The Royal Family are the owners of some of the most priceless jewels in the world - whether that is St Edward's Crown, the Imperial State Crown or the Sovereign Orb and Sceptre. While this is the case, many other members of the The Firm also have their own collection of sentimental and staggeringly expensive gems.
Despite not being the most costly, Princess Diana's engagement ring is among the most iconic jewels owned by the royals. The impressive piece is now worn by The Princess of Wales and is comprised of a 12 carat oval sapphire surrounded by 14 round diamonds and is set in 18 karat white gold with an estimated value of around £390,000.
When Prince William and Kate announced their engagement in 2010, royal fans were delighted to see that he proposed using his late mother’s engagement ring. The famous ring was one of the items that her sons requested to keep following her death in 1997, but it almost had a very different owner.
While it may be assumed that Prince William was the one who requested to keep Diana’s famous engagement ring, it was instead Prince Harry who wanted it.
The Prince of Wales wanted to keep something else that belonged to his late mother, according to a close royal source.
In the Diana Story documentary, Diana's former butler Paul Burrell claimed that when the Princess of Wales had passed, her two sons were given the opportunity to keep a special item that belonged to her as a memory.
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Burrell recalled that Prince William had said: "I’d like mummy’s Cartier watch, the one that Grandpa Spencer gave to her for her 21st birthday," whereas it was Prince Harry who wanted to keep the engagement ring.
He remembered that Harry had once said: "I remember when I held mummy's hand when I was a small boy and that ring always hurt me because it was so big," which is why it had such sentimental value for him.
However, when it came to Prince William’s proposal, Harry gave the ring to his brother so that he could give it to Kate. Burrell praised Harry and said: "His one thing he kept from his mother, he gave to his brother. That's selfless, kind, and exactly who Diana was."
The ring is a very sentimental piece, with Prince William explaining why he chose to use his late mother's ring during his engagement interview in 2010. He said that it was a "way of making sure my mother didn't miss out".
He explained: "I had been carrying it around with me in my rucksack for about three weeks before that and I literally would not let it go, everywhere I went I was keeping hold of it because I knew this thing if it disappeared I would be in a lot of trouble and because I'd planned it, it went fine.
"You hear a lot of horror stories about proposing and things going horribly wrong - it went really, really well and I was really pleased she said yes." Elsewhere in the famous interview, Kate spoke about the value of the ring and how it was "very special".
When Prince Harry’s own wedding came in 2018, he proposed to Meghan with a ring that also had many connections to his late mother.
Meghan’s engagement ring is made up of two diamonds which are from Diana’s personal collection and centre around the main diamond that comes from Botswana - a country that has hugely sentimental ties for the couple.
During their engagement interview, Prince Harry told the BBC : "The little diamonds on either side are from my mother's jewellery collection to make sure she's with us on this crazy journey together.” Meghan added: "Obviously not being able to meet his mom, it's so important to me to know that she's a part of this with us.”
