S Poddar
The members of the royal family led by King Charles failed to reveal gifts that were officially presented to them for the last four years. In this regard, they proved to break their promise to publicly release the annual list of the said endowment. The commitment was made a long time ago in an attempt to clear the previous controversies engulfing the royal family. No updates concerning this have been observed to date, and with such a situation, it has increasingly become a cause of concern.
Palace officials cited the pandemic, the transition after the death of Queen Elizabeth, and preparation for King Charles’ coronation last year as among the reasons why this process was delayed. Sources say coronation preparations, the transition of power after Queen Elizabeth, and the worst pains of the pandemic are cited as disruptions to the process of publishing the list. There has been a huge din made about the timing and lack of transparency, especially against the backdrop of scandals that have been associated with the monarchy in the past.
The royal family’s veil of secrecy comes at a time when controversy involving Charles’s main charitable foundation, embroiled in a cash-for-honours scandal, continues. A police investigation into the matter was dropped last year, but neither Scotland Yard nor the Crown Prosecution Service provided any detailed explanation. It was also known earlier that Charles, still then the Prince of Wales, had accepted £2.6 million in cash from a Qatari politician into one of his charities. This cash was handed over in bags, so raising questions regarding the transparency of royal finances.
The Duke of York, Prince Andrew, has also faced accusations over his own involvement as an active royal: He has been accused to have conducted business on official overseas trips. Such activities have only added fuel to calls for examining the gifts and special perks bestowed upon the royal family members.
Whereas members of parliament are required to declare anything received as gifts, donations and even hospitality received in the public registry, the royal family lacks such a record. Instead, they wait for their private secretaries who advise on what to be disclosed. Much criticism has been evoked by this difference in standards, with some arguing that the royals should also stand at the same scrutiny as public officials.
Traditionally, there had been lists of annual gifts published in the media to provide an assurance of openness and transparency. As recently as in 2006, Queen Camilla accepted jewelry from a Saudi royal and wore it during a state visit to the U.S. in 2007. With public outrage that the royal family had kept secret who was donating and where such over-the-top gifts were coming from, annual gift lists are said to have been instigated in the aftermath to ensure it did not happen again in future.
The last list, which included official gifts received in 2019, was published in April 2020. No further official declaration has been made since then, except on the occasion of some of the state visits or events, where gift exchanges have been mentioned there. These lists have come under much controversy since it came into the public domain that Bahrain’s king and Bahrain’s prime minister had gifted a “suite of jewels” to Sophie in 2012, back when Bahrain was being criticized for its human rights record.
Gifts, especially sensitive items, have always been kept in the closet. Even though they are not a part of the royal private property, several official gifts are kept classified. Such items are normally received on behalf of the state rather than the private coffers of a particular individual.
Perhaps the most iconic example of this is the gift in 2018 when Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman gifted Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, a £500,000 pair of diamond chandelier earrings for her wedding. Within a few months of that, the crown prince was implicated in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and Meghan wore them at a state banquet in Fiji. When approached by reporters for comment on the provenance of the jewelry, palace officials simply said that the earrings were “borrowed.” A month later, Meghan appeared at a Buckingham Palace dinner to honor Charles’s 70th birthday wearing them again. It wasn’t until 2021, just before Meghan and Prince Harry’s tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey, that the true origin of the gift was revealed to the public.
Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Prince and Princess of Wales, did not make public any official wedding presents they received when they married in 2011. Officially, only a few of the presents made to Queen Elizabeth on her platinum jubilee in 2022 were released to the public. It is not known if King Charles and Queen Camilla received any gifts at their coronation last month.
Contrast that with today, when it is unthinkable that a master list of over 2,500 gifts made at her marriage to Philip Mountbatten in 1947 was published and items even displayed for public view.
In 2003, after a scandal in which staff members were selling unwanted presents, Prince Charles launched a review of the royal household’s gift policy. These reviews led to more transparent guidelines outlining precisely what constituted an official gift and what was a private one. Official gifts involve those received at events or part and parcel of and in furtherance of royal duties; these may be from heads of state or even other individuals the royals never met. These remain private property. Private gifts involve those coming from friends or acquaintances with no function in the official royal duties.
For instance, Graham Smith is the chief executive of Republic, an advocacy group calling for an elected head of state to supersede the monarchy. He said that transparency is key, as he believed that the royal family enjoys the highest access possible to government representatives. On his part, he claimed that the lack of disclosure regarding gifts betrays a higher risk of conflict of interest and more clear standards of accountability.
The royals have always blurred what they may keep and what the public needs to know,” said Smith. “If we demand transparency from politicians, it should be given to the royal family as well.”
Buckingham Palace has said nothing, even as the calls for change mount. “The royal gift lists ‘will be published in due course,'” its official would only say. But after four years of silence, people begin wondering whether that’s ever going to happen.
