A Golden Return in Cartier for the Princess of Wales at the Royal Marsden Hospital

Yesterday, the Princess of Wales made a happy return to the hospital in London where she was treated last year, wearing a gleaming pair of golden earrings from Cartier for the occasion.

Princess Catherine arrived at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London on Tuesday for a special visit. Last year, she was a patient at the Chelsea hospital, and her visit was coordinated to thank the staff for the care they provided her. The engagement gave Kate the opportunity to reflect on her own health journey. Roya Nikkhah, royal reporter for the Times, wrote that the Princess said that having a diagnosis like hers “makes you appreciate all the small things in life that you take for granted.” She added, “I feel like it’s sometimes harder for the loved ones around us. They need the support just as much as I did as the patient.”

Kate was also able to meet with patients at the hospital’s Diane McCarthy Medical Day Unit. She spoke with patients about their shared experiences in treatment and thanked staff members. During the visit, the Princess was also able to learn more about emerging supportive therapies, aimed at improving both physical and mental health, for those undergoing treatment for cancer.

For the hospital visit, Kate was dressed in a long tartan coat over a skirt and sweater in a trendy shade of burgundy, paired with coordinating accessories.

She sensibly kept her jewelry simple for the hospital visit, wearing just earrings and a stack of rings on her left hand.

Here’s a closer look at the earrings: golden hoops that have an intertwined design. UFO No More reports that the earrings come from Cartier’s Trinity line.

Here’s a closer look at a product photo of the Trinity hoop earrings from the Cartier website. The mixed-metal hoops are made of yellow, white, and rose gold. They retail for £3,050.

Kate has worn several pieces from the Trinity collection over the years. In the summer of 2012, ahead of the London Olympic Games, she wore a sautoir-length Trinity necklace made of yellow, white, and rose gold and diamonds to visit the “Road To 2012: Aiming High” exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

In June 2016, ahead of the Rio Olympics, she wore a coordinating pair of Trinity Tri-Gold Hoop Earrings with a dramatic Roland Mouret gown for the SportsAid 40th anniversary dinner at Kensington Palace. Like their matching necklace, the earrings are also feature diamonds. (She likes to use Trinity pieces to echo the Olympic rings.)

And in March 2017, she wore a different pair of Trinity earrings and a coordinating necklace during an official visit to Paris.

Anyway—back to the Royal Marsden. Instead of her famous sapphire engagement ring, Kate decided to wear the stack of bands that we saw her wear on multiple occasions last year. The stack includes her Welsh gold wedding ring, her diamond eternity band, and two more gem-set rings.

Here’s a closer look at the ring stack from Tuesday’s hospital visit. I think we can confidently say at this point that the colored gemstones in her new eternity band are sapphires. Perhaps William offered her the ring as a less-cumbersome alternative to her big blue sapphire?

The visit was clearly an important one for both Catherine and the patients and staff at the hospital. She spent a great deal of time there during her own course of treatment in 2024, though those trips to the Royal Marsden were obviously much quieter. Until today, the location where Kate had received her own cancer treatment had not been made public. She remarked that it was “quite nice” to be able to arrive via the front entrance of the hospital, “having made so many quiet, private visits” last year.

We’ll be seeing more of the Princess at the Royal Marsden in the future, but for a happier reason. The hospital announced after the visit that the Prince and Princess of Wales have become joint patrons of the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. It’s a continuation of a long relationship between the hospital and the royal family. Prince William has been President of the Royal Marsden since 2007, and his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, was patron of the hospital for many years until her death in 1997.