Meghan's Cartier Collection and the Princess of Wales's Royal Heirlooms

Fine jewellery tells a story long before a single word is spoken about it, and few contrasts illustrate that better than the collections built by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Catherine, Princess of Wales. One is a wardrobe of Cartier pieces chosen and bought to reflect personal taste; the other is a set of tiaras and jewels entrusted from one generation to the next, each with a provenance stretching back a century or more.

Neither approach is more “royal” than the other. They simply reflect two different relationships with jewellery. Catherine wears pieces that belong, technically, to the Crown and the Royal Collection, worn on loan and returned to storage between engagements. Meghan, having stepped back from royal duties, has built a collection that is entirely her own: pieces she selected, purchased and wears exactly as she pleases, with no vault to return them to.

Looking closely at both collections (where the pieces came from, who wore them first, and what they mean to the women who wear them now) reveals two thoughtful, quietly confident approaches to getting dressed.

A Wedding Day, Two Tiaras

Both women wore historic Cartier tiaras on their wedding days, and the difference in how each piece reached them says everything about the two paths that followed. For her 2011 wedding to Prince William, Catherine wore the Cartier Halo Tiara, a delicate diamond band of scrolling motifs made in 1936 and lent to her by Queen Elizabeth II. It has not been seen in public since.

Meghan, marrying Prince Harry in 2018, wore Queen Mary’s Diamond Bandeau, another loan from the late Queen, its centrepiece a detachable brooch dating from 1893. Under long-standing royal convention, a tiara is worn for the first time only on a woman’s wedding day. Both brides observed the custom, and both wore historic pieces that belonged to the Royal Collection rather than to them personally. From that identical starting point, though, their jewellery stories diverged sharply in the years that followed.

The Cambridge Lover’s Knot: From Queen Mary to Diana to Catherine

No tiara in the Princess of Wales’s collection carries more history than the Cambridge Lover’s Knot. Queen Mary commissioned it from the royal jeweller Garrard in 1914, drawing on a design connected to her own grandmother, and wore it for decades as one of her signature pieces. It later passed to Queen Elizabeth II, who lent it to Diana, Princess of Wales as a wedding gift in 1981, a loan, not an outright gift, though it became so closely associated with Diana that many assumed otherwise.

After Diana’s divorce in 1996, the tiara was returned to the Royal Collection, as loaned jewels always are, and it disappeared from public view for nearly two decades. Catherine first wore it publicly in 2015, at a diplomatic reception at Buckingham Palace, and it has since become one of her most recognisable pieces. The tiara’s journey, commissioned for one queen and lent to two princesses of Wales across two generations, is a rare example of a single object carrying an entire family’s history on its surface.

The Cartier Halo: A Tiara Lent, Not Kept

The Cartier Halo Tiara has an equally layered history, even if it has had far less public exposure. King George VI, then Duke of York, commissioned it from Cartier in 1936 as a gift for his wife, the future Queen Mother, and its scrolling band is set with 888 diamonds. The then-Princess Elizabeth received it from her mother as an eighteenth-birthday gift in 1944, decades before she herself lent it to Catherine for her 2011 wedding.

What makes the Halo Tiara a useful case study in royal jewellery etiquette is what happened afterwards: nothing. Catherine has not worn it publicly since her wedding day, and it has returned to the vault, exactly as loaned pieces do. It is a reminder that even the most photographed jewels in the Princess of Wales’s collection are held rather than owned: worn at the Crown’s discretion, catalogued as part of the Royal Collection, and available to her only for as long as convention and circumstance allow.

Meghan’s Cartier: Jewellery as Personal Choice

Meghan’s approach could hardly be more different, and that is precisely what makes it interesting. Rather than borrowing from a vault, she has built a personal collection anchored by Cartier’s most collectible modern pieces: the Juste un Clou necklace, a nail-shaped design in yellow gold that has become something of a signature; the Love bracelet, Cartier’s screw-motif design created in the 1970s; and a Cartier Tank Française watch that has become a near-permanent fixture on her wrist.

These are pieces anyone with the means can buy, no royal warrant or family connection required, and that is the point. Since stepping back from royal duties, Meghan has been free to build a jewellery wardrobe entirely on her own terms, choosing pieces for how they look and feel rather than what they signify institutionally. It is a modern, accessible relationship with fine jewellery, closer to how most people actually acquire the pieces they treasure, and it sits alongside the wider shift in her wardrobe from Kensington to California.

Diana’s Legacy, Worn Two Different Ways

Princess Diana connects both women’s jewellery boxes, though in strikingly different forms, as we explored in our closer look at Diana’s most storied jewels. Catherine wears the Cambridge Lover’s Knot Tiara and Diana’s engagement ring (the sapphire and diamond cluster now on her left hand) as part of the formal Royal Collection, pieces held in trust rather than owned outright. Meghan, meanwhile, was given personal keepsakes directly by Prince Harry: Diana’s aquamarine cocktail ring and her gold Cartier Tank watch among them, gifts rather than loans, worn without any obligation to return them.

