Five Times Meghan Markle Sparkled in Royal Jewels

When Meghan Markle became engaged to Prince Harry in 2017, she began a journey that saw her transform in just six months from a celebrity actress best known for her role in a hit legal drama, Suits, into a royal highness, a princess and a duchess.

With her marriage on May 19, 2018, Meghan made a spectacular entrance onto the world stage as one of the most glamorous members of the British royal family, with an impressive jewelry box to match her new status.

The royals are frequently noted for their jewels, and some of them are mired in controversy. The vaults of Buckingham Palace are home to one of the largest and most prestigious private collections on the planet.

Meghan has worn the pieces she has access to sparingly over the course of her five-year marriage, which doesn't go down well with everyone. Her sister-in-law, the Princess of Wales, was recently labeled a "disappointment" by an ex-Vogue editor for not making sufficient use of the royal jewelry collection.

Newsweek looks at Meghan's top five sparkling jewelry moments, from showing off her dazzling engagement ring to wearing sentimental inherited pieces.

When Prince Harry proposed to Meghan, he did so using a ring of his own design comprising three diamonds that held special meaning to him.

Set in a band of Welsh gold, two small round diamonds flanked a larger stone set in the middle. Two of the stones had come from the jewelry collection of Harry's mother, Princess Diana, and the larger central stone he had sourced from Botswana, a place he had visited with Meghan in the early days of their relationship.

Meghan was asked about the ring in her engagement interview, given on the evening the announcement was made to the public. It was "incredible," she said: "I think everything about Harry's thoughtfulness and obviously the inclusion of [Diana] and not being able to meet his mom. It's so important to me to know that she's a part of this with us."

Meghan has worn the ring regularly, usually stacked with her wedding band complementing the golden tone of the majority of her jewelry pieces.

Meghan's wedding tiara has been the basis of numerous reports since the time of her nuptials, with speculation that it was the source of a major internal disagreement within the royal household being confirmed by Prince Harry in his 2023 memoir, Spare.

The dazzling all-diamond and platinum piece was designed in the 1920s for Queen Mary, the consort of King George V and Harry's great-great-grandmother. The tiara was inherited by Queen Elizabeth II after Mary's death and sat in the vaults of Buckingham Palace until a time came for Meghan to choose a headpiece to wear on her wedding day.

While reports circulated that Meghan and Harry had demanded a particular piece that was denied to them, leading Harry to tell courtiers "what Meghan wants, Meghan gets," the prince denied this in his memoir, telling readers that the queen had five tiaras selected from her collection for Meghan to choose from.

The basis for reports of discord over the tiara, the prince revealed, was the belief that a courtier was being obstructive when Meghan wanted to do a pre-wedding hair trial with the jewel.

On the big day, Meghan wore the tiara high on the crown of her head, holding in place her expansive cathedral length veil, which was embroidered with the floral emblems of the commonwealth nations.

Among the sentimental pieces of jewelry that Meghan has worn, are a pair of striking gold, diamond and sapphire earrings in the shape of butterflies, which formerly belonged to Princess Diana.

Though the origins of the earrings are unknown, Diana began wearing the pair (with a matching necklace) in the early 1980s, most notably during a visit to British Columbia in Canada in 1986.

Meghan wore the earrings on her first major overseas tour as a member of the British royal family, during a visit to Australia with Prince Harry. The tour, made in October 2018, came at an important time for the couple as they had just announced that the duchess was expecting their first child.

One of Meghan's most recent royal jewelry moments came in September 2022, when she attended the state funeral for Queen Elizabeth II.

Along with sister-in-law Kate, Meghan paid tribute to the late queen through her choice of jewelry for the day, opting for a pair of simple pearl and diamond stud earrings known to have been a favorite style of the monarch's.

Elizabeth owned multiple pairs of similar earrings in varying sizes of pearls and diamonds. Meghan's earrings were in fact a gift from the queen, given to her during their one and only solo engagement together, made just weeks after the duchess' wedding in June 2018.

Meghan discussed the engagement during her bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021.

"[The queen] has always been wonderful to me," she told Winfrey.

"We had one of our first joint engagements together. She asked me to join her, and ... We had breakfast together that morning and she'd given me a beautiful gift, and I just really loved being in her company."

Encouraged by Winfrey to reveal what the gift was, Meghan responded: "She gave me beautiful pearl earrings and a matching necklace. And we were in the car going between engagements, and she has a blanket that sits across her knees for warmth. And it was chilly, and she was like, 'Meghan, come on' and put it over my knees as well."

Meghan has worn the earrings on several occasions since that presentation.

Apart from her engagement ring, the first major piece of jewelry that had belonged to Princess Diana that Meghan wore made its debut on her wedding day at Windsor Castle.

For the evening reception, Meghan wore a cocktail ring with a large aquamarine stone to complement her white halter-neck dress, designed by British fashion designer Stella McCartney.

The provenance of Diana's ring is unknown, but the princess is known to have liked aquamarines, owning a pearl bracelet with an aquamarine clasp for a number of years. The cocktail ring was first worn publicly after the princess' divorce from Prince Charles (now King Charles III) in 1996.

After Meghan's wedding debut of the piece, she wore it again it on several occasions. Most recently, the duchess paired the statement jewel with a white off-the-shoulder evening gown by Louis Vuitton for the John F. Kennedy Ripple of Hope gala in New York on December 6, 2022.

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you.