Queen Camilla’s $10 million brooch holds an iconic place in British royal history, and there’s a reason it looks so familiar.
Camilla has sported the Prince Albert’s brooch, named after Queen Victoria’s husband, on several occasions. It was also a favorite of Queen Elizabeth II, who wore it to meet John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy at Buckingham Palace in 1961, as well as to Prince William’s 1982 Christening. The piece was given to Queen Victoria in 1840 by Prince Albert the night before their wedding. In Victoria’s will, she designated her beloved piece an “heirloom of the crown” so future generations could enjoy it.
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Besides the impressive price tag of the bauble, royal watchers will recognize the large central sapphire surrounded by 12 diamonds because it was the inspiration for Princess Diana’s engagement ring, which now belongs to Kate Middleton.
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The brooch is nearly identical to the iconic ring, which is exactly what King Charles intended when he selected the 12-carat sapphire ring from a Garrard catalogue prior to his 1981 proposal.
“There’s a very famous sapphire brooch which Queen Elizabeth wears regularly, passed down from Queen Victoria. That was the inspiration for the sapphire engagement ring that the Duchess of Cambridge wears,” a rep from Garrard, who served as the official Crown Jeweller to the British Royal Family from 1843 to 2007, explained to Marie Claire in 2017. “Prince Charles had always seen this beautiful sapphire brooch of his mother’s, which House of Garrard had created. When he went to House of Garrard he saw that ring, and thought it was perfect.”
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Then-Prince Charles reportedly laid out a selection of potential rings from Garrard for Diana to choose from before she ultimately landed on the vibrant blue dazzler, per Vogue. The stone, surrounded by a halo of diamonds and set in white gold, reportedly cost $37,500 at the time, according to InStyle.
While the ring has become a prized heirloom and dictated engagement ring trends for the following decade, the royal family did not initially approve of Charles breaking a longtime royal custom when it came to choosing the piece. Instead of designing a custom ring for his first bride, Diana and Charles’ choice was from Garrard’s stock collection, meaning it was available for sale to the public.
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Diana obviously prized the possession and even wore it on occasion following her 1996 divorce from Charles. After she died in 1997, it was passed down to her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. Previous reports claimed the ring was in Harry’s possession and he gifted it to William for his 2010 proposal to Kate, but Harry set the record straight in his 2023 memoir, Spare. The Duke of Sussex wrote that William actually received the sapphire ring after their mother died, despite what the papers reported.
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Either way, the ring is still being treasured. Kate wears it as her part of her daily ring stack totaling $527,312, per InStyle. The Princess of Wales pairs her engagement ring with her Welsh gold wedding band, an eternity band, and a sapphire and diamond Cartier ring.
