Princess Theodora’s Trio of Gorgeous Heirloom Tiaras

This Saturday, we’ll finally get a glimpse of a royal bride we’ve been waiting to see for several years. Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark will marry her American fiancé in Athens, and to begin the celebrations, we’ve got a look today at the royal tiaras she’s worn in public so far–and the one I think she may wear this weekend on her wedding day.

Princess Theodora, the younger daughter of the late King Constantine II of Greece and Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, announced her engagement to an American attorney, Matthew Kumar, in the autumn of 2018. The two have appeared together often at family functions over the years, but their wedding plans have apparently been postponed more than once since they were engaged. (A global pandemic and the death of Theodora’s father undoubtedly played a part in that.)

But now, the wedding is officially on. The religious ceremony will take place at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Athens, where Theodora’s parents were married sixty years ago this month. Theodora’s brother, Prince Philippos, was married there in 2021, marking a return to family celebrations in the Greek capital after decades of post-monarchy exile. Ahead of this weekend’s celebrations, I’ve got a look today at tiaras that Theodora has worn so far over the years, and the (rather obvious) choice that I think she’ll make for her bridal tiara on Saturday.

Princess Theodora has made several appearances over the years in a diamond and pearl tiara borrowed from her mother. The Antique Corsage Tiara, as it is known, is part of a suite of jewelry that traces its history back to the family’s roots in Denmark and Sweden.

Queen Ingrid of Denmark had an antique diamond and pearl corsage ornament, a legacy from her Swedish royal grandmother, converted to a tiara in the 1960s. She gave the new tiara to her youngest daughter, Princess Anne-Marie, as an eighteenth-birthday present. Anne-Marie took the tiara and its coordinating jewels with her to Athens a few weeks later when she married King Constantine II of Greece in 1964.

The tiara is now often worn by Constantine and Anne-Marie’s daughters and daughters-in-law. In fact, all three of their daughters-in-law have worn the tiara as a bridal diadem. Theodora has used the tiara more than once for family events in her mother’s native Denmark, including the wedding of Prince Joachim and Princess Marie in 2008 and Queen Margrethe II’s Ruby Jubilee banquet in 2012.

Theodora has also made several appearances in another Greek royal tiara. This diamond jewel, with its intricate, lacy design, is said to belong to her elder sister, Princess Alexia of Greece and Denmark.

Princess Alexia has been the primary wearer of the tiara for decades, and many believe that it was her own eighteenth-birthday gift. (Theodora isn’t known to have received a tiara for that milestone birthday.) Recent research has shown that it was also worn on at least one occasion by her aunt, Queen Margrethe of Denmark. Beyond that, we don’t really know much about the tiara’s provenance.

Theodora has borrowed the diamond tiara for Scandinavian gala events over the years. She wore it for the wedding of Princess Madeleine of Sweden and Christopher O’Neill in June 2013, and more recently, we saw her wear it during Queen Margrethe of Denmark’s Golden Jubilee festivities in September 2022.

And speaking of Queen Margrethe, Theodora has also, on at least one occasion, worn a tiara borrowed from her Danish royal aunt: the Turquoise Daisy Bandeau.

The tiara, which now belongs personally to Queen Margrethe, was originally one of the jewels owned by Princess Margaret of Connaught, the British princess who was the first wife of King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden. Margaret’s daughter, Queen Ingrid of Denmark, inherited the petite bandeau of bejeweled daisies after her mother’s untimely death.

In January 2012, Queen Margrethe loaned the turquoise tiara to her niece, Princess Theodora, for a gala concert during her Ruby Jubilee celebrations in Copenhagen. Theodora paired the tiara with a diamond necklace for the occasion.

I think it’s safe to say, though, that Theodora will likely wear a different Danish royal heirloom on her wedding day this Saturday. Traditionally, the female descendants of Queen Ingrid of Denmark have all worn the Khedive of Egypt Tiara as a bridal diadem. The diamond scroll tiara was one of Margaret of Connaught’s wedding gifts, and so far it has been worn by Theodora’s mother, her aunts, her sister, and her female cousins on their wedding days. Queen Anne-Marie owns the tiara personally now. With her wedding scheduled to coincide with her parents’ 60th wedding anniversary, I can’t imagine that Theodora wouldn’t want to echo her mother’s wedding tiara at the ceremony as well.