How disappointing! Many royal fans sweetly sent Meghan Markle beautiful gifts for her 37th birthday on Saturday, Aug. 4, but, unfortunately, the Duchess of Sussex won’t be able to keep the presents. Now that Meghan is officially a member of the British monarchy, she has to abide by royal protocol and those rules state that members of the royal family shall not accept gifts from people they do not know. 

The official royal guidelines included on the family’s royal.uk website state that “no gifts, including hospitality or services, should be accepted which would, or might appear to, place the member of the royal family under any obligation to the donor.” The rule explains that presents “should be refused where there are concerns about the propriety or motives of the donor or the gift itself.” And since Meghan isn’t acquainted with every royal fan who bought her a gift, she’ll have to mail it back immediately, unless it was from someone she knows personally.

(photo credit: getty images)
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Lucky for Meghan, there seems to be a few presents that the new Duchess can still keep from royal fans. “The only gifts that can be accepted are flowers, foodstuff, and other consumable items (within reasonably quantities), copies of books presented by the author (provided the subject matter is not controversial), and other items of small monetary value (costing less than £150),” according to Hello! magazine.

This rule really shouldn’t be new to Meghan because after her May 19 royal wedding to Prince Harry, the couple reportedly returned around $9 million worth of gifts due to royal protocol. And Meghan probably received just as many expensive gifts for her birthday last week, too!

(photo credit: getty images)
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The Duchess of Sussex will likely need a lot of help sorting through the piles of gifts sent to her at Kensington Palace, but she can always rely on her royal family for help. Prince William and Kate Middleton must have similarly received tons of gifts after they welcomed their third royal baby, Prince Louis, in April! 

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