The world first glimpsed Meghan Markle’s engagement ring on a chilly November day in 2017, when Prince Harry, flushed with affection, pulled her close in the Kensington Palace gardens. She said in an interview with PEOPLE:
It’s beautiful, and he designed it—it’s incredible.
A diamond from Botswana at the heart of the ring, flanked by two stones from Princess Diana’s collection, wasn’t just royal jewelry; it was an archive of memory, heritage, and intent. Behind the spectacle, Markle’s 2018 wedding symbol remains as charged as ever. Since Prince Harry’s candlelit Botswana proposal, set with 15 “electric candles” and roses, as revealed in their Netflix documentary, every detail of her ring and dress has been pored over, priced, and debated.
And in 2019, for their first anniversary, Prince Harry gifted her an eternity ring, extending the trilogy to a quiet, glittering quartet. The cost? Her dress reportedly soared past $265,000. The engagement ring? According to Business Insider, the ring’s cost is estimated to be $187,000. So, what do these iconic pieces really tell us?
Meghan Markle’s Engagement Ring: Design, Cost, and Symbolism
Meghan Markle in Suits | Credit: USA Network
Rather than choosing a relic from the royal archives, Prince Harry sketched a new story, commissioning Cleave & Company, Queen Elizabeth’s trusted jeweler, to craft a three-stone ring rooted in both history and heart.
He reportedly began his search for conflict-free stones during a conservation trip to Botswana in May 2017. The result? A cushion-cut diamond of approximately three carats flanked by two smaller ones, handpicked from Princess Diana’s personal trove.
Each stone in the trilogy setting signifies a temporal element: past, present, and future. Meghan Markle called the design “perfect”, noting that it connects Prince Harry’s family and their shared values. She told PEOPLE:
And you know to be able to have this which sort of links where you come from and Botswana which is important to us and it’s – it’s perfect.
Her original yellow gold band, Prince Harry’s nod to her favorite metal, was later replaced with a micro-pavé band, first noticed during the 2019 Trooping the Colour. While Kate Middleton wears Princess Diana’s sapphire (per Cosmopolitan), Markle wears her memory.
The public took note; her ring remains the most Googled celebrity engagement ring in the world, averaging over 51,000 monthly searches, according to U.K. jeweler Ramsden’s Jewellery. Moreover, the Buckingham Palace shop even sold a $40 replica in 2018, dubbed the “Buckingham Palace Statement Ring.”
Later came a wedding band! On May 19, 2018, Prince Harry slipped a wedding band onto her finger, a creation meticulously crafted by Cleave & Company. This understated yet storied ring was a personal gift from Queen Elizabeth II. Welsh gold, prized for its rarity and symbolic weight, has adorned royal brides since 1923, when the Queen Mother first selected it for her own nuptials.
Meghan Markle’s Wedding Dress: Design, Cost, and Cultural Impact
Meghan Markle in With Love, Meghan | Credit: Netflix
Meghan Markle’s wedding dress was not merely stitched fabric; it was strategy in silk. Designed by Clare Waight Keller for Givenchy, it carried no royal embroidery, no lace illusions, and no superfluous drama. With 3,900 hours invested in the veil alone, and eight fittings over five months, the dress cost roughly $265,000, all privately paid by Markle herself (per Wedded Wonderland).
Culturally, it marked a pivot. It defied expectations of an ostentatious royal display and leaned into subtlety, globalism, and personal agency. Her evening gown by Stella McCartney, a halter-neck creation for the reception, added a sleek coda to her two-act bridal statement.
Still, not everyone was enthralled. Pop icon Katy Perry commented that she “would’ve done one more fitting,” poking at the restraint of the design. But Markle wasn’t dressed for applause; she was dressing for assertion. Her fashion choice repositioned what royal elegance could mean.
So, with a diamond that carries a nation’s memory, a ring band forged from royal tradition, and a gown that rewrote the playbook of palace protocol, what was Meghan Markle truly trying to communicate? Was it love woven with lineage or a deliberate move to etch her independence into royal history?
Armed with a Literature Honors and a postgraduate degree in Journalism from Delhi University, her knack for finding the extraordinary in the mundane makes her storytelling as vivid as a painter’s palette. Siddhika takes pride in giving these stories a home and, of course, she’s got a Google Knowledge Panel to prove it!
As the Senior Entertainment Writer at Fandom Wire, she has penned over 3000 pieces. Her pen has danced across the pages of Indian Express, India Today, and MyKhel.
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