Longtime blog readers know that I’m fascinated by Princess Diana’s jewelry and where Diana’s pieces turn up. The Princess of Wales has many pieces which either belonged to Diana or Royal Collection pieces which were closely associated with Diana. I personally think that Kate has tried to lay claim to all of Diana’s sapphires. But Prince Harry inherited Diana’s aquamarine, post-divorce “freedom ring,” and some of her smaller, everyday pieces, and he’s given them all to Meghan. I wonder if Harry picked up a few more pieces of Diana’s jewelry last week when he was in London, because it looks like he just gave Meghan one of Diana’s necklaces. Meghan wore the necklace in Nigeria:
Meghan Markle found a special way to honor Princess Diana during her trip to Nigeria. The Duchess of Sussex, 42, wore a sentimental necklace that belonged to Prince Harry’s mother to a reception for military families in Abuja on May 11.
PEOPLE exclusively reveals that the necklace, featuring a delicate diamond cross on a gold chain, was a recent gift from Harry to his wife and once belonged to Princess Diana.
Meghan often pays tribute to Harry’s mother through fashion, and has several pieces in her jewelry box that belonged to the late Princess of Wales, including butterfly earrings and an aquamarine ring. Prince Harry, 39, also famously included two diamonds from his mother’s personal collection in the tri-stone engagement ring he designed for Meghan when he proposed in 2017.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex follow in the footsteps of Harry’s parents, King Charles and Princess Diana, who visited Nigeria for an official visit in March 1990. Meghan may have subtly paid tribute to Diana during the first day of their trip on May 10 by wearing a gold collar necklace reminiscent of one Diana wore during her time in Nigeria over 30 years ago.
This was an exclusive in People Magazine – I wonder if Team Sussex confirmed it with People’s Simon Perry during the trip. When I saw Meghan’s simple white outfit, I wondered why she accessorized with the cross necklace too – now we know. She was honoring Diana and Harry.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Her white dress was very simple, but I LOOOVE it so much!!!!
Simplicity my dear, is the essence of good taste. I love the dress very much myself, it is so elegant.
Meghan does simple elegance better than almost anyone I can think of-timeless classic beautiful !
Love it, simple elegance.
Meghan looked lovely in that white dress.
Such an elegant look.
I wonder if Diana’s sister had it and gave it to Harry around the time of the service?
I believe Harry has his potion of Diana’s collection but instead of giving all to Meghan at once, he gives her bit by bit to keep the magic alive
That would be weird. I would not like my husband parceling out jewellery to me from his private collection no matter the origins…
That’s what I’m thinking. The Spencer’s gave it to him when he was in the UK.
It certainly is a great way to link the Spencer family (and Diana) to Harry and Meghan. They clearly are her heirs in the BRF.
I wonder how these were divided up, did the Queen or Charles distribute then to his sons?Or they walked in to a room with a tray of jewels to pick from. Anyways I like Meghans pieces,they are simple and timeless. Big Blue is seriously out of style,Kate should honestly have asked for a change in ring for their 10th anniversary.
Since Diana was no longer a member of the BRF when she died, I would imagine that the Spencer’s would have kept them for Harry and his brother, until they decided which pieces they wanted.
Thankfully the queen and Charles had no control over Diana s own possessions .I thought the items were already divided between harry and Meghan. Diana even if she had been not divorced she would not have let the in laws near her property.
Edit between harry and William
I hope George when he gets engaged won’t give his bride Diana s ring. It seems to be bad luck.
It’s awesome that Meghan, a simple American girl gets to wear Diana’s jewelry pieces! Those jewels will someday be given to Lilibeth I am sure what an honor.
Especially considering Lilibeth is a direct blood descendent of Diana’s. That’s when their true significance will be felt and known throughout all the lands.
I’m smiling just thinking about it.
Spencers proud of their whole family. Spencers who for all their foibles, show up for family. Spencers, whose bloodline is far more ancient and aristocratic than the tax-payer-funded-royals. Spencers for the win!
I wonder how Diana’s jewelry collection was divided between Harry and William? It does seem like William got most of the jewels that Diana acquired during her marriage to Charles.
William did not get most of them. Diana in her will wanted them to be divided equally
I did say “seem like”. But just going by most of the jewels that Meghan and Kate have worn, Kate has worn pieces that Diana had when she was married and Meghan has the ones that Diana had when she was single before and after Charles. Plus since when has the Royal Family ever stuck to an agreement? The Royal Family are vindictive enough to say that William should get the jewels that either Charles bought for Diana or that she got when she was married.
