Kate Middleton and Queen Camilla’s Tiaras for the Oman State Banquet Share an Unexpected Connection

Stephanie PetitWed, October 21, 2026 at 2:35 PM UTC

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Kate Middleton and Queen Camilla at the Oman state banquet on Oct. 20, 2026Credit: Aaron Chown - WPA Pool/Getty -

Kate Middleton and Queen Camilla both wore tiaras at the Oman state banquet that trace their history back to Queen Mary

Queen Mary once removed pearls from the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara, worn by Camilla, and put them on the Lover’s Knot Tiara, worn by Kate

Find out more about the historic headpieces and which other royal women wore them

Kate Middleton and Queen Camilla’s tiaras for the Oman state banquet have a shared history.

The Princess of Wales, 44, and the Queen, 79, joined King Charles, Prince William and other members of the British royal family in hosting Sultan Haitham bin Tarik of Oman for his state visit to the U.K., with the first day of his trip culminating in a glittering state banquet at Windsor Castle on Tuesday, Oct. 20.

For the white-tie occasion, both royal women sported evening gowns and tiaras — Princess Kate topped her yellow dress by Elie Saab with her go-to royal headpiece, Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Tiara, while Queen Camilla shimmered in the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara, which was one of Queen Elizabeth’s favorite royal accessories.

Both tiaras trace back to Queen Mary, the wife of King George V and paternal grandmother of the late Queen Elizabeth — and at one point, a set of pearls was swapped from one of the tiaras to the other.

The Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara, photographed on display in 2007Credit: Carl Court/Bloomberg via Getty

According to The Court Jeweller, Mary received the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara as a wedding present in 1893. Lady Eva Greville led the campaign to raise money for the piece, purchased from Garrard, and the fundraising effort was so successful that the extra money went to the wives and children of sailors who died in the collision of the battleship HMS Victoria.

The original version of the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland headpiece featured 14 pearls on top that stood upright. However, Queen Mary later removed the gems and replaced them with diamonds. She then used the pearls in a new tiara: Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Tiara, which she commissioned from Garrard in 1913. The new headpiece was made using the Cambridge Lover’s Knot Tiara — a headtopper worn by her aunt, the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz— as inspiration, per The Court Jeweller.

However, the pearls that were swapped from one tiara to the other no longer appear on the Lover’s Knot. The Court Jeweller notes that the upright pearls once topped the Lover’s Knot Tiara, making the piece even taller than it stands now, but they were later replaced with diamonds.

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Queen Mary in 1911 wearing the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara with its original pearlsCredit: Historia/Shutterstock

Queen Mary gave her granddaughter, the future Queen Elizabeth, the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara as a wedding present when she wed Prince Philip in 1947. The history-making monarch wore the headpiece, which she affectionately called “Granny’s Tiara,” on numerous occasions throughout her 70-year reign.

Because she sported the headpiece in portraits that were used on stamps, banknotes and coins, it became one of the tiaras most associated with Queen Elizabeth. She also brought the tiara around the world, wearing it on royal tours abroad, including to Sierra Leone (1961), Luxembourg (1976), Papua New Guinea (1982), California in the U.S. (1983) and Singapore (1989).

Queen Elizabeth wears the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara in 1982Credit: Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty

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Meanwhile, Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Tiara was also passed down to Queen Elizabeth, who wore it several times during the early years of her reign. However, when the future King Charles married Princess Diana in 1981, Queen Elizabeth lent the headpiece to her daughter-in-law, and it became closely associated with the then-Princess of Wales.

Princess Kate made her debut in the Lover’s Knot Tiara in 2015, and it became her go-to royal headpiece. Although she’s worn a total of five different tiaras during her royal life, with her tiara debut coming on her April 2011 wedding day to Prince William, the Princess of Wales has worn the Lover’s Knot more frequently than any other royal headtopper.

Princess Diana wears Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Tiara in Washington, D.C., in 1985Credit: Anwar Hussein/Getty

Queen Camilla and Princess Kate weren’t the only royal women wearing tiaras for the Oman state banquet. Princess Anne donned the Meander Tiara — which originally belonged to her paternal grandmother, Princess Alice — while the Duchess of Gloucester sported the Honeysuckle Tiara.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”