Will Harriet Sperling borrow one of Princess Anne’s tiaras for her June wedding?

Last year, it became clear that Peter Phillips had fallen head-over-heels in love with Harriet Sperling. They attended all of the big summer events together, including Ascot and Wimbledon, and the British media was in a tizzy over Harriet. They gave her a full princess-to-be rollout. Peter soon popped the question, and Harriet was brought even further into the royal fold, even attending the royal Easter events at Windsor Castle. Royal sources swear that Peter and Harriet will be upgraded to semi-working royals after their June wedding as well. I’ve been fascinated by the over-the-top keenery of a normal, divorced, single mother marrying a royal-adjacent guy without a title. I hope the Windsors are paying attention to how the British media is absolutely starved for new blood and new storylines in the royal family. Speaking of new storylines, some people are wondering if Harriet will wear a tiara for her wedding.

With a royal wedding fast approaching, there is plenty of speculation about the pomp and circumstance surrounding Peter Phillips’ nuptials to Harriet Sperling. A friend of the couple’s recently told Hello! magazine that, despite involving many members of the royal family, the June 6 wedding is being planned as an “intimate occasion.” After all, Peter, 48, the eldest grandchild of the late Queen Elizabeth, has lived his life largely out of the royal spotlight and holds no official titles.

Additionally, this is the second wedding for both Peter and Harriet, 45. He was married to Autumn Kelly from 2008 to 2021, and the pair shares two daughters: Savannah, 15, and Isla, 14. Meanwhile, Harriet was previously married to fitness instructor Antonio St. John Sperling, with whom she shares a daughter, Georgina, 13.

Even if it is a lower-key affair, there is still plenty of speculation about Harriet’s style choices. Traditionally, the bride will accent her wedding gown with jewelry from the royal vault, including a tiara.

Peter’s mother, Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, has multiple tiaras in her personal collection that she could potentially loan to Harriet.

The Festoon Diamond Tiara was a personal gift to Princess Anne — unlike many royal tiaras, which are passed down through generations. She received it from the World Wide Shipping Group of Hong Kong in 1973 when she christened one of their ships, and it quickly became a personal favorite. The Princess Royal wore the tiara in her 1973 engagement photoshoot with her first husband, Mark Phillips, the father of Peter and his younger sister, Zara. She has continued to wear it throughout the years, often pairing it with a festoon necklace she received from her parents, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, for her 18th birthday.

However, despite the tiara’s status as a favorite of the Princess Royal, 75, it is perhaps the least likely to be loaned to Harriet on her upcoming wedding day. Princess Anne previously loaned it to Peter’s first wife, Autumn Kelly, to wear for their May 2008 nuptials.

Another possibility from Princess Anne’s personal collection is an artifact of her Greek royal heritage, as the Meander Tiara was passed down by Prince Philip’s mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, to her daughter-in-law, then-Princess Elizabeth, on the occasion of her 1947 wedding to Philip. Queen Elizabeth never wore the tiara publicly, instead gifting it to Princess Anne on her 18th birthday in 1968. The Princess Royal has worn it frequently over the years and proved its special significance to the family when she loaned it to her daughter, Zara, for her July 2011 wedding to Mike Tindall.

Princess Anne also has the Pineflower Aquamarine Tiara, which entered the royal family as an anniversary gift from King George VI to his wife, Queen Elizabeth. The Queen Mother then gifted it to Anne, her granddaughter, on her 1973 wedding day to Mark Phillips.

Princess Anne has had the tiara modified over the years, removing stones to create complementary earrings and brooches, but she has frequently worn it to state dinners in recent years, including those welcoming leaders from Jordan, Germany and the United States. However, the Pineflower Aquamarine Tiara has yet to be worn by a royal bride.

[From People]

I never realized that Princess Anne has private ownership of several tiaras, and that she has been gifted those pieces over the years and that she alone can decide to lend them out. I thought Anne’s tiaras were property of the Royal Collection, and that Queen Camilla’s keeper of the royal jewels would be the one determining who wears a tiara and who doesn’t. As we’ve seen, Camilla and her jewelry team run a tight ship, and they don’t like to pass out tiaras willy-nilly. But Anne is probably more generous, especially with her daughters-in-law. It just comes down to Harriet’s preference, I guess. Considering the wedding is a private affair in the Cotswolds – with no real “royal wedding” flummery – I would say that Harriet will probably opt out of wearing a tiara.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Backgrid, Buckingham Palace’s social media.

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44 Responses to “Will Harriet Sperling borrow one of Princess Anne’s tiaras for her June wedding?”

  1. YankeeDoodles says:

    I really wish them all the best. What is it the father says in War & Peace, the triumph of hope over experience? LOL. Second marriages have something life-affirming about them.

