Kate Middleton's Major Jewelry Moments After Being Branded 'Disappointment'

Since marrying into the royal family in 2011, Kate Middleton (Britain's new Princess of Wales) has made a number of sparkling appearances wearing a collection of the monarchy's famous jewels.

From her engagement ring, to tiaras, necklaces, brooches, bracelets and earrings, the princess has a wealth of valuable baubles at her disposal. However, she has not won over everyone with her decisions on when and where to wear them.

This month, comments made by former Vogue editor, Suzy Menkes, resurfaced from the time of King Charles III's coronation in which she branded Kate a "disappointment" over appearing to wear her jewelry under duress.

Speaking on the podcast Creative Conversations on May 5, Menkes said: "The Princess of Wales is a bit of a disappointment about jewelry. She gives the impression that she only puts it on when she absolutely has to.

"I imagine her looking beautiful in one of those dresses or gowns...and then her sort of pulling a face and saying, 'Do I have to wear this?'" she explained. "I'm making all this up, it's probably ridiculous, but she doesn't give any sense of adoring jewelry and being pleased to put it on."

The critique sparked a wave of support from the royal's fans who disagreed with Menkes on social media.

In light of this recent criticism, Newsweek looks at a collection of Kate's major royal jewelry moments to date.

Kate's first major royal jewelry moment came on the day that her engagement to Prince William was officially announced in November 2010. The prince had proposed with an heirloom ring that had originally been the engagement ring chosen by his mother, Princess Diana in 1981.

The ring is a large oval sapphire set round with brilliant diamonds and was made by the crown jewellers, Garrard. The ring was an important part of Diana's public identity and she continued wearing it after her divorce from Prince Charles (now King Charles III) in 1996.

Today, Kate is rarely seen without the ring and has repeatedly worn diamond and sapphire earrings and pendants to complement her most important piece.

Kate's first public appearance wearing a tiara was famously made on the day of her royal wedding on April 29, 2011 at Westminster Abbey.

For the occasion, Queen Elizabeth II loaned the princess a tiara that had particularly important associations. It had been made by Cartier in 1936 and given to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother by her husband, King George VI. The king and queen gifted the piece to their eldest daughter (the future Queen Elizabeth II) on her 18th birthday as her first tiara.

Elizabeth loaned the jewel to her sister, Princess Margaret, and also to her own daughter, Princess Anne, therefore it made a fitting first tiara for granddaughter-in-law, Kate.

To accompany the tiara, Kate's parents gifted her a pair of diamond earrings designed to match with small loose acorns suspended in the middle of a diamond loop. Acorns form part of Kate's Middleton family crest.

In 2014, Kate stepped out at a gala for the National Portrait Gallery in London wearing one of Queen Elizabeth II's most valuable privately owned pieces of jewelry, the Nizam of Hyderabad necklace. It had been given to the monarch as a wedding present in 1947.

The necklace was worn by the queen throughout her reign and was made by Cartier. Kate is the only member of the queen's family to have worn the piece publicly, aside from the monarch herself, and in 2019 the princess wore it a second time for a diplomatic reception at Buckingham Palace.

For her first state banquet as a member of the royal family, Kate made an impressive appearance wearing statement pieces loaned to her by Queen Elizabeth.

For the state banquet at Buckingham Palace for President Xi Jinping of China in 2015, the princess wore what is known as the "lotus flower tiara" which was made in the 1920s from diamonds given to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother as a wedding present. The tiara was loaned to Princess Margaret during her lifetime and then inherited by Queen Elizabeth II in 2002.

To accompany this tiara, Kate was loaned a diamond bracelet given to Elizabeth as an engagement present from Prince Philip in 1947, and a pair of diamond drop earrings.

The princess also wore a second diamond bracelet and her sapphire and diamond engagement ring.

Though Kate has worn a number of historic royal jewels, she has also debuted some modern pieces from the vaults at Buckingham Palace.

In March 2022, the princess wore a pair of emerald and diamond earrings formed of a tassel design for an evening reception during a visit to Jamaica. The earrings, and matching bracelet, had been loaned to her by Queen Elizabeth after she had been gifted them in the 1980s.

The queen had worn the earrings with a matching necklace for a dinner in London hosted by President Barack Obama in 2011.

Kate has often used her jewelry, in the tradition of Queen Elizabeth, to pay tribute to people, places and occasions. For the state funeral of the monarch who died aged 96 on September 8, 2022, Kate honored her late grandmother-in-law by wearing a combination of pieces which had been loaned from her collection.

For the funeral, Kate wore a modern four-strand pearl necklace fastened with a diamond clasp which had been worn by the late queen from the 1980s onwards and had also been loaned to Princess Diana.

Kate had worn the necklace to the funeral of Prince Philip just a year earlier at Windsor Castle.

With the necklace, the princess also wore a pair of diamond and pearl drop earrings which had been commissioned by the queen after reportedly receiving the pearls as a wedding present from the ruler of Bahrain in 1947.

One of Kate's more recent sparkling jewelry moments came in November 2022 for King Charles III's first state banquet at Buckingham Palace since ascending the throne.

For the event, held in honour of President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, the princess wore the pearl and diamond tiara which had been made in the 1910s for Queen Mary. The tiara had been worn by Queen Elizabeth II during the early years of her reign and then made famous by Princess Diana who was loaned it as a wedding present.

Kate accessorized the famous piece with a pearl bracelet which had also previously belonged to Diana and a new diamond brooch. The piece was first seen on Kate for the remembrance Sunday service in London that same month and was listed for sale at a jewelers in the capital earlier that year for £14,500 ($17,229).

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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