For her wedding to Prince Harry, Meghan Markle had originally chosen an emerald inlaid tiara. However, this headdress was refused by Elizabeth II to avoid a scandal.
The tiara of discord. The tiara worn by Meghan Markle on the day of her marriage to Prince Harry is probably one of the royal headdresses that has generated the most speculation, especially for the angry move of Prince Harry who had decreed that “what Meghan wants, she gets”, while Elizabeth II had rejected the first choice made by the Duchess of Sussex when choosing the tiara she would wear. A choice rejected not because of any animosity towards the Duchess, but to avoid a big scandal.
While she eventually fell for a diamond tiara headband that had belonged to Queen Mary of Teak, Meghan Markle had originally chosen an emerald tiara known as “from Russia”. And it is indeed the origin of this headdress that would have somewhat frightened Elizabeth II, who preferred to avoid much speculation, as Robert Lacey reports: “It was code for speaking of a sensitive origin, which means that this treasure had found its way into the hands of the Windsor family through “undefined”, not to say doubtful, channels – and for an undisclosed price – in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution,” explains the historian, relayed by The Mirror.
Elizabeth II’s scathing response to Prince Harry
Thus, to avoid the scandal that this tiara, which is never shown to the public, could have caused, Elizabeth II preferred to spare Meghan Markle a very bad memory by directing her to another tiara instead. Indeed, it would have been rather badly seen by some that the Duchess of Sussex wears on her wedding day a tiara that would have belonged to Tsarina Alexandra Fedorovna Romanova, wife of Nicholas II, who was executed with her family in 1918 during the Russian Revolution.
A little-known detail of Prince Harry, who got angry for the simple reason that he thought it was a refusal directly related to his future wife, and a blow of anger that did not please the Queen who retorted: “No, Meghan can’t have what she wants”.