before Hitler became the German chancellor

He joined the Nazi party in 1930 but would escape to Bavaria in 1945 when it was occupied by the Americas.

Princess Michael was born Marie-Christine von Reibnitz during the final months of World War Two.

Historian Philip Hall unearthed the baron's Nazi link at the Berlin Document Centre, where evidence showed he had joined the SS three years before Hitler became chancellor.

He also found references to Baron Gunther von Reibnitz being recommended for an appointment by Herman Goering and he is believed to have fought on the Polish front.

After the war's end, the baron split from his family. The children and their mother headed to Sydney, Australia, and he settled in Mozambique, where he ran a citrus farm.

The princess was accused of racially abusing black diners at this New York restaurant in 2004

The Czech princess joined the British Royal Family when she married Prince Michael of Kent in Vienna in 1978 and would later claim her union with the Silesian was an arranged marriage.

She famously accused the British of racism in the 1980s when she said in an interview: 'The English distrust foreigners.

'I will never become British even if I live here the rest of my life.'

She was branded Princess Pushy until 2013, when she was described as Princess Cushy for whinging about the rent she paid to Kensington Palace.

Before 2010 she was paying just £69 a week in peppercorn rent, but would go on to pay £120,000 a year to stay at the palace, which has ten main rooms.

The new rent rate was imposed when the Queen was forced to restructure her grace-and-favour residences a few years ago to bring rents into line with present-day market values.

She also courted controversy when she told Tatler magazine she knew 'the real story' about Princess Diana following her death in 1997.