‘Gone’: Princess Kate engagement ring mystery deepens following release of new photos
The Princess of Wales has made her first public appearance of the year – and there is still one major thing missing that has raised eyebrows.
Royals
Don't miss out on the headlines from Royals. Followed categories will be added to My News.
It’s the most iconic ring in the world and its original owner supposedly didn’t actually even like it.
The story goes that Diana, Princess of Wales selected the 12-carat sapphire and diamond engagement sparkler after being presented with a tray of options from royal jeweller Garrard.
It was 1981 and the last of the very average romantics Prince Charles had left the choice up to the teenager.
Saddled with something of a nana-ish piece, that ring would later become a symbol of the dreary, fogey royal existence she had naively signed up for.
And now it’s gone missing.
Since 2010, its owner has been Kate, the Princess of Wales. That year, when Prince William decided it was time to really lock down the Greatest Thing To Ever Happen To The Royal Family (the acquiescence of a nice gal to sacrifice her entire life to help gin up the monarchy), he decided to use his mother’s ring.
A touching gesture – or did it uneasily make Diana’s memory the third person in their marriage?
Today though, the nearly priceless piece has not been seen in months.
Perhaps the most celebrated ring in history has disappeared, as evidenced by Kate the Princess of Wales’ hand on Thursday afternoon as she undertook her first public engagement since being diagnosed with cancer.
When she and William arrived in Southport in the UK’s west, it was in matchy-matchy (awww) shades of browns and burgundy, their co-ordinated colour scheme a very handy visual cue for the most literal of us.
But where things enter ‘que?’ territory is when we glance at Kate’s left hand.
There was her Welsh gold wedding band and her white gold and diamond eternity band and another gold band of indeterminate origin and a newish one that she started wearing earlier this year and which might incorporate the birthstones of her children. (With thanks to The Court Jeweller for spotting that one).
The Princess on Thursday clocked in at four rings – and not one of them was her Mintie-sized sapphire piece.
Kate’s decision to join William on the visit to Southport was reportedly a last minute one, with the couple there to meet the parents of Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, who were murdered during a Taylor Swift dance class in late July, as well as the first responders who attended the scene.
It was a sombre day, one that saw the couple spend 90 minutes with the girls’ heartbroken families before the princess later privately, away from the cameras, hugged the paramedics and police officers who had faced the unimaginable horror.
None of this explains the ring situation, though. Why has Kate stopped wearing the world’s most famous symbol of royal matrimony?
Do the counting, search the archives and that ring has come on and off her hand this year like a flickering post-Glasnost power grid.
In March, its disappearance from the photo released to mark Mother’s Day sparked its own very particular sort of madness, dumping entire petrol tankers of fuel on all the insinuating and tattle and madness surrounding her supposed disappearance.
A week later, the princess would announce her doctors had discovered she had cancer during planned abdominal surgery. Much of the internet was chastened but then, much was not.
The lack of her wedding ring on that occasion too didn’t help the situation.
On TikTok, X and Instagram, in comment sections and on Reddit threads, madness ensued as conspiracy theories spread faster than people could make tinfoil hats and proclaim something nefarious was afoot.
Then, in June, when the 42-year-old appeared at Trooping the Colour, the ring was back in place and sighs of relief were duly breathed. The following month, it was still wedged in place when the Princess of Wales turned up at Wimbledon.
But then came August, and when William and Kate appeared in a video to celebrate the Olympics, poof – it was gone again. Houdini-ed off to hide away in some jewellery box or forgotten next to the Wales kids’ hamster cage, who knows.
Come September, and the release of the heavily-stylised bit of glossy good news that was the princess’ video announcing the end of her chemotherapy, and the ring was still MIA.
One shot, very clearly showing her left hand as she changed gears while driving a manual Land Rover engagement ring-free was hardly necessary – but included nonetheless.
On Thursday in Southport, the ring was still gone.
What makes this situation even more of an oddity is when you consider that otherwise, William and Kate were so in sync their brainwaves are probably syncopated.
They walked in step, had clearly planned their outfits together with the precision of General Patton overseeing a tank division and on several occasions, the prince did some tender loving husbanding, gently placing his hand on her back and making way for her while they were talking to first responders.
Why, on a day that was minutely calibrated to send a very particular message – Kate back on the job, her focus on duty and service and not some painfully transparent bit of brand-building – was the ring omitted?
Maybe Kate doesn’t give a fig and didn’t fancy having to do the heavy lifting required to heft it all the way to Lancashire. Maybe it’s being cleaned by Garrard (hamster muck) or maybe she just gets a kick out of messing with the delicate minds of the Twitterati.
Again and again, what I wonder with Kate’s ring is, slip up, carelessness or coded message?
If the princess is trying to tell us something, then it is largely indecipherable.
Is this a situation underwritten by practicality, or a woman finally ready to come out from under the long shadow cast by the ring’s first owner? Is this about Kate becoming her own woman, or caged animal gunk?
Still, you would have thought some meticulous aide or eagle-eyed courtier would have intervened to prevent it becoming any sort of Thing.
But Thing it threatens to be.
On that day back in 1981, as 19-year-old Diana stood over that velvet tray inspecting rings, the late Queen was unimpressed. According to renowned biographer Tina Brown, Her late Majesty “raised her eyebrows as Diana [had chosen] the biggest rock in the batch”.
Imagine how high those regal eyebrows would be today with this whopper having vanished. Again.
Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles
Originally published as ‘Gone’: Princess Kate engagement ring mystery deepens following release of new photos
Bondi, Molly and Uluru: Charles’ biggest Aussie moments
As King Charles gets set to embark on his 17th trip to Australia, we take a look back at some of his antipodean hits and a few misses. See the photos and video.
Dire reason for King Charles’ ‘Australia gamble’
Royal insiders have revealed why King Charles insists on touring Australia despite fears the gruelling schedule could threaten his cancer recovery.