Queen Camilla Took a Necklace of Princess Diana’s and Refashioned It Into a $137,000 Brooch

The emerald pendant centerpiece dates all the way back to 1863.

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Queen Camilla’s extensive and impressive brooch collection includes an heirloom piece that was once fashioned from a necklace of the late Princess Diana’s.

We likely don’t have to tell even the most passive royal follower that Camilla and Diana had tension throughout the late Princess of Wales’s far too short life—as Diana herself put it, there were three people in her marriage to Prince Charles, so it was a bit crowded. (Charles and Camilla had an extramarital affair throughout much of Charles and Diana’s marriage.) Camilla’s choice to wear a cabochon green emerald and diamond brooch fashioned from one of Diana’s necklaces is—well, it’s a decision.

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The brooch features approximately four carats of white diamonds set in 18 individual stones, according to jewelry experts at Steven Stone. The brooch is topped with a three-carat cabochon-cut green emerald pendant and includes three diamond-encrusted ostrich feathers, which is the heraldic badge of the Prince of Wales, a title held by King Charles before taking the throne in 2022. The team at Steven Stone estimates the brooch to be worth around $137,000.

“Once worn as a necklace by Princess Diana, the piece carries not only aesthetic brilliance, but deep royal significance,” Maxwell Stone said. “What makes it particularly meaningful is its symbolic connection to King Charles—shared by both Diana and Queen Camilla.”

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The jewel’s history goes all the way back to 1863, when it originally belonged to Queen Alexandra. According to Steven Stone, the piece passed through royal hands and was eventually gifted by the Queen Mother to her granddaughter-in-law Princess Diana upon her 1981 marriage to Prince Charles. The refashioned brooch has also been worn by Kate Middleton.

“The transformation of the necklace into a brooch likely has minimal impact on its value—especially if the redesign was recent and expertly executed,” Stone said, though he did admit that it might be valued “more had it remained in its original necklace form.”

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After Diana died in 1997, the necklace returned to the royal collection. It wasn’t seen again until Queen Camilla wore the piece as a brooch in 2019—the first royal since Diana to be seen wearing the redesigned piece. Camilla—who was still the Duchess of Cornwall—wore the brooch to a Buckingham Palace reception to celebrate Charles’s 50th anniversary as Prince of Wales.