Princess Diana's jewels get makeover after Kate Middleton removed diamonds from her iconic earrings while Meghan Markle added bling to her ring
The beautiful Princess Diana passed away in 1997 and left her jewelry collection to both of her sons - Prince William and Prince Harry - in the hope that they would pass it on to their wives, Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle some day. The Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, actually removed diamonds from a pair of Diana's stunning sapphire earrings while the Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle blinged up her engagement ring which features two of Diana's jewels.
Even though she has kept the design of Diana's engagement ring the same, Kate Middleton had the clasp of her late mother-in-law's sapphire earrings altered. The earrings were Diana's favorite and they matched perfectly with her engagement ring.
When the earrings were owned by Diana, the earrings featured a stud fastening which had its own circular sapphire detailing. However, Kate Middleton decided to remove the stud fastenings and diamonds and chose to wear the earrings as delicate teardrop earrings. Before her death, Diana had written a "letter of wishes" which read, "I would like to allocate all my jewelry to the share to be held by my sons, so that their wives may, in due course, have it or use it. I leave the exact division of the jewelry to your discretion."
In 2010, Prince William proposed to Kate Middleton with Diana's 12-carat sapphire engagement ring which is surrounded by 14 solitaire diamonds. It is estimated to cost around £300,000 ($380,785.50). When Prince Harry proposed to Meghan Markle in 2017, he did so with a specially designed ring which had two of his mother's diamonds along with a larger stone. However, it was recently revealed that Meghan Markle had her engagement ring drastically altered and replaced the thick gold band with a blingy diamond-studded design.
Editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine, Ingrid Seward, questioned Meghan's decision to "alter a ring that her husband has specially designed for her. A royal engagement ring is a piece of history not a bit of jewelry to be updated when it looks old fashioned," Seward told Fabulous Digital. Even though Kate Middleton's engagement ring is estimated at £300,000, Meghan Markle still has the more pricey and expensive jewelry collection out of the two.