Like Princess Anne, the Princess of Wales chose a favourite tiara for tonight’s banquet, stepping out once more in the Lover’s Knot Tiara.
The tiara has great sentimental value for her and Prince William. The Lover’s Knot was also a favourite of Princess Diana’s. Queen Mary commissioned the piece from Garrard in 1914, inspired by a similar headpiece belonging to her grandmother, Princess Augusta of Hesse.
After Queen Mary’s death in 1953, she bequeathed the Lovers’ Knot to her granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II. After wearing the tiara throughout the 50s, the late Queen is said to have loaned it to Princess Diana as a wedding present in 1981. The late Princess of Wales did not wear it, however, instead opting for the Spencer Tiara, which had been in her family for decades. Diana did, however, soon become closely associated with the Lover’s Knot, in spite of the fact that it was so heavy to wear that it is said to have given her headaches.
Zara Phillips on her wedding day
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Princess Diana wore the tiara to the opening of parliament in 1981 (shortly after her wedding to Prince Charles) before pairing it with a white dress and pearl drop earrings during a state banquet on her tour of Canada in 1983. Three years later, in 1986, the late Princess wore the piece for a dinner with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. Perhaps her most iconic moment in the tiara was during a 1989 trip to Hong Kong, when she wore it with her Catherine Walker gown that became widely known as the ‘Elvis Dress’.