Lady Eliza Spencer – the niece of the late Princess Diana – is engaged to South African businessman Channing Millerd. With her wedding planning in full swing, many want to know if the Cape Town-raised aristocrat will wear the Spencer Tiara worn by the late royal on her wedding day.
Diana, the sister of Eliza’s father, Earl Charles Spencer, married the then-Prince Charles of the British Royal Family in 1981. The former couple’s high-profile divorce was finalised a year before her tragic death in a car crash in 1997.
Charles is now king and is married to his alleged former mistress, Queen Camilla.
WILL ELIZA SPENCER WEAR DIANA’S TIARA?
Eliza Spencer’s wedding will come hot on the heels of her twin sister Lady Amelia, who married in 2023, and her older sister Lady Kitty, who wed in 2021.
Unlike Diana’s two sisters, Lady Jane and Lady Sarah, who wore the Spencer Tiara on their wedding days, Eliza’s sisters chose not to wear the diamond-encrusted family heirloom at their nuptials.
Images via Instagram: @elizavspencer
According to reports, their decision to break with tradition varied from reports of the gesture eliciting “painful memories” of Diana’s death to claims of a strained family relationship.
It’s unclear if Lady Eliza Spencer will become the first in her immediate family to wear the pricey piece of jewellery.
WHO LAST WORE IT?
After Princess Diana died in 1997, the Spencer Tiara was returned to her brother, Earl Charles Spencer. It is not part of the British royal collection.
Although Charles is the youngest member of the Spencer family, he is the only male, and thus heir to the earldom and the family’s estate.
Should Lady Eliza Spencer wear the tiara, she would be the second in her family to wear it since Princess Diana’s death.
In 2018, Diana’s other niece, Celia McCorquodale – the daughter of her older sister Sarah – wore the tiara on her wedding day.
A few years later, in 2022, the Spencer Tiara was displayed in London as part of Sotheby’s Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee celebration.
In its display description, Sotheby’s claimed the tiara would be inherited by Diana’s granddaughter, Charlotte, the daughter of her son, William.
However, some royal experts claim that this is factually incorrect. Some have pointed to the fact that the tiara was simply loaned to Diana by her brother, Charles.
It will likely be inherited by Charles’s firstborn son and heir, Louis Spencer, Viscount Althorp. Like Charles, Louis will inherit the earldom.
DO YOU THINK LADY ELIZA SPENCER WILL WEAR PRINCESS DIANA’S TIARA?
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