Princess Diana's engagement ring was actually inspired by this other royal

princess diana engagement ring worth

It's safe to say that Princess Diana's engagement ring is perhaps one of the most famous in the world. We all know it now sits on Kate Middleton's finger, and is worth a fortune.

At the time, the choice of engagement ring caused controversy, as instead of choosing a style from the royal collection (and we can all imagine how fabulous that collection is), Diana chose from a catalogue. A posh one, don't worry.

This is something we get a glimpse of in the new season of The Crown. In episode three, we see a young Diana sit with Prince Charles in a room with a tray of rings to choose from, including some from the Queen as well as some Garrard (the official Crown Jeweller) options.

She opts for one of the flashiest rings, a large oval sapphire surrounded by diamonds, which she later had re-designed to her liking. The Queen was said to be unimpressed with how flashy it was. Diana also mentioned she liked the fact that it matched her eyes.

But perhaps she would've been happy to hear that the ring was actually designed as a nod to another, older, royal.

Called the Marguerite ring, it was actually inspired by a brooch that Prince Albert commissioned Garrard to make in 1840 for Queen Victoria.

So although it might have been a new model, it had some historical value.

Penny Goldstone

Penny Goldstone is the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire, covering everything from catwalk trends to royal fashion and the latest high street and Instagram must-haves.

Penny grew up in France and studied languages and law at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris before moving to the UK for her MA in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University. She moved to the UK permanently and has never looked back (though she does go back regularly to stock up on cheese and wine).

Although she's always loved fashion - she used to create scrapbooks of her favourite trends and looks, including Sienna Miller and Kate Moss' boho phase - her first job was at MoneySavingExpert.com, sourcing the best deals for everything from restaurants to designer sales.

However she quit after two years to follow her true passion, fashion journalism, and after many years of internships and freelance stints at magazines including Red, Cosmopolitan, Stylist and Good Housekeeping, landed her dream job as the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire UK.

Her favourite part of the job is discovering new brands and meeting designers, and travelling the world to attend events and fashion shows. Seeing her first Chanel runway IRL at Paris Fashion Week was a true pinch-me moment.