Meghan Markle’s decision not to attend next month’s coronation will prevent the royal family from having another awkward discussion over which tiaras the Duchess should wear.
This afternoon, Buckingham Palace confirmed that Prince Harry will attend the historic ceremony next month without his wife.
The Duchess of Sussex, 41, will stay at home at the couple’s residence in Montecito with year-old Lilibet and Archie, whose fourth birthday falls on the same day as the ceremony.
Ahead of the coronation, which will take place at Westminster Abbey on May 6, the palace has already confirmed that Queen Camilla will wear Queen Mary’s Crown – which was created by Garrard & Co for Mary of Teck in 1911.
The 41-year-old Princess of Wales is also expected to wear a tiara at the ceremony – after donning the Cambridge Lover’s Knot, a wedding gift to Princess Diana, for her first state banquet since inheriting her new title in November 2022.
The sparkling tiara that Meghan wore to her wedding was the Queen Mary’s Diamond Bandeau, loaned to her by Harry’s grandmother the Queen from the Royal Collection
However, this afternoon’s announcement has saved Buckingham Palace from a possible repeat of the feud over Meghan Markle’s wedding crown, which was known as ‘tiara-gate’.
This was announced at the end of 2018 Prince Harry shouted ‘whatever Meghan wants, Meghan gets’ to Angela Kelly, his late grandmother’s personal dresser.
It was rumored that Meghan wanted to wear an emerald green tiara, but the Queen had instead selected a diamond tiara that her grandmother, Queen Mary, wore in 1932.
The authors of the 2020 biography Finding Freedom, Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, claimed that Harry felt that Angela had deliberately dragged Kelly’s feet while trying to help decide which tiara to wear, The sun reported.
According to a Royal insider, the Queen is said to have told Prince Harry: ‘Meghan can’t have what she wants. She gets the tiara she gets from me.’
“The Queen also wondered why Meghan needed a veil for the wedding as it would be her second marriage,” the source claimed, adding that, “Meghan can be difficult.”
In his splashy biography Spare, which hit shelves earlier this year, Prince Harry revealed his side of “tiara-gate” and denied yelling at the Queen’s personal dresser.
The Duke claims his mother’s sisters had previously presented Meghan with one of the Princess of Wales’s tiaras.
The Queen’s dresser, Angela Kelly, reportedly did not respond to Harry’s messages about Meghan’s chosen tiara
In his memoir, Harry denies saying the previously reported phrase, ‘What Meghan wants, Meghan gets’
Meghan was ‘touched’ and spent ‘hours and hours’ with her wedding dress designer to get the scalloped edges of her veil to match the Spencer tiara
But shortly before the May 2018 wedding, Harry says the Queen “reached out” to the couple and offered Meghan access to her collection of tiaras.
Harry says: ‘She even invited us to Buckingham Palace to try them on. “Come over,” I remember her saying.
What unfolded, says Harry, was “an extraordinary morning.”
They were led to his grandmother’s private dressing room, next to her bedroom – a place Harry had never been before.
Princess Diana pictured in the Spencer family tiara in 1983. Meghan planned to wear the Spencer tiara before the Queen offered to lend her one from the Royal Collection for her wedding
Harry also claims that there had been “heavy discussions in the back corridors of the palace about whether Meghan could – or should – wear a veil”
The Queen stood next to a jewelery expert who knew the history of every stone in the Royal Collection.
Also in the room was Mrs. Kelly—a Liverpool dockworker’s daughter who had become indispensable to the Monarch as her personal dresser and confidante, but known to courtiers as “AK-47” because of her forceful personality.
Harry says the Queen has asked Meghan to see five beautiful tiaras, including one with emeralds and one with aquamarines.
The Queen then told Meghan, “Tiaras suit you.”
After Meghan chose one, the Queen advised her to try on the piece at her hairdresser before the wedding day.
But Harry says when he later tried to contact Ms. Kelly to get the tiara for the practice session, the dresser was unresponsive.
The Queen was pictured attending London Fashion Week alongside her trusted confidante, Angela Kelly
When he finally tracked her down, Kelly told him to get the tiara from the palace for an appointment with Meghan’s hairdresser “can’t” because it would take a male nurse and a police officer to guard him.
Harry – who admits to being annoyed – says Ms Kelly eventually ‘appeared out of the blue’ at Kensington Palace to get him to sign a release form before handing over the tiara.
He writes: ‘She fixed me with a look that made me shiver. I could read a clear warning on her face. This isn’t over yet.’
The Spencer Tiara, which Meghan originally planned to wear, was worn by Princess Diana during her wedding to Prince Charles in 1981, and worn by her on numerous occasions after her big day.
The tiara is a family heirloom that was also worn by all of Diana’s sisters on their wedding day.
The headpiece, made by Garrards in the 1930s, has an elaborate design of stylized flowers decorated with diamonds in silver settings.
Harry says the Queen asked Meghan to see five beautiful tiaras, including one with emeralds and one with aquamarines
The diamond and platinum bandeau tiara worn by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, at her wedding was displayed at Windsor Castle
The tiara is now owned by Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer.
Meghan instead wore Queen Mary’s Diamond Bandeau, the centerpiece of which is a 10-diamond brooch Mary of Teck received as a wedding gift from the County of Lincoln in 1893.
The tiara saga was just one of many difficulties Meghan would have faced in preparing her wedding ensemble.
Harry claims that “there had been heated arguments in the back corridors of the palace about whether Meghan could – or should – wear a veil.”
For a divorced woman, wearing a veil was out of the question for some courtiers, he says.
But Harry goes on to say that “unexpectedly those in power showed some flexibility” and relented.
His telling of the story of the Tiara Gate shows the extent of the power wielded by the queen’s dresser.
Mrs. Kelly first entered the royal household as an assistant dresser, but worked her way up and was entrusted with the keys to the Queen’s priceless jewelery collection.
She served Queen Elizabeth II for nearly 30 years and was pictured at her state funeral on September 19.
The Queen is said to have made royal provisions to allow Mrs. Kelly to remain in her home for the rest of her life, even after her death.
The pair were known to exchange light-hearted banter with each other, as the Queen once jokingly told her dresser ‘you’re fired’ during a trip to Australia.
Her great influence would give her considerable power over other senior staff and younger members of the household.