Meghan Markle’s decision not to attend the coronation next month will avoid the Royal Family having to rehash an awkward argument over which tiaras the Duchess is entitled to 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 home at the couple’s residence in Montecito with one-year-old Lilibet and Archie, whose fourth birthday is on the same day as the ceremony.
Ahead of the coronation, which will take place at Westminster Abbey on 6 May, the Palace has already confirmed that Queen Camilla will be wearing Queen Mary’s Crown – which was made by Garrard & Co for Mary of Teck in 1911.
The Princess of Wales, 41, is also expected to wear a tiara to the ceremony – after donning the Cambridge Lover’s Knot, which was a wedding gift to Princess Diana, for her first state banquet since inheriting her new title in November 2022.
The sparkling tiara Meghan wore on her wedding was the Queen Mary’s Diamond Bandeau, which was loaned to her by Harry’s grandmother the Queen from the Royal Collection
However, this afternoon’s announcement has saved Buckingham Palace from a potential repeat of the argument over Meghan Markle’s wedding crown, which was famously dubbed ‘tiara-gate’.
In late 2018, it was reported that Prince Harry yelled ‘what Meghan wants, Meghan gets’ at his late grandmother’s personal dresser Angela Kelly.
It was claimed Meghan wanted to wear an emerald tiara – but the Queen had instead selected a diamond tiara worn by her grandmother, Queen Mary, in 1932.
The authors of the 2020 biography Finding Freedom, Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, claimed Harry felt Angela Kelly had deliberately dragged her feet while trying to help decide on what tiara to wear, The Sun reported.
According to a Royal insider, the Queen is said to have told Prince Harry: ‘Meghan cannot have whatever she wants. She gets what tiara she’s given by me.’
‘The Queen also questioned why Meghan needed a veil for the wedding, given it was to be her second marriage’, the source alleged, adding that: ‘Meghan can be difficult’.
In his bombshell 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 earlier offered Meghan one of the Princess of Wales’s tiaras.
The Queen’s dresser Angela Kelly allegedly didn’t respond to Harry’s messages about Meghan’s chosen tiara
In his memoirs, Harry denies saying the previously reported line: ‘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 wedding in May 2018, Harry says the Queen ‘reached out’ to the couple, offering Meghan access to her collection of tiaras.
Harry says: ‘She even invited us to Buckingham Palace to try them on. “Do come over”, I remember her saying.’
What unfolded, Harry says, was ‘an extraordinary morning’.
They were shown into 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 had planned to wear the Spencer tiara before the Queen offered to lend her one from the Royal Collection for her wedding
Harry also claims there ‘had been spirited arguments in the back corridors of the Palace about whether Meghan could – or should – wear a veil’
The Queen was standing alongside a jewellery expert who knew the history of each stone in the Royal Collection.
Also in the room was Ms Kelly – a docker’s daughter from Liverpool who had become indispensable to the Monarch as her personal dresser and confidante, but who was known to courtiers as ‘AK-47’ because of her forceful personality.
Harry says the Queen asked Meghan to view five stunning tiaras, including one with emeralds and another with aquamarines.
The Queen then told Meghan: ‘Tiaras suit you.’
After Meghan chose one, the Queen advised her to try the piece on with her hairdresser before the wedding day.
But Harry says that when he tried to contact Ms Kelly later to get hold of the tiara for the practice session, the dresser didn’t respond.
The Queen was pictured attending London Fashion Week alongside her trusted confidante, Angela Kelly
When he finally tracked her down, Ms Kelly told him taking the tiara out of the Palace for an appointment with Meghan’s hairdresser ‘can’t be done’ because it would require an orderly and a police officer to guard it.
Harry – who admits to being exasperated – says Ms Kelly eventually ‘appeared out of thin air’ at Kensington Palace to make him sign a release form before handing over the tiara.
He writes: ‘She fixed me with a look that made me shiver. I could read in her face a clear warning. This isn’t over.’
The Spencer Tiara, which it is claimed Meghan originally planned to wear, was worn by Princess Diana at 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 days.
The headpiece, which was made by Garrards in the 1930s, has an elaborate design of stylised flowers decorated with diamonds in silver settings.
Harry says the Queen asked Meghan to view five stunning tiaras, including one with emeralds and another with aquamarines
The diamond and platinum bandeau tiara worn by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, on her wedding was displayed on exhibition at Windsor Castle
The tiara is now owned by Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer.
Meghan instead wore the Queen Mary’s Diamond Bandeau, the centerpiece of which is a 10-diamond brooch that Mary of Teck received as a wedding gift from the County of Lincoln in 1893.
The tiara saga was just one of the many difficulties Meghan is said to have faced when trying to prepare her wedding ensemble.
Harry claims there ‘had been spirited arguments in the back corridors of the Palace about whether Meghan could – or should – wear a veil’.
For a divorcee to wear a veil was, for some courtiers, out of the question, he says.
But Harry goes on to say that ‘the powers that be, unexpectedly, showed some flexibility’ and relented.
His telling of the Tiara-gate story shows the extent of the power wielded by the Queen’s dresser.
Ms Kelly first came into the Royal Household as an assistant dresser, but worked her way up and was entrusted with the keys to the Queen’s priceless jewellery collection.
She served Queen Elizabeth II for almost 30 years and was pictured at her state funeral on September 19.
The Queen is said to have given royal provision to allow Ms Kelly to remain in her house for the rest of her life, even after she passed away.
The pair were known to exchange light-hearted banter with each other, as the Queen once jokingly told her dresser ‘you’re sacked’ during a trip to Australia.
Her heavy influence was said to lend her considerable power over other senior staff and junior members of the household.
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