Prince Harry’s tell-all memoir, Spare, hits shelves on Jan. 10, but drama-filled excerpts are already leaking. Among the bombshells, there are new details regarding the drama surrounding Meghan Markle’s wedding tiara.
Page Six reported that in the new book, Prince Harry explained that he and Markle imagined that she would wear one of Princess Diana’s tiaras for her special day, but Queen Elizabeth II urged them to choose from her private jewelry collection at Buckingham Palace vaults instead.
According to the reports, the Queen and Angela Kelly, her Majesty’s royal dresser, shared an assortment of five tiaras for the bride. Prince Harry recalled that one particular crown “stood out from the others,” according to a quote acquired by Page Six. Prince Harry didn’t call out which one, but claimed that everyone agreed that it, “looked like it was made for Meg.”
Just a week later, the couple touched base with Kelly and requested to borrow the tiara for a test with Markle’s hairstylist. The Duke of Sussex claims the royal dresser went silent. When she did contact them, she said the tiara needed a police escort to leave the palace.
It’s reported that Harry wrote that it “seemed to us a little exaggerated,” but it was down to the wire so they agreed. “It was obvious they were putting up obstacles, but why? It didn’t occur to us what motives they might have.”
Apparently, the drama (which he reportedly said stirred “heated debates”) was regarding the fact that Markle was divorced. (Markle was previously married to film and TV producer Trevor Engelson.)
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry tied the knot on May 19, 2018, with Markle wearing a Givenchy gown by designer Clare Waight Keller, with a cascading veil, and Queen Mary’s glistening Diamond Bandeau tiara.
According to royal biographer Robert Lacy, Queen Elizabeth II allegedly denied Markle’s green emerald selection, as the piece had “scandal attached.” In his book Battle of Brothers, the author claims the Duchess requested to wear “a beautiful emerald headdress that was said ‘to have come from Russia.’”
Lacy explained that pieces sourced from Russia come from “a sensitive origin.” The unknown headpiece “was one of those that found its way into Windsor hands through ‘undefined’ not to say dodgy channels — and for an undisclosed price — in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution.”
In 1918, Russia’s Imperial family, the Romanov’s (including Tsar Nicholas II) were murdered. Some of the family jewels found their way to the British royal family. “It would suit neither the palace nor Meghan herself that spring if newspapers started speculating about which Tsarist princess had worn the tiara and how she had been assassinated,” said Lacy.
The tiara Markle wore on her wedding day has historic roots reaching back to 1893. When Queen Mary was still Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, she received a group of glittering jewels as a wedding gift when she tied the knot with King George V. Among her presents was an immaculate diamond cluster brooch.
Leading UK jeweler Steven Stone told Page Six Style, “the center stone featured in the tiara is actually a brooch, comprised of 10 diamonds which Mary of Teck received as a wedding gift from the County of Lincoln in 1893.”
According to The Court Jeweler, Queen Mary commissioned Garrard in 1932 to create a new diamond and platinum bandeau-style tiara, with the County of Lincoln Brooch in the center. The Royal Collection has detailed the tiara as, “a flexible band of eleven sections, pavé set with large and small, brilliant diamonds in a geometric design.”
The tiara was handed down to Queen Elizabeth II from her grandmother in 1953.
In the months following her wedding day, the Duchess told Harper’s Bazaar, “When it came to the tiara on the day, I was very fortunate to be able to choose this gorgeous art deco style bandeau tiara.”
She continued, “Harry and I had gone to Buckingham Palace to meet with her Majesty the Queen to select one of the options that were there which was an incredibly surreal day as you can imagine.”
