Meghan Markle is promoting £700 Cesta Collective bags on her new "ShopMy" site, despite previous controversy over the company paying Rwandan weavers as little as 10 pence per hour.
The Duchess of Sussex, who became a minority shareholder in the company last year, is now earning commission on each bag sold through her online platform.
The bags, which sell for around £700, are made by women in Rwanda who earn below the World Bank's extreme poverty line.
According to ShopMy's commission structure, which typically ranges from 10 to 30 per cent, Meghan could earn up to £210 for each Cesta bag sold through her platform.
Meghan set to cash in on £700 handbags while Rwandan weavers earn pennies
Getty
Meanwhile, an investigation on the Mail found that the women who weave these bags earn as little as 82p for an eight-hour day.
This figure falls below the World Bank's extreme poverty line of £1.70 per day.
One weaver, Didacienne Musengimana, revealed she makes less than £10 per bag, which takes around three days to complete, equating to approximately 38p per hour.
Meghan first publicly endorsed Cesta Collective last August when she was photographed carrying one of their bags during a visit to Colombia with Prince Harry.
Meghan Markle has opened a shop sharing pieces from her wardrobe
Instagram / @meghan
At the time, she announced her financial backing, stating: "With Cesta, I really started to understand how many women's lives were being impacted and uplifted through their work. That was incredibly important to me."
Her endorsement reportedly led to the most profitable week in the company's history, according to its New York-based co-founders Erin Ryder and Courtney Weinblatt Fasciano.
The stark contrast between the weavers' earnings and the lifestyle of Cesta's founders is striking.
Privately-educated Courtney Weinblatt Fasciano, daughter of a Harvard Medical School professor, lives in a sleek Brooklyn apartment purchased for £692,000 in 2017.
Meghan Markle carrying a Cesta Collective handbag at the Invictus Games in 2023
Getty
Her co-founder Erin Ryder studied at the £44,000-a-year School of Design in New York and Paris.
Social media shows Ryder enjoying skiing holidays and multiple trips to Rwanda for her work with Cesta.
Meanwhile, weavers work in cement or mudbrick homes in isolated, rural Rwandan villages.
One weaver, a survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, told the Mail: "We are praying that maybe they can increase our wages with time, especially if our bags fetch good profits."
The ShopMy page features what Meghan describes as "a handpicked and curated collection of the things I love I hope you enjoy them".GettyAnother weaver, 60-year-old Illuminée Bayisabe, said: "The gap between the price [they sell for] and what we get paid is very big."
British fashion influencer Georgie James criticised the practice, saying: "It is inappropriate to use these women as a marketing tactic for your brand, especially when they are not full-time employees, nor do they have any ownership of your brand."
Despite previous criticism, Cesta Collective continues to defend its practices. A spokesperson said the company was "founded to create consistent, dignified employment opportunities for talented female artisans in developing regions."
They claimed recent allegations were "an attempt to discredit that work with speculative information."