  2. jferber says:

    If I were Harriet, I would opt out of wearing a tiara too. Heaven forbid Kate feels “overshadowed” by Harriet and makes her life a misery.

    • Kittenmom says:

      Kate would go nuclear if another woman in her age range wore a tiara. And probably look better in it than she does.

    • Deneph says:

      I don’t think Kate is going to enjoy having a tall slender blonde in the family either way. Harriet better keep it toned down.

  3. Carol Hill says:

    Royal born women tend to own their own tiaras. As the Princess Royal, Anne owns several.

  4. IdlesAtCranky says:

    If Harriet does borrow a tiara from Anne, if I were her I’d choose the Pineflower.

    It’s got the best emotional connection, since Anne wore it to marry Peter’s father, and it’s pretty, plus Harriet clearly loves blue.

    I hope she does wear one if she wants to. Why not dress up on such a special day?

    • Thena says:

      The Pineflower tiara was a wedding gift, but Anne did not wear it on her wedding day. She borrowed another of the Queen Mother’s tiaras, Queen Mary’s Fringe tiara. It’s the same one then-Princess Elizabeth and Princess Beatrice wore for their weddings.

      • molly says:

        It’s also a pretty big-guns tiara in Anne’s collection that she still wears frequently. I’d give it a better chance if it was more subtle.

  5. Tiny says:

    Anne would not GAF about Waity’s feelings.

  6. Irisrose says:

    I think she’ll wear a tiara, long white bridal gown, and a veil. Not a single rota or deranger will scream about this divorced white woman getting a big church wedding.

    The pinecone is undeniably ugly, but she might wear it as her something blue. The photos will sell for more if she’s in a tiara.

    She’s choosing to marry morally corrupt grifter milk prince. She’s going to embrace every “royal” opportunity she can.

    @Kaiser the Gloucester line personally owns many tiaras too. Mostly awful ones.

    Theres another windsor wedding on June 20th, Duke of Kent’s granddaughter Marina.

    • Elizabeth says:

      Sophie also owns one tiara, the Wessex Aquamarine tiara. She has 3 others that are on long-term loan from the crown or that are personal gifts from QEII.

      • Irisrose says:

        She doesn’t own the ones you claim are “personal gifts”. She was allowed to wear them, they aren’t her personal property. She doesn’t even own the dinky wedding tiara.

        The only one she owns is the floral convertible necklace one you mentioned. She wears it with either a central aqua or amethyst, because the center stone can be changed out.

        We’re told it was a gift from edward. purchased with what money is anyone’s guess.

    • Myself says:

      Oh, I LOVE the honeysuckle tiara that Queen Mary gave to Princess Alice (Duchess of Gloucester, current DuGlo’s MIL). I find it attractive AND you can change the center stone out 🙂

      • Irisrose says:

        If they were handing them out, I wouldn’t refuse the iveagh.

        Mostly their tiaras are so massive they cross the line into ugly for my taste. Sadly the turquoise set does too.

    • Mayp says:

      @irisrose, “The pinecone is undeniably ugly ….” LOL, I absolutely agree in it’s current state but do look for pictures of the old version of the tiara. It was better balanced with the large pine cone front and center, and had more of a kokoshnik shape. I think it was beautiful!

  7. jferber says:

    Tiny, you may be right about that. It’s just that Kate is capable of such cruelty and I’d like Harriet to be spared. Hell, Meghan should have been spared too, but we know how that worked out.

  8. Jais says:

    Nah. She should just wear a tiara. Why not? Anne apparently has more than one. If she does very casual in a day suit for the wedding then yeah it wouldn’t make sense. But if her dress is a little more fancy, then why the hell not?

  9. Blujfly says:

    There will absolutely be photographers and officially unofficial deals with the tabloids for coverage.

  10. Monika says:

    I am confused about what the British royals can accept as personal gifts and what they have to hand over to the royal collection; what is the private property ot the royal family and what is public property but the royal family is allowed to use it
    So Anne was gifted the Festoon Diamond Tiara by the company World Wide Shipping Group when she christened one of their ships. And Anne kept in her private collection. Imho this was a gift given by a company to Anne in her official capacity as member of the royal family during or after an official event. So should Anne have not given this Tiara to the royal collection? I used to work in public service till I retired and we were not allowed to accept any gifts beyond a package of biscuits and a package of coffee and that was shared with the team.

    A few years ago I think the Guardian did an investigation into the royal collection and the gifts for the royal family. I have to read it again but as far as I remember there were a lot of gifts to the royal family which should have gone to the royal collection but ended up as private property of the royal family.

    • liz says:

      40+ years ago (when Anne was given that particular tiara), they could accept whatever they wanted.

