Oh, no, she didn't!
Queen Camilla Was Spotted Wearing Princess Diana’s Jewelry—With a Twist
Published on Jul. 23, 2025
Would you ever wear a piece of jewelry that belonged to your partner’s ex? Uh, yeah, that’s 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’re a royal—and this is one of them. When Queen Camilla was first spotted sporting a distinctive piece that had once belonged to King Charles’s 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 and still loves Diana.
However, again, we are not royals, and there could be a very good reason for this choice. (And no, it’s 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, including what really happened behind the scenes.
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Which piece of Diana’s jewelry has Camilla been spotted wearing?
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—an obvious link to King Charles, the man who, as everyone’s 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.
Then the queen mother gave it to Diana in 1981, reportedly on her wedding day. 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.
Maxwell Stone, creative director of jewelers Steven Stone, estimated in the British newspaper Express that the original piece would have been worth up to £130,000 (approximately $175,000) on today’s market.
What has Camilla done with Diana’s beloved necklace?
Well, first of all, she wore it. Second, Queen Camilla turned it into a brooch—or, at the very least, she wore it as one. It’s not quite clear if she actually redesigned it or if it’s just a piece that can be styled in different ways. “You often find with vintage pieces that the pendant comes off at some point,” says Dimmick. “They also often have a brooch bar, which means they can be worn as either a necklace or a brooch.”
Dimmick tends to believe the latter might be the case here. Either way, she stresses that Camilla is generally “very careful in her jewelry choices to avoid comparisons with Diana. She is very sensitive to her memory.” So while this particular piece might have still raised some eyebrows among Diana’s dedicated fans, it surely would have gone down worse had she just worn it around her neck, as Diana did.
Camilla has been seen with the brooch on several occasions, including at the premiere of The History Boys at London’s 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’s 50th anniversary as the prince of Wales.
What was the public’s reaction?
Royal fans were very much divided about Camilla’s jewelry choice. Some called it “plain tacky” and “absolutely appalling,” suggesting the piece should have been passed on to Diana’s sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, instead of Camilla. Others were quick to come to Camilla’s defense. They argued that the necklace turned brooch was part of the Crown Estate, the Royal Collection, and not one of Diana’s personal possessions. As a result, they said, the current queen had every right in the world to wear the piece—and wear it exactly the way she wanted to.
Today.com contacted Buckingham Palace after Camilla had been pictured with the piece at the horse races in 2006. “The Duchess of Cornwall wore it to Cheltenham as she was presenting the Queen Mother Cup for one of the races,” the palace’s official statement read. “As it once belonged to the Queen Mother, she felt it was appropriate to wear.”
How did this happen?
The famous necklace, it seems, was never Princess Diana’s 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’t inherit it 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 “once loved by Princess Diana,” causing “quite a lot of controversy” by doing so.
Addressing this particular redesign, Dimmick says it’s “perfectly normal that jewelry is remodeled and worn in different formats over the years.” And Camilla is not the only one doing it, even if she’s been the one who’s caused the biggest stir.
Is this regular practice with royal jewelry?
Yes. Contrary to popular belief, most of the royal jewelry doesn’t actually belong to an individual member of the family. “There’s a fine line between what they own personally and what belongs in the Royal Collection. It’s almost impossible to know when talking about a particular piece, as it’s not something that’s publicly ever addressed,” says Dimmick. “Most of the jewelry is in the trust, where it’s well looked after and available for other members of the family to use.”
So, assuming the necklace really is part of this collection, Camilla wearing it isn’t 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.
What happened to Diana’s other jewelry?
Most of Diana’s jewelry has gone back to the Royal Collection. But there are a few pieces that stayed in the personal possession of the royal family.
- Engagement ring: In a move that was very unusual for a royal bride, Diana chose her own engagement ring “from a catalog,” Dimmick explains. The ring from Garrard features a halo of diamonds set in 18-carat white gold, and a signature deep blue 12-carat oval Ceylon sapphire. According to Dimmick, the ring originally went to Prince Harry following Diana’s sudden death, but his brother, Prince William, later “wanted to have it for Kate, so Harry swapped it for Diana’s Cartier watch.”
- Pearl earrings: Besides said Cartier watch, Prince William also received Diana’s beloved pearl earrings. His wife, Princess Kate, proudly wore them just recently on VE-Day (Victory in Europe Day) on May 8 to commemorate the end of World War II.
- Aquamarine cocktail ring: Prince Harry inherited Diana’s famous cocktail ring featuring a massive aquamarine stone and small diamonds set in 24-carat yellow gold. According to Dimmick, the Princess of Wales received it in 1996 (so, after her divorce) from a friend. When Harry married Meghan Markle in 2018, the bride sported it on her finger during the wedding reception.
- Gold butterfly earrings: This is another piece of Diana’s jewelry that once belonged to Harry and is now Meghan’s. Diana wore the earrings on a trip to Canada in 1986, and Meghan first wore them in public when touring Australia in 2018.
- The Lover’s Knot Tiara: Like all crowns and tiaras in the royal household, this favorite of Diana’s wasn’t actually hers but is part of the royal crown jewels. Kate has worn it on several occasions, including when French president Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, were invited to a state dinner in July.
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Sources:
- Helen Dimmick, a British jewelry specialist, gemologist and diamond grader; Zoom interview, July 18, 2025
- Woman & Home: “Why Duchess Camilla altered some of Princess Diana’s ‘particularly significant’ jewelry”
- Woman & Home: “Duchess Camilla’s ‘jarring’ decision to wear Princess Diana’s jewelry to important occasion honoring Prince Charles”
- Today.com: “Royal faux pas? Camilla dons Diana’s jewels”
- Town & Country: “Every time Meghan Markle has worn Princess Diana’s jewelry”
- Express: “Camilla causes ‘controversy’ by ‘remodelling’ Princess Diana’s £130,000 jewellery”
- Garrard: “How Diana’s engagement ring inspired the 1735 Collection”
- Vanity Fair: “Kate Middleton wears the lover’s knot tiara for the first time since 2023”
