“Kate typically removes her engagement ring whenever she is taking part in physical activities and sports or when there is a greater risk that the ring could become damaged or lost,” the Steven Stone experts note. With such a valuable piece that cost about $500,000, it's no wonder that Kate wants to play it safe.
The Duchess apparently has made some changes to her engagement ring, but they were only minor alterations. She has added platinum beads to the inside of the band in order to adjust the size as the ring was too big and reportedly turned on her finger – and it'd be devastating to lose such a precious ring, after all.
According to one jewellery expert, William's decision to give Kate his late mother's ring showed William was sure he had found a match his mother would have approved of.
When Prince William proposed to Kate in 2010, he presented her with his late mother's sapphire and diamond engagement ring. Princess Kate has been sporting the stunning jewelry on her finger ever since — and during a visit to Wales on Thursday, the royal revealed that she did not have to get the ring resized.
Following Diana's death in August 1997, the sapphire ring was inherited by her son Prince Harry, who eventually offered it to his older brother Prince William before he proposed to Kate Middleton with it in 2010.
'” According to Burrell, Harry wanted the ring because it represented a fond memory from his childhood. After Harry received the iconic jewel, Burrell remembers that William was happy for his brother because he's “not materialistic, so he didn't look for the flashiest jewel in mummy's collection."
The yellow gold band has not one but three diamonds: a central rock of three carats from Botswana, where the couple had holidayed together, and two diamonds on either side from Princess Diana's collection. Markle showed off the ring at Kensington Palace when the pair announced their engagement in 2017.
After the princess' death, most of her personal jewelry was inherited by her two sons Princes William and Harry, with pieces loaned to her during her lifetime being returned to Queen Elizabeth II, where they are most likely to have been inherited by King Charles in 2022.
While it is now common practice for both the bride and groom to give each other a ring as a sign of their eternal devotion, a royal aide explained that Prince William's decision not to wear a ring was 'simply down to personal preference'.
Royal expert Katie Nicholl explained that, again, in typical royal fashion, “there is a hierarchy in all of this,” she says. “The Queen Consort, really, gets first choice of the Queen's jewelry. And after that is Princess of Wales, of course, Kate.
In 2019, royal watchers noticed that something had changed with Meghan's engagement ring. Meghan's yellow gold engagement ring band, which Harry said he had chosen because it was her favorite, had been replaced with a thin micro-pavé band.
In their best-selling book the pair reportedly claimed that Prince Harry chose to update the ring because he wanted it to match an equally meaningful gift he gave her that spring for their first wedding anniversary.
On his other wrist, Prince William sported a Garmin Forerunner 245 smartwatch. As for why the Prince of Wales often wears two watches, fans speculate that the reason behind the move is pretty practical – one watch is a timeless, sentimental piece, whereas the other is a fitness tracker.
"The likely reasoning is more that while traveling on a tour such as the India trip, technically the couple are working representatives of British Monarchy," she continues. "The couple are likely to show very little PDA, if any, to remain professional during their designated roles abroad."
The Duchess of Cambridge was apparently not meant to receive the ring at all, as upon Princess Diana's passing, and when her sons turned 18, the ring was passed onto Prince Harry for his future wife, while Prince William got his mother's Cartier ring.
After Diana's tragic death at the age of 36 in a 1997 Paris car crash, her jewelry was inherited by her two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. The glittering pieces collected by Diana throughout her married life held enormous sentimental value to both the princess and the princes.
As for why the Queen left Meghan out of her inheritance, Radar Online's source speculated that it could be due to either “practicality” or Harry and Meghan's drama with the British royal family in the years leading up to the Queen's death.
How much did Kate Middleton inherit from Queen Elizabeth II? Radar Online reported in September 2022 that was Kate was expected to inherit $110 million in jewelry from the Queen after her death. The collection includes 300 personal pieces of jewelry that belonged just to the Queen and not the Crown.
It is said Meghan Markle now owns the impressive aquamarine ring, which adds to her collection of other jewellery gifted to her by Harry from Princess Diana's royal jewellery collection.
Adding that the ring — which features an emerald-cut aquamarine flanked by small solitaire diamonds — “carries a great deal of sentiment” for the royals, Stone explained, “The eye-catching aquamarine was given to Princess Diana by her friend, Lucia Flecha de Lima, and created into a ring by Asprey in 1996.”
Perhaps the most famous piece of jewelry Kate inherited from Princess Diana is this sapphire engagement ring. The ring was created by British jeweler Garrard and chosen by Prince Charles for his proposal to Diana in 1981.
3, 2006 — -- At the time of her death, Princess Diana was wearing a diamond ring given to her by Dodi Al-Fayed, according to a new book by Diana's former butler, Paul Burrell. The $5,000 ring was a friendship ring, not an engagement ring, according to Burrell, who claims the princess was not ready to remarry.
Rach Can Explain Why She Doesn't Wear Her Original Engagement + Wedding Rings | Q Ray & J. "I cook so much and platinum is such a fine metal that it burned my hand and my hand was so scarred, we couldn't hide it with makeup or powder."
It Was Picked from a Catalog
However, Prince Charles did not have a ring for Princess Diana at the time of proposal. So, she got to choose her own ring, and she decided to pick from a catalog. This stirred some controversy as it wasn't an heirloom or customized piece and wasn't exclusive to the royal family.
Princess Diana wore two watches in 1981
Her choice was a purely practical one; people believe she was simply looking after her then-husband, King Charles' watch, while he took to the polo pitch, but Prince William's decision is likely to be more considered.