In the opening moments of the second season of With Love, Meghan, the duchess-turned-Montecito-maven, expertly demonstrated how to craft the perfect onion tart.

Slicing with precision and effortlessly sautéing, not a speck of oil on her £2000 Carolina Herrera shirt dress, Meghan exuded the Santa Barbara cool that defines her personal style.

Despite her fondness for her new locale, alongside sharing insights that critiqued UK life as ‘a little bit inauthentic,’ it was clear that even as she distances herself from her husband’s heritage, she embraces it through jewellery. Particularly, the jewellery of the mother-in-law she never met.

The 24-carat gold Cartier Tank Francaise watch that once adorned the wrist of Diana, Princess of Wales, is now wrapped around Meghan’s arm.

Even in her most chaotic culinary endeavors, it remains her staple accessory, as much a part of her attire as Diana’s 12-carat Ceylon sapphire and diamond Garrard engagement ring is for her sister-in-law, the present Princess of Wales.

Both have made these pieces their own—Meghan by stacking the watch with a collection of bracelets, and Kate by enhancing the iconic engagement ring with her own bands, gifts from her husband over their fourteen years together.

These constant reminders of Diana’s presence signify how her legacy has been uniquely integrated into the lives of her two daughters-in-law.

In the wake of her death on 31 August 1997, Diana’s jewellery, alongside the rest of her possessions, was divided among her two sons. While most were put in storage, these two pieces of jewellery were handed over to William and Harry – to be kept as personal mementos until they could be given to their future wives.

Though legend had it that it had been Harry who chose his mother’s engagement ring, he claimed otherwise. ‘Happy to let it go,’ he advised readers in his memoir, Spare. Instead he chose his mother’s watch, a piece she had purchased and debuted after her divorce from his father in August 1996.

Having sported a gold Patek Philippe Calatrava, a 21st birthday gift from Charles, for much of her marriage, the unmissable addition formed a key accessory in the pared-down chic that Diana pioneered in the final year of her life.

The watch’s notable reappearance on her daughter-in-law in September 2020 as the couple posed for Time 100 – their first official portrait since their departure from the Royal Family – signalled that like Diana, Meghan, courtesy of Harry, had adopted the watch as a symbol of independence.

In contrast, William’s decision to bestow upon his wife the symbol of Diana’s royal role in the form of her famed engagement ring spoke volumes about the future he wanted for Kate.

Determined, as he told Tom Bradby at the time of his engagement, to keep Diana ‘close to it all’, the choice made a bold statement about the future he clearly saw for his wife at the heart of the monarchy. 

Despite its associations with the breakdown of the fairytale marriage, the ring remained a potent symbol of British monarchy and his mother’s participation in it.

Purchased from the Crown Jeweller Garrards by Queen Elizabeth II on behalf of Prince Charles, it became Diana’s most iconic accessory – a symbol not only of her glamour but of her induction as a leading members of ‘the firm’.

Meghan, in contrast, received two anonymous diamonds from Diana’s collection for her engagement ring – yet another reminder that primogeniture, even when it comes to jewellery, is key for the royals.

This division has continued through the years that have followed, as Diana’s collection gradually reappeared on her respective daughters-in-law.

In 2015, Kate chose to channel Diana by wearing the sumptuous Cambridge Lover’s Knot tiara. Created for Queen Mary in 1914 by Garrard’s, the headpiece was inherited by Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and lent to Diana who chose it, over her own family one, for her most important royal functions.

Likewise, the Collingwood pearl and diamond drop earrings which have now become a mainstay in Kate’s jewellery box were a wedding gift to Diana from the jeweler and were worn throughout her tenure as Princess of Wales – often with the Cambridge tiara.

The emerald art deco choker, also made for Queen Mary, had been an eye-catching accessory for Diana which she notably wore across her forehead during a 1985 visit to Australia. Though adopting a more conventional use for a 2022 Earthshot prize gala, Kate nevertheless generated headlines as yet another of the princess’s royal jewels remerged for public view.

Sapphires, aside from her impressive engagement ring, were a fixture for Diana, and the double-drop sapphire earrings which were part of a suite gifted to her by the Crown Prince Fahd of Saudi Arabia when she married Prince Charles were frequently repeated for official functions.

Kate wore them at the 2022 Trooping the Colour, which coincided with Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebration, which was yet another notable reminder where the bulk of the late princess’s most important pieces had landed.

Four months later, yet another jewel reappeared as Kate chose to affix the diamond and emerald Prince of Wales brooch to the lapel of her burgundy Emilia Wickstead coatdress when she welcomed the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. Created in 1863 for Alexandra, the wife of the future Edward VII, Diana had again pushed the boundaries of tradition by wearing it not as a brooch but as a pendant suspended from a chain of diamonds.

Her daughter-in-law’s decision to resurrect the brooch in its original form was a subtle hint that even as she adopts the princess’s famed accessories she does so with a more orthodox interpretation. A little over a month since she had assumed the title of Princess of Wales, the choice spoke volumes about her future and her mother-in-law’s past.

As Kate has assumed control of pieces that were at the heart of Diana’s official royal life, Meghan has instead been left with a very different portion of Diana’s legacy, one which has centered on the brief period when as a single woman the princess was trying to forge a new and independent role outside her husband’s family. Emerging onto the world stage still as Princess of Wales but without the significant HRH prefix, Diana cast aside many of the jewels that had been hallmarks of her royal style.

Though she famously appeared wearing her sapphire and diamond engagement ring on the day her divorce from Charles became final on 28 August 1996, she knew that a ‘replacement’ was required. It eventually came in the form of a thirteen-carat emerald cut aquamarine stone – a gift from her close friend Lúcia Flecha de Lima – which was transformed into a magnificent cocktail ring.

The piece had last been seen on June 2, 1997, when Diana appeared for a glamorous cocktail party at Christie’s to celebrate the upcoming auction of her evening gowns in New York later that month. The next time it was seen in public was when Meghan emerged from Windsor Castle after her wedding to Prince Harry in May 2018 en route to her wedding reception at Frogmore House.

Though ‘Megxit’ was more than two years away, how Diana’s two sons chose to divide these important pieces speaks volumes about the associations that each wished their wives to foster with their late mother’s legacy.

The diamond tennis bracelet that now forms part Meghan’s wrist stack was another post-divorce piece that became a substitute for ones which by virtue of their royal provenance felt less appropriate to her new situation.

With no state banquets on the horizon or diplomatic receptions to attend, and only coastal evenings on the terrace of Montecito’s most glamorous restaurants, it seems unlikely that we will see Meghan emerge in Diana’s splendid choker composed of seven strings of pearls and a large central sapphire (a gift from the Queen Mother).

That, we assume, lies in wait for the day it is deemed appropriate for the current Princess of Wales to wear a jewel which sits alongside her engagement ring as the one most identified with Diana. We will probably never know how exactly Diana’s jewels were allocated between William and Harry, but what we can be sure of is that as they gradually reappear, their division will continue to speak volumes about the very different paths each of her two sons has taken.