Meghan Markle Almost Wore a Tiara That Would Have Poignantly Honored Princess Diana

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published 27 November 2023

When she married Prince Charles in 1981, Diana Spencer chose to wear her family’s heirloom tiara, the Spencer tiara, for her walk down the aisle, choosing it over the Queen Mary Lover’s Knot tiara loaned to her by her soon-to-be mother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth. The Spencer tiara includes diamonds in silver settings mounted in gold in various floral shapes; both of Diana’s older sisters, Jane and Sarah, also wore the tiara at their respective weddings. (The Queen Mary Lover’s Knot tiara, by the way, is one favored most by the current Princess of Wales, Catherine.)

According to The Daily Express, when she married Prince Harry in 2018, Meghan Markle wanted to wear the Spencer tiara—perhaps as a nod to the mother-in-law she’ll never know, using it as a sentimental way to honor Diana, who died in 1997. But this time, the Queen stepped in and said no, which she didn’t do back in 1981.

In his bombshell memoir, Spare, Harry wrote that he was “touched” when Diana’s sisters, now Lady Jane Fellowes and Lady Sarah McCorquodale, asked if Meghan wanted to borrow Diana’s tiara for her wedding. But Her late Majesty had a different vision in mind, and asked Harry and Meghan to attend a private appointment with her at Buckingham Palace, just days before their May wedding.

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Upon arrival at the Palace, they found that the late Queen had personally chosen five of her tiaras for Meghan to choose from to wear on her wedding day. In addition to the Queen, a jewelry expert, a historian, and Angela Kelly (the Queen’s dresser and close confidante), were all present for Meghan’s choice of tiaras.

“Shortly before the wedding, however, Granny reached out,” Harry wrote. “She offered us access to her collection of tiaras. She even invited us to Buckingham Palace to try them on. ‘Do come over,’ I remember her saying. Extraordinary morning. We walked into Granny’s private dressing room, right next to her bedroom, a space I’d never been in. Along with Granny was a jewelry expert, an eminent historian who knew the lineage of each stone in the royal collection. Also present was Granny’s dresser and confidante, Angela.”

Of the tiaras themselves, Harry wrote “One was all emeralds. One was aquamarines. Each was more dazzlingly stunning than the last.”

Ultimately, Meghan chose an ornate art-deco style tiara for her wedding day, which was given to Queen Elizabeth’s grandmother, Queen Mary, as a wedding present in 1893. Meghan wore the tiara alongside a gown designed by Clare Waight Keller for Givenchy and a long veil that, interestingly, took longer to create than Meghan’s dress itself.

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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.