It is a gentle illustration of the same theme running through this whole comparison. Diana’s legacy lives on in the Royal Collection, entrusted from queen to princess as tiaras and formal jewels; it also lives on in personal gifts passed directly between family members, worn simply because they were loved. Both are real inheritances. They just travel through entirely different channels.

Two Philosophies, One Shared Reverence

Look past the contrast and something both women share comes into focus: real respect for the craftsmanship behind the pieces they wear. Catherine’s jewels carry the weight of monarchy: pieces made by court jewellers for queens, refashioned and re-lent across a century, each stone accountable to history. Meghan’s pieces carry the weight of personal choice: jewellery selected because it means something to her, bought rather than borrowed, chosen rather than assigned.

Neither approach diminishes the other, a point our piece on why royal families count centuries rather than carats explores in more depth. A woman who wears a tiara made in 1914 for a queen she never met is participating in the same tradition of fine craftsmanship as a woman who chooses a Cartier nail bracelet because its design speaks to her. The materials, techniques and houses overlap constantly (both women have, after all, worn Cartier), even as the meaning attached to each piece could not be more different.

The Etiquette Behind the Sparkle

Royal jewellery etiquette explains much of what looks, at first glance, like simple personal preference. Tiaras, by long convention, are worn only by married women, and traditionally only in the evening for formal occasions, which is why both women wore one for the first time on their wedding days and have worn them sparingly since. Catherine, as a working member of the family with regular access to the Royal Collection, has more occasions to do so; Meghan, since 2020, has had none, which is simply a function of role rather than any restriction on her personal taste.

Royal commentators have noted that Meghan herself has never seemed especially drawn to tiaras as a category, favouring instead the kind of jewellery she can wear on any given Tuesday rather than only at state banquets. That preference, paired with her changed role, explains her collection’s centre of gravity far more than any palace decree ever could.

A Shared Love of Beautiful Things

Strip away the institutional context and what remains is two women who plainly love fine jewellery, one through the lens of inherited history, the other through the lens of personal discovery. Catherine’s tiaras will likely be lent again to her own children’s generation one day, continuing a chain that already stretches back more than a hundred years. Meghan’s Cartier pieces belong to her outright, free to be worn, gifted or passed on entirely as she chooses. Both are, in their own way, building something that will outlast the moment they were first worn.

Neither a lent Cartier tiara nor a personal Love bracelet is within most budgets, but British jewellers such as Astley Clarke and Monica Vinader offer an everyday way to build a personal collection in the same spirit as Meghan’s own.

Frequently asked questions

Did Meghan Markle wear the Cambridge Lover’s Knot Tiara?

No. The Cambridge Lover’s Knot Tiara has been worn by Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth II, Diana, Princess of Wales, and Catherine, Princess of Wales, but never by Meghan. As Duchess of Sussex, Meghan wore Queen Mary’s Diamond Bandeau Tiara for her own 2018 wedding.

Is it true the Cambridge Lover’s Knot Tiara is worth $135 million?

Figures like that circulate widely online but have no basis in any real appraisal. Historic royal jewels of this kind are not for sale and have never been formally valued. What can be verified is its provenance: made by Garrard for Queen Mary in 1914, later worn by Diana and now by Catherine.

Why doesn’t Meghan Markle wear tiaras anymore?

Since stepping back from royal duties in 2020, Meghan no longer has routine access to the Royal Collection, from which nearly all working royals’ tiaras are borrowed rather than owned. Royal convention also reserves tiaras largely for formal evening occasions, which she and Prince Harry no longer attend in an official capacity.

What is Meghan Markle’s most-worn piece of jewellery?

Her Cartier Juste un Clou necklace, a nail-motif design in yellow gold, has become one of her most recognisable signature pieces since she began wearing it regularly in recent years.

Did Kate Middleton inherit any of Princess Diana’s jewellery directly?

Yes. Most famously, Catherine wears Diana’s sapphire and diamond engagement ring, given to her by Prince William when they married in 2011. She has also worn other pieces associated with Diana, including designs from the Spencer family collection on occasion.

Who made the Cartier Halo Tiara worn by Catherine at her wedding?

Cartier made the tiara in 1936, commissioned by the then-Duke of York as a gift for his wife, later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. It passed to Queen Elizabeth II on her eighteenth birthday before being lent to Catherine for her 2011 wedding.

Does Meghan Markle still own royal jewellery given to her during her time as a working royal?

Some pieces gifted outright, such as jewellery given personally by Prince Harry or the late Queen for specific occasions, remain hers. Items from the formal Royal Collection, including loaned tiaras, are not personal possessions and were returned or were never hers to keep.

What is the difference between a royal jewellery “loan” and a “gift”?

A loan, such as the tiaras worn by Catherine, remains the property of the Royal Collection or the monarch and must eventually be returned. A gift, such as the pieces Meghan received personally, becomes the recipient’s own property to keep, wear or pass on as she chooses.

This article draws on royal jewellery history as documented by court historians, auction houses and contemporary royal reporting. Where a specific valuation could not be independently verified, we have noted this rather than repeating unsubstantiated figures. Provenance details reflect the most widely corroborated public record at the time of writing.