      It wasn’t until the early 2000s and Camila was accepting multi-strand diamond necklaces from Saudi princes that it got bad press and it was determined that things like that had to land in the Royal Collection, not become an individual’s personal property.

      • Monika says:

        Thanks Liz for the clarification.
        After I posted the comment I thought that 1973 was probably years before any regulation was introduced.
        However this shows what grifters all members of the left behind royal family actually are. They only change their habbits when they are caught out and clear regulations are introduced. There is no moral conscience that this kind of gifts might be inappropriate. And the left behind royal family do not give up anything voluntarily.

      • Irisrose says:

        There was also Sophie accepting a set of jewelry from a questionable source (bahrain?).

        She’s only been seeing wearing it at receptions where press aren’t welcome. Therefore only a few blurry photos of the set exist. It is mostly diamonds with many colored gemstones scattered throughout.

  11. molly says:

    I’ve long said this about Kate, but I’d love to see her wear a broach or collection of pins as an up-do hair adornment. It’s a fresh take on a classically royal jewelry piece, and heaven knows they have plenty of them.

    • Irisrose says:

      Lady Sarah chattos’s wedding tiara was constructed from a set of brooches given to Margaret. Imo it worked because of the greenery woven in.

      • molly says:

        Oooh, I didn’t know that. It’s beautiful!

        I’d love to see Kate or Harriet decorate a chignon with brooches when they want to be fancy but a tiara is too much.

      • Irisrose says:

        Maxima of the Netherlands does that sometimes. She pins an extra bit of bling in her hair or at her waist.

    • Lila says:

      Queen Mary does this. She wears combs and brooches in her hair frequently. She even had pins made from part of her ruby tiara.

    • Myself says:

      There is a set of wheat ear “brooches” in the Vault – QEII wore them in her hair occasionally. Not nearly as fun as Princess Astrid of Sweden’s diamond aigrette, but a nice different option from a standard tiara. Agree Queen Maxima does this best – I think she has a way of wearing her jewels few others can match. Mostly because she always looks like she’s having fun and enjoying them, figuring out new combos or ways to wear things…Well, the Swedes do as well – I mean, they turned diamond epaulettes into earrings 🙂

  12. Tessa says:

    Would Harriet and Peter want a more low key wedding? Anne wore a tiara at her first wedding and as I recall not her second marriage which was very low key. Autumn wore one of Anne’s tiaras

  13. Becks1 says:

    I think she’ll wear a tiara and the british press will love it and no one will complain. She’s white, after all.

  14. QuiteContrary says:

    I do like Harriet’s style. Kate! should copykeen her for a change.

  15. Lianne says:

    They couldn’t let a blood princess be beholden to her sister in law for such things, the Queen Elizabeths both knew what they were doing gifting those to her. Bea and Eug have Sarah’s tiara forever now too.

    • Irisrose says:

      A tiara Sarah grifted out of QEII. She borrowed it from a jeweller for the wedding. Once news got out that QEII didn’t loan her a tiara? She and Phil were guilted into buying that one for her after the wedding.

      Neither bea nor Eugenie chose to wear it for their weddings. That tiara could be paste by now, or torn apart and sold.

      • Becks1 says:

        Beatrice wore it in Jordan a few years ago, so at least as of then, it was still in one piece. I think there was a general sense of surprise because many assumed it HAD been sold.

        I found it interesting that neither wore it for their wedding but maybe they considered it bad luck or something?

      • Paisley25 says:

        Princess Beatrice wore the York tiara to the Jordanian wedding a few years ago. I was shocked they still had it.

        The Queen was stupid for not loaning out more jewels. I know a lot of tiaras were still in the possession of the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret until their 2002 deaths, but she must have had a few suitable tiaras. It’s wild she didn’t loan something to Fergie for the wedding. And that Diana only had the Cambridge tiara and use of her family’s Spencer tiara while Princess of Wales and attending a ton of formal dinners.

  16. Amy Bee says:

    I’d be surprised if she wears a tiara.

  17. jferber says:

    Becks 1, Harriet is a white woman and she’ll get plenty of grace for that. But Kate is a bitch to the York princesses and they’re white, too. And yes, Black people are intolerable to Kate and her harassment and threat to Meghan were/are extreme. Princess Diana, had she lived, would have steered Will away from Kate. Far away. And maybe Will would have been less of a psycho had his mother lived. Who knows?

    • Tessa says:

      Diana could have suggested scooter study a semester or two in the USA in any case I don’t think he would have attended st Andrews had she lived

  18. tamsin says:

    Harriet looks stylish, in a very English kind of way. In fact, she looks more stylish than Kate. She’s a tall blonde. She’s competition for Kate the style and English rose stakes.

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