Beyoncé has come under fire for wearing a £22 million necklace again – despite being told it is a ‘blood diamond’.
The Halo singer was previously said to be “angry and disappointed” when she discovered where the 128-carat yellow diamond had come from.
But although she received criticism in August for wearing the expensive gem as part of a Tiffany campaign with rapper husband Jay-Z, she has again posted photos of herself wearing the necklace.
Taking to Instagram, the 40-year-old shared a dressed up snap of her and Jay with her 216 million followers. She captioned the post: “ABOUT LOVE @tiffanyandco.”
The snap was posted a few hours after Jay, 51, joined Instagram for the first time and quickly amassed over 1 million followers himself.
Although both accounts have legions of followers, the couple now only follow one person on Instagram – each other.
Beyoncé is said to have been unaware of the diamond’s history before she agreed to do the campaign.
A source told The Sun: “Beyoncé is aware of the criticism and is disappointed and angry that she wasn’t made aware of questions about its history.
“She thought that every final detail had been vetted, but now realises that the diamond itself was overlooked.”
Her mother Tina Knowles also leapt to her defence on social media to say: “How many of you socially conscious activists own diamonds? Did you check to see where the diamond came from? Probably not!”
But fans were unimpressed Beyoncé would ever choose to wear the gem again and took to Twitter to vent their fury.
One wrote: “Here’s your hero Beyoncé - wearing a diamond she is fully aware is a blood diamond mined using indentured black laborers - guess it’s fine for her to support black exploitation.”
Another said: “The way Beyoncé keeps sharing ads from the Tiffany’s About Love campaign after y’all tried to drag her for wearing an alleged blood diamond is hilarious to me. She has truly reached a level of unbothered that none of us will ever understand."
Not everyone was offended, with many taking to the comments section to tell Beyonce how beautiful she looked.
And others simply joked that she'd forgot to tag Jay-Z now that he's on Instgram too.
Beyoncé is only the fourth person to ever wear the coveted jewel – and the only black woman to have done so.
Women who wore it before her include American socialite Mary Whitehouse in 1957, Audrey Hepburn in 1961, and more recently Lady Gaga at the 2019 Oscars ceremony.
However, the diamond was reportedly dug up in 1877 from De Beers’ Kimberley Mine in colonial South Africa, where black workers were subjected to cruel working conditions and low or no pay. More than 1,000 workers died there in two years from illnesses such as scurvy and pneumonia.
A ‘blood diamond’ is commonly called so as it’s a gem that has been mined and sold to fund military action against a government, according to the United Nations.
But the term is also applied to rough gems mined by people subject to the harsh conditions the Kimberley miners suffered during the 19th century - like the one Beyoncé models in the new Tiffany campaign.
