Which Royal Engagement Ring Costs More? How Queen Elizabeth, Kate Middleton, and More Royal Sparklers Compare
Which Royal Engagement Ring Costs More? How Queen Elizabeth, Kate Middleton, and More Royal Sparklers Compare
Katherine J Igoe, Giovana GelhorenSat, October 10, 2026 at 12:45 PM UTC
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Princess Diana and King CharlesCredit: Getty ImagesSome of these numbers might surprise you.THE GIST -
Engagement rings within the royal family can not only be costly, but are sometimes family heirlooms carrying generations of royal history.
Queen Elizabeth had one of the least expensive engagement rings in history, while Princess Diana (and later Kate Middleton’s) went down in the history books as one of the most striking and beloved rings in the royal family.
Meghan Markle’s engagement ring also had an interesting backstory, with a nod to both Princess Diana and her love story with Prince Harry.
When Kate Middleton and Prince William announced their engagement on November 16, 2010, the couple did more than celebrate their relationship milestone with the world. By revealing that Middleton’s engagement ring is the same one that William’s mother, Princess Diana, wore, the pair is carrying on his mother’s legacy and honoring royal history in addition to their future together.
After all, when it comes to British royal family engagements, the rings aren’t solely symbols of love; they’re often bespoke, deeply symbolic pieces that represent dynastic history, not to mention the family’s access to the most famous jewels in the world.
Many times, the jewels have been passed down through generations of royal lineage, making the sparkler all the more meaningful, not to mention expensive. They can also be deeply evocative of a royal’s personal style, including the simple but classic ring that Prince Philip gave to Queen Elizabeth II in 1947.
Below, find a breakdown of some of the most expensive and well-known engagement rings in recent royal family history, including the hefty cost of Queen Elizabeth, Princess Diana, Kate Middleton, and Meghan Markle’s rings, both then and now.
Queen Elizabeth’s heirloom piece is one of the least expensive royal engagement rings.
Queen Elizabeth’s bespoke diamond engagement ringCredit: Getty
In 1946, Prince Philip and then-Princess Elizabeth told their families they wanted to marry, but Elizabeth’s father asked them to postpone the announcement until Elizabeth turned 21 in 1947. After a month-long family holiday at Balmoral, Philip quietly presented the future queen with a bespoke and highly personal engagement ring.
He’d gone to Philip Antrobus of Bond Street for the design: The platinum ring consists of a 3-carat round brilliant-cut diamond flanked by 10 smaller pavé diamonds, five on each side. The stones came from a tiara belonging to Philip’s mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, which was reportedly given to her as a present by Tsar Nicholas and Tsarina Alexandra of Russia when she married. The remaining diamonds were made into a matching wedding bracelet for Elizabeth.
Notably, sources report that Elizabeth’s ring included an inscription inside. “No one knows what it says, other than the engraver, the Queen and her husband,” royal biographer Ingrid Seward stated in her book, Prince Philip: Revealed, per Town & Country.
According to WWD, the ring is valued at around $250,000 today, which was equivalent to about $15,000 in 1947. This actually makes it one of the least expensive royal rings of the past 100 years and about half as expensive as the other ring on this list. But considering its historical significance and royal prominence, it’s arguably priceless.
Elizabeth apparently never removed her ring throughout her 73-year marriage. And it had an indelible influence on bridal jewelry trends. According to Tatler, the solitaire style still accounts for 85% of all engagement ring styles.
Since the Queen died in 2022, the ring has not been seen publicly. It’s not considered part of the Crown Jewels, so experts speculate that it was either passed down to Princess Anne or preserved for one of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s three children.
Princess Diana’s engagement ring was inspired by a historic royal brooch.
Princess Diana wearing her sapphire and diamond engagement ringCredit: Getty
Then-Prince Charles and Diana Spencer had been together for six months when they announced their engagement in 1981. Her new ring, a 12-carat oval Ceylon sapphire, was sourced from Sri Lanka and is composed of 8-carat white gold and surrounded by 14 round-cut solitaire diamonds.
