Chatting About the Princess of Wales’s New Ring with People Magazine

We discussed the new eternity band worn by the Princess of Wales in place of her usual engagement ring in an article earlier this week, and I thought I’d pop back in here to drop a link to another conversation I had with People about the topic.

The Princess of Wales announced on Monday that she has completed her current chemotherapy treatment and will be working to “stay cancer free” in the coming months and years. This will include a gradual return to royal engagements. The video, which was filmed in August, featured casual shots of William and Catherine with their three children.

The video also featured several rather deliberate shots of the stack of rings on Kate’s left hand. She wore three rings: her Welsh gold wedding band, her diamond eternity ring, and a third eternity-style ring set with alternating light and dark gemstones. I shared some of my thoughts on the ring and its prominence in the video in an earlier article this week, and then Monique Jessen at People reached out for more from me regarding a possible provenance for the ring. You can read that article with my quotes here.

Just for fun, a quick recap: we first saw Kate wear this new eternity ring in a video shared in August, congratulating the athletes of Team GB for their successes at the Olympics in Paris.

Some outlets quickly jumped on an online suggestion that Kate could have resurrected a ring she wore earlier in her courtship and marriage: a gold ring, pictured above, set with garnets and pearls. I felt that the rings were not the same, and I discussed it in an article at the time.

The new eternity-style ring appears to be a placeholder for Kate’s more famous royal engagement ring: the iconic diamond and sapphire cluster ring that was previously worn by her late mother-in-law, Diana, Princess of Wales. Prince William proposed to Kate with this ring in 2010, and she’s worn it faithfully for public events ever since.

Here’s a look at Kate’s usual stack of rings: the gold wedding ring, the sapphire engagement ring, and the diamond eternity ring. Over at People, I also suggested that there are reasons why Kate might have left the ring at home for the video shoot, and I offered reminders of several other royal women who choose at times not to wear their engagement rings.