Please excuse us while we cry for the rest of the afternoon after reading the latest news about the royal family in the United Kingdom. It appears that Princess Diana’s niece wore her aunt’s wedding tiara at her own ceremony, and we’re having trouble handling this super sweet and sentimental moment with grace.
This past weekend, Diana’s niece, Celia McCorquodale — the daughter of Diana’s oldest sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale — got married to George Woodhouse while wearing the Spencer tiara. This is the same sparkling headpiece that Diana famously wore at her own royal wedding to Prince Charles back in 1981. It’s a piece that is virtually impossible to forget, and not only because Diana wore it: The gorgeous piece is unique, beautiful, and, of course, so sparkly it might just blind you.
While the Spencer tiara belongs to the Spencer family, it hasn’t actually not been publicly worn since Diana’s death in 1997. Since then, it has been shown to the public in various museums, but that’s about it. That’s what makes this so special! That and the fact that it was clearly one of Diana’s favorite pieces. Even though Queen Elizabeth II had loaned Diana the Queen Mary Lover’s Knot Tiara for her own wedding, she chose to go with the Spencer tiara. She was seen wearing it quite frequently, despite the fact that she had access to basically any royal tiara she wanted.
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Aside from being one of the tiaras Diana wore often, the Spencer headpiece has an interesting history. According to People, it can be traced back to the Tudor period. The central part of the tiara was given to Lady Cynthia Hamilton (Diana’s grandmother) as a wedding gift when she married Albert, Viscount Althorp, the future 7th Earl Spencer, in 1919. It was given to Cynthia by Albert’s great aunt, Lady Sarah Isabella Spencer, who died later that year.
The ends of the tiara are thought to come from a tiara that once belonged to Frances Mamby, the last known Viscountess of Montagu. No one knows how the pieces ended up in Sarah’s possession, but they did — and that’s how they ended up belonging to Cynthia and Albert.
The current version of the Spencer tiara features diamonds shaped like tulips and stars surrounded by scrolls. It was completed in the ’30s.
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While Celia is the latest person to wear the tiara, she isn’t the only one who has worn it aside from Diana. Diana’s sisters, Lady Sarah and Jane, Baroness Fellowes, also wore it on their wedding days. Victoria Lockwood, the first wife of Diana’s brother Charles, the current Earl of Spencer, wore it at her own wedding in 1989.
The tiara was in good company: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, fresh off their honeymoon in Africa, attended the wedding of Harry’s cousin as well. One might wonder why Meghan didn’t wear the tiara to honor her late mother-in-law for the royal wedding, but it actually would have been highly unlikely for her to do so, as the tiara belongs to the Spencer family.
Regardless, it looks beautiful on Celia. If only Diana could see it!