Sapphires and Gold for the Princess of Wales and the Crown Princess of Sweden at Windsor Castle

The Prince and Princess of Wales received their Swedish counterparts and cousins, Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel of Sweden, in the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle on Thursday morning. The Swedish royal couple are on a three-day official visit to the United Kingdom.

The royal couples have met on more than one occasion. Victoria and Daniel attended William and Catherine’s wedding at Westminster Abbey in 2011, and they’ve had encounters at other royal functions over the years.

Notably, William and Kate made a stop in Stockholm during their royal visit to Scandinavia in 2018. Above, the couples are pictured at one of the receptions held during the visit.

Thursday’s meeting at Windsor was another opportunity for the two couples to pose for an official picture together. These days, William and Victoria occupy the same roles in their respective countries: heirs to the throne, accompanied by their supportive spouses.

And, of course, the two heirs are cousins, too. Both are descended twice over from Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, whose Winterhalter portraits are hanging in the very drawing room where they had their formal meeting. William is descended from both King Edward VII and Princess Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse, while Victoria is a descendant of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany.

For today’s meeting at Windsor, Crown Princess Victoria chose a red, black, and white ensemble, with a bright tweed jacket from the brand Alice + Olivia.

She accessorized with a pair of hoop earrings, letting her jacket do most of the heavy-lifting.

Here’s a closer look at the earrings, which appear to be made of gold with ivory-colored enamel accents. UFO No More tells us that they come from the Swedish brand Toteme.

Princess Catherine aimed for the other end of the holiday color spectrum, wearing deep green for the morning reception.

She chose a dark green dress (speculated to be from one of her go-to designers, Emilia Wickstead) with matching shoes.

She accessorized with a very familiar pair of earrings: the diamond and sapphire double cluster earrings that belonged to Diana, Princess of Wales.

Here’s a look at Diana wearing the earrings, which are set with cabochon sapphires, in 1991. She often paired them with the elaborate pearl choker necklace that featured a large diamond and sapphire cluster clasp. The clasp, which could also be worn as a brooch, was a gift from Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. We’ve not seen it worn since Diana’s death.

Kate made her first public appearance in the earrings at Trooping the Colour in June 2022, during Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

We’ve seen her wear the earrings frequently since then—including three separate appearances this month alone. On November 15, she wore them with a purple trouser suit for the Shaping Us National Symposium in London.

And on November 21, she wore them for the official welcome ceremony during the state visit from the President of South Korea to London.

Now we’ve seen a third color combination with the deep blue sapphires: dark green. It’s lovely to see her wearing the sapphire earrings with colors other than blue! Here’s hoping for more continued color experimentation.

This isn’t the last we’ve seen of the Swedes and the Waleses today. They’ll be appearing together this evening at the Royal Variety Performance in London. Keep your fingers crossed for some good bling—I’ll see you back here later today with a full report!