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The royal family

Queen offered Meghan a choice of tiaras

380 replies

babsanderson · 16/01/2023 13:17

Below is an extract that describes Meghan being given the tiara to wear for her wedding by the Queen. Another passage describes hoe Angela Levin would not allow Meghan to get access to the tiara before her wedding to practise it with her hairdresser.

"Next came the question of a tiara. My aunts asked if Meg would like to wear my mother’s. We were both touched. Meg then spent hours and hours with her dress designer, getting the veil to match the tiara, giving it a similar scalloped edge. Shortly before the wedding, however, Granny reached out. She offered us access to her collection of tiaras. She even invited us to Buckingham Palace to try them on. Do come over, I remember her saying.
Extraordinary morning. We walked into Granny’s private dressing room, right next to her bedroom, a space I’d never been in. Along with Granny was a jewelry expert, an eminent historian who knew the lineage of each stone in the royal collection. Also present was Granny’s dresser and confidante, Angela. Five tiaras were arrayed on a table, and Granny directed Meg to try on each one before a full-length mirror. I stood behind, watching.
One was all emeralds. One was aquamarines. Each was more dazzlingly stunning than the last. Each took my breath. I wasn’t the only one. Granny said to Meg quite tenderly: Tiaras suit you.
Meg melted. Thank you, Ma’am.
One of the five, however, stood out. Everyone agreed. It was beautiful, seemingly made for Meg. Granny said it would be placed in a safe directly and she looked forward to seeing it on Meg’s head come the Big Day. Make sure, she added, that you practice putting it on. With your hairdresser. It’s tricky and you don’t want to be doing it for the first time on the wedding day."

Spare, Harry

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babsanderson · 16/01/2023 15:34

@Georgeskitchen There were earlier stories that Meghan consistently challenged Harrys friends racism, sexism and homophobia. Is that what you mean by being laddish?

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CPL593H · 16/01/2023 15:35

Didn't Kate practice her hair etc with a tiara from that well known Crown Jeweller Claire's Accessories? The one Meghan wore wasn't especially large (like eg the Politmore) and surely they could have sourced something the right shape and size to get the general idea.

SenecaFallsRedux · 16/01/2023 15:37

Primroseprimula · 16/01/2023 13:22

I don't understand why she didn't just stick with the Spencer tiara?

It's all a matter of taste, but I think that the tiara Meghan wore is much nicer than the Spencer one and more suited to her.

CPL593H · 16/01/2023 15:37

I'm sure I read the CA practice tiara story long before all this business with Harry blew up, so can't see why it would be made up, TBH.

babsanderson · 16/01/2023 15:39

@CPL593H Or Angela could have done the job she was paid to do?

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Theunamedcat · 16/01/2023 15:39

babsanderson · 16/01/2023 15:32

The Queen told Meghan and Harry it had to be booked out with security. It was Angela's job to organise that. They were trying to arrange a date with Angela for this to happen. She ignored them totally.

because she was on holiday? Why should someone ditch there holiday for work? Anytime anyone is on here moaning that work is contacting them outside of hours everyone tells them to ignore it put your out of office on

Also why is the Queen being portrayed as sappy and sentimental in this scene and cold in others did she have a split personality? I mean one minute she won't give him the time of day to ask her permission to propose next she is getting emotional about tiaras

Ohnonevermind · 16/01/2023 15:40

Meghan was supposed to bring the hairdresser to the palace to work on her hair, not to bring a priceless tiara to the hairdressers.

I can’t believe they didn’t realise it and didn’t bring get the hairdresser to come to them, instead shouting about it.

and then claiming it was racism 🤣 sure !

Theunamedcat · 16/01/2023 15:42

babsanderson · 16/01/2023 14:47

@thebellagio The accusation is that Meghan demanded to wear one of the Queen's tiaras.

No the accusation was that she demanded the tiara that Eugene (I think) was to wear to her wedding

I've always taken that with a pinch of salt mainly because I think it was too "big" for meghans head the one she had was fabulous on her

Justcallmebebes · 16/01/2023 15:42

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Oh come on! That is such a far reach and nasty

babsanderson · 16/01/2023 15:44

They were trying to arrange a date for the Tiara to brought out of its storage.

Are you really saying Angela was on annual leave the whole time? If true why did she not say that when the Queen advised Meghan try it on with her hairdresser before the wedding? It was Angela's job to organise the tiara from being taken out.
And if you are on annual leave you put something in place for anyone who needs help even if it is a message saying contact x. You do not just allow emails to go into your in box with no reply message.

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Serenster · 16/01/2023 15:50

Meg then spent hours and hours with her dress designer, getting the veil to match the tiara, giving it a similar scalloped edge.

This is the bit that bemused me the most out of this saga. Meghan wanted her veil edge scalloped to match a very famous, instantly googleable and recognisable tiara. “Fine” says the team dealing with the veil in the real world. “We’ll research that and send you some detailed designs for approval. Once you’re happy we’ll embroider a sample”

How could that process possibly take “hours and hours” unless she’s standing over them while they research, design, and produce a sample? Poor bloody designers, if so.

queenofarles · 16/01/2023 16:07

Angela Has a book coming out, I wonder if she will talk about this,
would be interesting to hear the other side of the story.

