PLUS DIANA’S DAZZLING GEMS PULLOUT
DIANA’S DAZZLING JEWELS
WHEn Lady Diana Spencer fell for Prince Charles in the summer of 1980, her wardrobe was a world away from that of a princess.
‘i had one long dress, one silk shirt, one smart pair of shoes — and that was it,’ she admitted. ‘Suddenly my mother and i had to buy six of everything.’
the same was true of her jewellery box. a simple gold chain bearing her initial ‘D’ and a pair of gold earrings were the sum total of the 19-year-old nursery assistant’s collection. Before she could be transformed into the Princess of Wales, that was going to have to change dramatically.
Charles, almost 32 when they met and 13 years Diana’s senior, impressed her with a glittering diamond eternity ring in the first month of their courtship — the precursor to the 12- carat sapphire (pictured), his fiancee’s favourite stone, with which he TURN TO NEXT PAGE
would ask for her hand in marriage a year later.
Unusually for a royal bride-to-be, Diana chose her iconic engagement ring from a selection presented to the couple by Garrard, the royal jeweller. In February 1981, the Prince and Lady Diana dined with the Queen at Windsor Castle before retiring to the drawing room to peruse a tray of more than a dozen rings sent from London.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Diana chose her favourite — ‘not the largest by far!’ she later insisted — a spellbinding cluster of 14 diamonds set in 18-carat gold around the oval Ceylon sapphire. The gem cost £28,000 — £110,000 in today’s money — but because of its royal connections was valued at £250,000 in 1997, just before the Princess’s tragic death.
Diana must have thought Charles would lavish her with jewellery throughout their marriage and she certainly missed no opportunity to wear the tokens from her new husband: a gold watch to mark her 20th birthday; a diamond art deco bracelet; and a pair of sparkling emerald drop earrings.
BUT as their marriage fizzled out and the pair grew apart — as early as 1985, we now know — the gifts began to dwindle. During the second half of their 12-year relationship, Charles gave Diana remarkably few pieces of jewellery, at least not pieces she liked enough to wear in public.
Much like her fashion, which portrayed her spirited personality, Diana liked to tell stories through her jewellery, using it to convey her most private emotions. She wore Charles’s gifts from the early years less and less, and paired his more recent offerings with drab, uninspiring outfits.
Indeed, many necklaces, earrings and rings she wore in the late Eighties were mistakenly identified by a media still swallowing the royal ‘fairy tale’ as anniversary gifts from a doting husband — notably a square-cut emerald ring she wore to the polo in 1989, which was actually on loan from the Queen.
What mattered most, however, was her enduring love for her children. Diana wore two of Charles’s presents in tribute to their two boys right up until the end of her life — a gold charm bracelet and a gold pendant bearing her firstborn’s name, which she always wore close to her heart.
By the time of her death, Diana’s jewellery collection abounded with priceless gems befitting a true Princess.
Here, for the first time ever, we chart the royal romance through Diana’s jewels . . .