The Best Royal Jewels of 2024: #2 (Princess Theodora’s Khedive Tiara Bridal Moment)

The penultimate spot on my countdown of the best royal jewelry moments of 2024 goes to the continuation of the most enduring bridal tiara tradition in Europe: Princess Theodora wearing the Khedive of Egypt Tiara on her wedding day.

Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark, the younger daughter of the last King and Queen of Greece, was married to Matthew Kumar at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Athens in September. Her wedding took place sixty years after her parents were married in the same cathedral. The Greeks lost their throne a decade later, but they have remained a central part of the larger European royal family, thanks to their close ties to royal relatives in Britain, Spain, Denmark, and Sweden.

Sadly, Theodora’s father, King Constantine II, did not live to see his daughter’s wedding day. But the rest of the extended family packed the cathedral, including Theodora’s mother, Queen Anne-Marie, her siblings, and her nieces and nephews, as well as royal cousins from across the continent.

Theodora wore a wedding gown made by the designer Celia Kritharioti for the Greek Orthodox wedding ceremony, during which she and her groom were showered with rose petals that clung to them as they left the cathedral. With the dress, Theodora wore several special pieces of “something old” and “something borrowed” treasures, including the Irish lace wedding veil that was first worn by her great-grandmother, Princess Margaret of Connaught, for her wedding to the future King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor in June 1905. The veil has subsequently been worn by numerous family brides, including Theodora’s grandmother, Queen Ingrid of Denmark; her mother and aunts; and her female cousins. Queen Mary, the wife of King Frederik X of Denmark, wore the veil on her wedding day, too.

Theodora secured her veil with a piece of dazzling diamond jewelry that also comes from the collection of Margaret of Connaught: the Khedive of Egypt Tiara.

The tiara was a wedding gift to Margaret in 1905 from Abbas II, the Khedive of Egypt. The gift was a particularly meaningful one, because Margaret and Gustaf had fallen in love during a visit to Egypt earlier that year. Above, you’ll see an illustration of the jewel from a contemporary depiction of Margaret’s bejeweled wedding presents. The versatile tiara was made so that it could also be taken off its tiara frame and worn as a corsage ornament.

Here’s a photograph of Margaret, by then Crown Princess of Sweden, wearing the Khedive of Egypt Tiara around 1908. It remained in her jewelry box for 15 years, from her wedding in 1905 until her untimely passing in 1920.

The tiara was then inherited by Margaret’s only daughter, Princess Ingrid of Sweden. She took it with her to Denmark when she married the future King Frederik IX in 1935. She continued to wear the tiara after her husband’s accession, and it stayed with her until her passing in 2000.

During Ingrid’s lifetime, she began loaning her mother’s Egyptian tiara to her daughters and granddaughters to wear as a bridal diadem. The first Khedive bride was her youngest daughter, Princess Anne-Marie. She wore the tiara when she married King Constantine II of Greece in September 1964. Constantine and Anne-Marie were married until his passing in 2022. (They’re Princess Theodora’s parents.)

Next, Queen Ingrid loaned the tiara to her eldest daughter, Crown Princess Margrethe of Denmark, who wore it when she wed Count Henri de Laborde de Monpezat (later Prince Henrik of Denmark) in Copenhagen in June 1967. Margrethe later succeeded her father as Queen of Denmark, reigning from 1972 until her abdication in the early days of 2024. She and Henrik also had a long marriage, remaining together until Henrik’s death in 2018.

And then, a year later, Ingrid loaned the tiara to her middle daughter, Princess Benedikte. She wore the Khedive for her wedding to Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg in February 1968. They were also married for almost half a century, until Richard’s passing in 2017.

Late in her life, Queen Ingrid also began loaning the Khedive of Egypt Tiara to her granddaughters for their weddings. She watched as Princess Benedikte’s daughter, Princess Alexandra, was married in the tiara in 1998, and as Queen Anne-Marie’s daughter, Princess Alexia, wore the tiara on her wedding day in 1999.

After Ingrid’s death in 2000, the tiara was inherited by Queen Anne-Marie, who has continued the tiara-lending tradition for the brides of the family. She loaned it to Princess Benedikte’s second daughter, Princess Nathalie, in 2011, and this year she placed the tiara on Princess Theodora’s head for her wedding as well.

Theodora’s decision to wear the Khedive of Egypt Tiara for her wedding completes a second generation of bridal tiara moments for the family. All of Queen Ingrid’s daughters and granddaughters have now worn their tiara on their wedding days. Now, we’ll have to wait and see whether her great-granddaughters continue the tradition into a third generation.

Queen Ingrid has plenty of great-granddaughters who could be married in the Khedive one day: Arrietta, Ana Maria, and Amelia Morales; Princess Olympia of Greece and Denmark; Countess Ingrid von Pfeil und Klein-Ellguth; Louisa Johannsmann; Princess Isabella and Princess Josephine of Denmark; Countess Athena of Monpezat; and Princess Mafalda of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg. The Khedive could continue to sparkle on family brides for decades to come!

There’s just one more sparkling moment remaining in our countdown of the best royal jewels of the year! Stay tuned later today to see which dazzling moment grabbed the top spot…