Anon778833 · 16/01/2023 16:10

BasiliskStare · 16/01/2023 15:29

I have never read anything which implies AK did not like doing something for a black woman. What I can believe is that M&H did not realise you have to book an appointment way in advance to have one of these tiaras brought to you - you can't just ask for it when your hairdresser is available. And if AK wasn't available then they would just have to wait a while.

I thought the Spencer tiara would have looked lovely but so did the one she wore - whether that was not wishing to snub the Queen or thinking Oh a real proper Royal tiara or just M preferred that one - who knows. I do think if they expected Ak to just drop everything and stick in her bag immediately to bring over is naive.

Is it true or myth that Catherine practiced her hair with a Claire's accessory tiara - We will never know.

Claire's accessory tiaras would probably be a bit lighter! Not sure whether that would help practice.

Anon778833 · 16/01/2023 16:11

queenofarles · 16/01/2023 16:07

Angela Has a book coming out, I wonder if she will talk about this,
would be interesting to hear the other side of the story.

I agree. Much better than listening to newspapers.

Damnautocorrect · 16/01/2023 16:20

I believe (like many wedding related things) they left it last minute and expected the tiara to be available to take out, which caused the problem.

Princessglittery · 16/01/2023 16:27

Surely one issue was rather than go to the Palace with her hairdresser to trial the tiara the request was to pick it up at short notice and take it away for the trial.

You know oh yes we just want to rock up and take a priceless historical tiara out of the palace with no thought to security etc.

The second was the short time frame. As you quote H says “shortly before the wedding” “after veil made to match Spencer tiara” giving the impression the Queen stepped in at the last minute. So it’s possible that was with just a couple of weeks to go, it’s not unreasonable that Angela Kelly may have been on leave and not able to respond immediately. A timeline might be useful.

As for the implied slur on her professionalism that because of this AK hasn’t worked for the RF since the Queen died - who do you think is carefully clearing, documenting, curating all the Queens clothes etc. to join the Royal Collection? Who has a Grace and favour home for life? Who is 65 and retirement age? Who has the Queens approval to write 1 more book ? AK - can’t wait to hear her version but maybe she is loyal to the RF and will stay silent.

been and done it. · 16/01/2023 16:33

I've read all these posts.
They differ in their opinions about what actually happened. Now we have HWs version and to be fair his versions of other events are pretty questionable. Everyone involved has their own version of events hence the unforgettable statement that 'recollections may vary'. I can't see how we're ever going to know the truth about anything, one of the reasons I'm not buying the self serving book and am beginning to go off the RF altogether.

Theunamedcat · 16/01/2023 16:39

The tiara was loaned out last minute though because he fell out with his uncle and granny stepped in

Theunamedcat · 16/01/2023 16:40

A lot of what we hear about the wedding seemed rushed the bridesmaids dresses didn't fit no time left to get them tailored the tiara planned to use one used another and so on its no wonder it was stressful

babsanderson · 16/01/2023 16:42

@Theunamedcat that is not true.

The Tiaras were offered at the last minute by the Queen.

@Princessglittery The email was ask to Angela to make the security arrangements.

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queenofarles · 16/01/2023 16:46

Is Angela authorised to make such arrangements ?

ToughTalker · 16/01/2023 16:46

Maybe the Queen wanted AK to oversee the tiara fittings, as her personal dresser and as it was her priceless tiara? I too read that AK was on leave and had to curtail her holiday to come back to deal with it and the issue was they wanted the tiara NOW.

Maybe Harry sent a message to AK’s royal box which she wasn’t watching (as she was on leave) and expected a reply immediately despite her being on leave (as I’m sure he could have found out). Maybe the ‘ignoring’ was a day or too before she was contacted via phone because Harry was having a tantrum that she hadn’t immediately replied due to not looking at her work emails as she was on leave!

From what we’ve read in Harry’s book where he portrays himself as a spoilt brat, that’s more believable IMO.

I’m sure if Harry had the slightest whiff of racism he’d have put it in his book.

Eyerollcentral · 16/01/2023 16:56

I don’t believe a word of Harry’s version of events here. Very much seems to me that he was seething about reports that he was screaming what Meghan wants Meghan gets and that he was bollocked by Liz afterwards. What kind of a half wit thinks they can take a priceless tiara out and about with them. It would have made far more sense to do the hair trial at the palace. There was also a ridic anecdote about the hairdresser flying in from Greece and the tiara wasn’t available. It clearly hadn’t been confirmed that they could have the tiara that day so why would you make that arrangement? Says to me they did whatever they wanted and expected everyone else to jump to their tune. It’s very much in Harry’s interest to make Angela Kelly seem like the devil as she is one of two people who knows what happened and the other one is now dead. I did laugh at spending hours and hours trying to match up the scallop edge of the veil to the Spencer tiara. As if that happened.

AppleDumplingWithCustard · 16/01/2023 16:58

babsanderson · 16/01/2023 16:42

@Theunamedcat that is not true.

The Tiaras were offered at the last minute by the Queen.

@Princessglittery The email was ask to Angela to make the security arrangements.

You are stating these things as fact. Why you are taking the word of a proven liar as the absolute truth I’ve no idea. And as for your suggestion of racism! 🥱

Eyerollcentral · 16/01/2023 17:00

Also Liz saying ‘Tiaras suit you’ sounds like a total spoof. And why would she be offered five tiaras and then told oh no you can’t have that one. Makes zero sense. Harry just didn’t like being told no by someone he thinks is below him

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