I do think Diana had an iron clad will and divorce settlement that Charles could not take back items he gifted her. I recall she had a skilled attorney who did not let in loopholes so royal family could try to get the gifts back
Most things Diana got from the RF and Charles from the Royal collection are owned by the crown. I don’t think she got to much jewels from Charles that he bought himself and were her private property. So the things you saw on Kate might be from the RC – now under Camillas control. And neither her nor William let Meghan near this. And the real private ones are divided between the boys, and for this Lady Sarah McCorquadale is executor of Diana’s will.
@Tessa: The divorce settlement was in effect before Diana’s death so the Royal Family couldn’t renege on that but unless Diana specified what pieces were to go to which son, I can see Charles or some aide having a say in which pieces should go to William. Anyway, as I said given the pieces that Meghan and Kate have so far it looks like Kate got the married Diana pieces. We will never know for sure unless, Harry talks about it and he didn’t in his book.
@Blurb: The Collingwood and south sea pearl earrings, as well as the sapphire and diamond earrings that Diana wore she got during her marriage, those are worn by Kate. The royal vault jewels that Diana had in her possession at the time of her death were returned to the Royal Family. Meghan wears Diana’s cartier watch and the aquamarine ring. The watch was a gift from Diana’s father and the aquamarine ring she got after the divorce.
My feeling is that the iconic sapphire and pearl choker went to William, but it’s very odd that Kate has never worn it.
I think at her death all of Diana’s jewelry that belonged go her was split between Harry and William but there was also some jewelry in the royal collection that she didnt own but had worn that Kate seems to have taken out for a spin. I’m curious if there were maybe also things in the Spencer collection that she wore frequently but still technically belonged to Earl Spencer and if this necklace is one of them. We know from Spare that he offered Meghan the Spencer tiara so it wouldn’t surprise me if he gave this to Harry while he was in London to give to Meghan as an early Mother’s Day/Anniversary present.
@Feeshalori, IF that’s true, Kate might be wise enough to want to avoid direct comparisons with Diana, while William or Charles might want to avoid having someone else resurrect signature pieces that continue to be closely associated with Diana — since Charles and William both seem to want Diana’s role in the royal family story to be diminished.
@Blithe, that’s most likely true given the recent situation, but since Kate in the past has worn a number of Diana’s sapphires and has her iconic engagement ring, it just seemed surprising that she’s never worn that choker at all, even way back. Maybe William never wanted her to. I’ve always wondered where it is and there’s even less likelihood that we’ll ever see it publicly now.
@Blithe, since when has Kate been “wise enough to want to avoid direct comparisons to Diana”? I know Kate has been missing for five months, but prior to that, she did not go out of her way to avoid comparisons to Diana! Quite the opposite! 🙄
The Fail online have endless photos of this tour which they bought in and even managed to say how stylish Meghan looked throughout. However what caught my attention was the opening paragraph which referred to Chuck and Diana’s visit to Nigeria in 1990 when the marriage was deeply troubled and so only did a handful of engagements and looked awkward and uncomfortable around each other when they did?! Now that certainly doesn’t apply to this united couple but it could be a reference to WK’s last tour. I wonder?
The white dress was one of my favorite looks! 😍 The simple necklace was the perfect compliment and its even more special knowing the piece once belonged to Diana.
I like that she wears Diana’s jewelry in a respectful way. She is not flaunting it in in appropriate situations or acting like it was her county fair midway prize like a certain other wife of Windsor.
This would have been a perfect Mother’s Day gift, but who knows? I’m just glad Meghan has it, and she looked incredible in that white dress and this necklace.
I think I read somewhere that Diana liked cross pendants. Didn’t some celebrity just recently purchase a cross pendant loaned to Diana by one the royal jewelers? Diana married when she was only 20 so perhaps she hadn’t had time to acquire an extensive jewelry collection of her own. It’s my impression that Kate has what is considered the more “important pieces” such as the sapphire and diamond suites. I think some of it may have been part of the royal collection to start with and became associated with Diana because of her sapphire and diamond engagement ring. i have also read that Diana loved fashion jewelry and seems to have bought those pieces for herself. Meghan seems to wear pieces that were Diana’s own choices and some are quite whimsical, such as the butterfly earrings, or had sentimental value, such as the Cartier watch which was apparently a birthday gift from her father. Diana was pictured with numerous watches, so it would be interesting if any of them eventually show up on either Kate or Meghan. I imagine some day Charlotte and Lili might debut something that their mothers didn’t wear publicly.
Kim Kardashian Buys Famous Princess Diana Amethyst Cross Pendant for $197,453 at Auction.
Here’s a photo of Princess Diana wearing it.
https://people.com/style/kim-kardashian-buys-diamond-attallah-cross-pendant-worn-by-princess-diana-at-sothebys-auction/
Meghan really got the timeless pieces didn’t she.