Prince Harry proposed to Meghan Markle with a custom engagement ring that features a trio of diamonds.
The ring’s center stone hails from Botswana, a country with personal significance for the couple, and is flanked by two diamonds from the personal collection of Prince Harry’s mother, the late Princess Diana. The stones sit on a gold band that was made by the queen’s jeweler, Cleave and Company.
Harry, 33, and Markle, 36, announced their engagement today and made their first public appearance together as an engaged couple at the Kensington Palace memorial sunken garden, which was dedicated to Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, this year for the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death.
Markle told reporters the proposal was “romantic” and she is “so happy.”
Markle, an American actress, joins a long line of women in Britain’s royal family to wear stunning engagement rings.
Prince Philip proposed to then-Princess Elizabeth in 1947 with a three-carat diamond solitaire flanked on each side by five smaller diamonds.
The ring was fashioned from the tiara of Philip’s mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg. Philip also dismantled the tiara to make a diamond bracelet as a wedding gift to Elizabeth.
Harry could have requested one of the jewels in Queen Elizabeth’s jewelry collection or used stones from a piece she loaned to his mother, the late Princess Diana.
One ring from Queen Elizabeth’s collection mentioned as a possibility for Harry to propose with was Queen Mary’s Town of Windsor ring, which consists of three solitary round diamonds adjacent to one another.
Harry and his brother, Prince William, inherited Diana’s personal jewelry collection after her 1997 death in a Paris car crash.
The collection contains some of the most iconic jewels Diana often wore, including the Cambridge Lovers Knot tiara that was a wedding gift from Queen Elizabeth.
William’s wife, Princess Kate, has worn the tiara three times. She has also adapted a pair of Diana’s sapphire and diamond earrings that complement her engagement ring.
Other items in Diana’s collection include the sapphire and pearl choker she donned with some of her most stunning gowns, an emerald choker which Diana turned into a headband and her sapphire collection which was a wedding gift from the Saudis.
Diana also frequently wore a large aquamarine cocktail ring but it was believed the sheer size of the ring would not be a perfect fit for Markle as an engagement ring when she and Harry conduct humanitarian work, a shared mutual interest.
William proposed to Kate in 2010 with a 12-carat sapphire ring, surrounded by 14 smaller diamonds that Diana received from Prince Charles in 1981.
The ring was estimated at that time to cost around 30,000 pounds. Given its royal pedigree, the ring is now valued at more than $1 million.
Charles presented Camilla, his second wife, with an heirloom 8-carat, emerald-cut diamond ring with three matching tapered emerald cut baguettes adorning each side.
The heir to the throne was extremely close to his beloved grandmother, the Queen Mother, and bestowed her sentimental piece on Camilla.
The 1930s Art Deco ring is estimated to be worth more than double its $150,000 price tag.
Charles’s brother, Prince Andrew, chose an oval cut Burmese ruby to propose to Sarah Ferguson in 1986. The ruby is surrounded by 10 brilliant-cut diamonds and is set in a yellow gold band.
Andrew and Sarah divorced in 1996, 10 years after their engagement.