Her ring wasn’t actually bespoke, which was rare and a bit controversial for royal jewelry at the time. It had been purchased from the jeweler Garrard’s catalogue, meaning, theoretically, members of the public could purchase the same piece.
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The ring design was inspired by a brooch that Prince Albert had made for the future Queen Victoria in 1840; It’s stayed in the Royal family, and Queen Elizabeth wore the piece frequently throughout her reign. Charles selected a number of rings to present to Diana as options and apparently chose the sapphire sparkler because it reminded him of his family’s brooch. Diana apparently selected it because it matched her blue eyes and because it reminded her of her mother’s engagement ring. Charles reportedly purchased the ring for between $37,500 and $60,000, which would be equivalent to about $140,000-$225,000 today.
The piece became incredibly popular after Diana debuted it and is still considered the late royal’s most famous piece of jewelry. There are differing reports about which of Diana’s sons inherited the ring after her death. One former royal butler said it passed to Prince Harry, who offered it to William before William proposed to Middleton in 2010. But Harry refuted the story in his memoir, Spare, saying it had always belonged to William. “I never gave Willy that ring because it wasn’t mine to give,” Harry wrote, per Brides. “He already had it. He’d asked for it after Mummy died, and I’d been more than happy to let it go.”
Diana’s ring was passed to Kate Middleton, which is now worth more than $500,000.
Kate Middleton wearing her blue sapphire and diamond engagement ringCredit: Getty
Speaking of Diana’s iconic ring, William proposed to Middleton on a trip to Kenya with his mother’s ring, a moment Kate later described as a “total shock.” In a TV interview after the official announcement, William explained, “I had been carrying it around with me in my rucksack for about three weeks...I literally would not let it go; everywhere I went I was keeping hold of it, ‘cause I knew this thing, if it disappeared I’d be in a lot of trouble.”
William said that he chose it to honor his mother’s legacy, noting that since “she’s not going to be around to share any of the fun and excitement of it all — this was my way of keeping her sort of close to it all.” At the time, the ring was too big for Kate, so the couple took it to royal jeweler G. Collins & Sons, who added platinum beads to the inside of the band to resize it without altering the original design.
“I’m honoured to wear it; I never sadly got to meet her,” Middleton said of the sparkler in 2023, per Mirror UK. “And also now with the children and grandchildren, I think she would have loved being a grandmother so much. She’d be absolutely brilliant, we miss her every day.”
When Kate debuted the sparkler, it had a predictable “royal effect”: sapphire engagement rings surged in popularity, and in 2020, her ring was voted the world’s most popular engagement band. Adjusted for inflation and accounting for the obvious significance of the piece, the engagement ring is now reportedly worth around $520,000.
Meghan Markle’s estimated $260,000 ring also included a nod to Diana.
Meghan Markle on a visit to Nothern Ireland in March 2018.Credit: Getty Images
On November 27, 2017, Markle and Prince Harry announced their engagement. Harry’s proposal took place during a casual night in with his then-girlfriend while they were preparing dinner at Nottingham Cottage.
Markle’s ring is composed of a central cushion-cut diamond that was sourced (conflict-free) from Botswana, where the couple had their third date. It weighs an estimated three carats. Harry tapped Queen Elizabeth’s jeweler Cleave & Company to help him with the custom design, per People. “It’s beautiful, and he designed it,” Markle later gushed in an interview with the BBC. “It’s incredible.”
In addition to the central diamond, Markle’s ring also features two smaller diamonds, both of which previously belonged to Harry’s mom, Diana. The stones were once a part of the late royal’s tennis bracelet.
“Everything about Harry’s thoughtfulness and the inclusion of [Diana’s stones] and obviously not being able to meet his mom, it’s so important to me to know that she’s a part of this with us,” Markle said in the BBC interview. “To be able to have this, which sort of links where you come from and Botswana, which is important to us, it’s perfect.”
Per Carat Diamond, early appraisals placed the ring’s total value around $120,000 to $150,000. Because of the center stone’s Botswana origin and the side stones’ connection to Diana, however, the price quickly increased, with some later valuations placing the ring as high as $260,000.
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