Princess Michael of Kent has apologised after wearing a blackamoor brooch to the Queen’s Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace, attended by Prince Harry’s fiancee Meghan Markle, who is of mixed race by virtue of her white father and African American mother.

The royal, who is married to the Queen’s cousin, was photographed wearing the brooch depicting a black figure on her coat as she arrived for the annual gathering on Wednesday. She was later criticised online for wearing “racist jewellery”.

Markle is understood to have met Princess Michael of Kent at the lunch, but it is not known if she was wearing the brooch at the time.

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A spokesman for the princess 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.”



It is not the first time the princess has been accused of racism. In 2004, she reportedly instructed African American customers in a New York restaurant to “go back to the colonies” in an argument about noise.

The princess, whose father was an SS officer, denied the incident a few months later in an interview with ITV, saying: “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 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.”