{"id":286737,"date":"2025-07-24T02:13:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T02:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/286737\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T02:13:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T02:13:10","slug":"queen-camilla-was-spotted-wearing-princess-dianas-jewelry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/286737\/","title":{"rendered":"Queen Camilla Was Spotted Wearing Princess Diana’s Jewelry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Would you ever wear a piece of jewelry that belonged to your partner\u2019s ex? Uh, yeah, that\u2019s what we thought. If our partner gave something like that to us, it would probably make us question the entire relationship. But as we know, many things are different if you\u2019re a royal\u2014and this is one of them. When Queen Camilla was first spotted sporting a distinctive piece that had once belonged to King Charles\u2019s ex-wife, Princess Diana, some royal fans might have cringed. And who could blame them? After all, everyone knows about the infamous royal love triangle<\/a> and still loves Diana.<\/p>\n

However, again, we are not royals, and there could be a very good reason for this choice. (And no, it\u2019s not just that the item in question is absolutely stunning.) We asked Helen Dimmick, a British jewelry specialist, to give us the scoop on this royal decision<\/a>, including what really happened behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

Get\u00a0<\/b>Reader\u2019s Digest<\/b>\u2019s\u00a0<\/b>Read Up newsletter<\/b><\/a> for more royals, humor, cleaning, travel, tech and fun facts all week long.<\/b><\/p>\n

Which piece of Diana\u2019s jewelry has Camilla been spotted wearing?<\/p>\n

\"QueenReader’s Digest, Getty Images (2)<\/p>\n

The piece in question is a stunning necklace with four carats of white diamonds and green emeralds, featuring three ostrich feathers in its middle, which are part of the heraldic badge of the Prince of Wales\u2014an obvious link to King Charles, the man who, as everyone\u2019s well aware, both ladies married. The necklace boasted 18 stones in total and was originally gifted in 1863 to Queen Alexandra, who later passed it on to the queen mother.<\/p>\n

Then the queen mother gave it to Diana in 1981, reportedly on her wedding day<\/a>. Diana wore the precious piece to a gala at the Vienna Burgh Theatre in 1986 (where she paired it with a stunning emerald dress) and to the Royal York Hotel in Toronto during a state visit to Canada in 1991.<\/p>\n

Maxwell Stone, creative director of jewelers Steven Stone, estimated in the British newspaper Express that the original piece would have been worth up to \u00a3130,000 (approximately $175,000) on today\u2019s market.<\/p>\n

What has Camilla done with Diana\u2019s beloved necklace?<\/p>\n

Well, first of all, she wore it. Second, Queen Camilla turned it into a brooch\u2014or, at the very least, she wore it as one. It\u2019s not quite clear if she actually redesigned it or if it\u2019s just a piece that can be styled in different ways. \u201cYou often find with vintage pieces that the pendant comes off at some point,\u201d says Dimmick. \u201cThey also often have a brooch bar, which means they can be worn as either a necklace or a brooch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dimmick tends to believe the latter might be the case here. Either way, she stresses that Camilla is generally \u201cvery careful in her jewelry choices to avoid comparisons with Diana. She is very sensitive to her memory.\u201d So while this particular piece might have still raised some eyebrows among Diana\u2019s dedicated fans, it surely would have gone down worse had she just worn it around her neck, as Diana did.<\/p>\n

Camilla has been seen with the brooch on several occasions, including at the premiere of The History Boys at London\u2019s Leicester Square in 2006 and when attending the horse races at Cheltenham Festival in 2012. The most noteworthy time, however, was in 2019, when Queen Elizabeth II held a reception to mark Charles\u2019s 50th anniversary as the prince of Wales.<\/p>\n

What was the public\u2019s reaction?<\/p>\n

Royal fans were very much divided about Camilla\u2019s jewelry choice. Some called it \u201cplain tacky\u201d and \u201cabsolutely appalling,\u201d suggesting the piece should have been passed on to Diana\u2019s sons, Prince William and Prince Harry<\/a>, instead of Camilla. Others were quick to come to Camilla\u2019s defense. They argued that the necklace turned brooch was part of the Crown Estate, the Royal Collection, and not one of Diana\u2019s personal possessions. As a result, they said, the current queen had every right in the world to wear the piece\u2014and wear it exactly the way she wanted to.<\/p>\n

Today.com contacted Buckingham Palace after Camilla had been pictured with the piece at the horse races in 2006. \u201cThe Duchess of Cornwall wore it to Cheltenham as she was presenting the Queen Mother Cup for one of the races,\u201d the palace\u2019s official statement read. \u201cAs it once belonged to the Queen Mother, she felt it was appropriate to wear.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did this happen?<\/p>\n

The famous necklace, it seems, was never Princess Diana\u2019s in the first place, but part of the Royal Collection that gets passed down through generations of royals. This explains why Harry and William didn\u2019t inherit it<\/a> after their mother died, and also why any woman in the royal household could wear it. As Maxwell Stone told Express, Camilla has worn and redesigned several pieces over the years that were \u201conce loved by Princess Diana,\u201d causing \u201cquite a lot of controversy\u201d by doing so.<\/p>\n

Addressing this particular redesign, Dimmick says it\u2019s \u201cperfectly normal that jewelry is remodeled and worn in different formats over the years.\u201d And Camilla is not the only one doing it, even if she\u2019s been the one who\u2019s caused the biggest stir.<\/p>\n

Is this regular practice with royal jewelry?<\/p>\n

Yes. Contrary to popular belief, most of the royal jewelry doesn\u2019t actually belong to an individual member of the family. \u201cThere\u2019s a fine line between what they own personally and what belongs in the Royal Collection. It\u2019s almost impossible to know when talking about a particular piece, as it\u2019s not something that\u2019s publicly ever addressed,\u201d says Dimmick. \u201cMost of the jewelry is in the trust, where it\u2019s well looked after and available for other members of the family to use.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, assuming the necklace really is part of this collection, Camilla wearing it isn\u2019t a massive deal after all. In fact, we quite like the fact that the jewelry is being used instead of just sitting in a box for decades.<\/p>\n

What happened to Diana\u2019s other jewelry?<\/p>\n

Most of Diana\u2019s jewelry has gone back to the Royal Collection. But there are a few pieces that stayed in the personal possession of the royal family.<\/p>\n