When Prince Harry decided he would propose to Suits star Meghan Markle in November 2017, he faced the challenging task of choosing an engagement ring. After his brother, Prince William, 43, picked their mother, Princess Diana 's blue sapphire diamond to propose to Kate Middleton , Harry enlisted the late Queen Elizabeth's regular jeweller, Cleave & Company, to design a unique jewel for his bride-to-be. The prince even snuck a ring from Meghan's jewellery box so that the designers knew her size and, in a particularly touching tribute to his late mother, asked them to 'harvest' the diamonds from one of Diana's bracelets.

Writing in his tell-all memoir Spare, Harry, 41, recalled how he had 'cleared all this in advance' with his older brother, whom he calls 'Willy', adding: 'I'd asked my brother if I could have the bracelet, and told him what it was for. 'I don't recall him hesitating, for one second, in giving it to me. He seemed to like Meg.' Harry also picked a blood-free diamond from Botswana, the African country where he and Meghan fell in love on their third date, for the engagement ring. On November 4, 2017, in the gardens of Kensington Palace's Nottingham Cottage, Harry got down on one knee and asked Meghan, now 44, to marry him with the glittering ring comprising a solid yellow gold band with three diamonds.

Since then, it is believed the ring has already been altered four times . At Trooping the Colour in June 2019, Meghan was spotted wearing the ring with a thinner band than its original design. She also had little diamonds set down the sides of the ring, worth around £126,000 ($150,000) when Harry had it made, in what jewellery expert Arabel Lebrusan suggested was a more American style. At the time, she also debuted a new eternity ring that was adorned with conflict-free diamonds as well as three birthstones - one each for the couple and their then-newborn son Archie.

In his book, Finding Freedom, royal expert Omid Scobie noted the decision to resize and reset the engagement ring in 2019 with a new diamond band had been Harry's idea. In the biography, jeweller-to-the-stars Lorraine Schwartz reportedly said of the prince: "'He's the loveliest person ever. So romantic, so thoughtful.'" The authors continued: '(So much so that Harry also thought to have Lorraine resize and reset Meghan's engagement ring with a new diamond band.)' In 2022 there was further speculation that Meghan altered the ring for a second time when she attended the Invictus Games in The Hague, and it appeared that she had added additional diamonds to the setting surrounding the central diamond. The ring was notably absent during several of Meghan's appearances in 2023, when a loose stone was reportedly being repaired.

Earlier this year, eagle-eyed royal fans noted that the ring's central diamond looked more like an emerald cut than the original cushion cut when it was seen in a trailer for Meghan's Netflix series. While some suggested it had been modified for a third time, others speculated it may have been a replica of her original to avoid any possible damage to it while cooking. Harry and Meghan announced their engagement on November 27, 2017, with a romantic photograph of the soon-to-be Sussexes taken on the steps of the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace. During an interview with the BBC's Mishal Husain, Prince Harry revealed he had picked a yellow gold band for Meghan 'because that's her favourite'.

He also added that Diana's diamond was his way of 'making sure that she's with us on this crazy journey together'. Meghan chimed in: 'It's beautiful, and he designed it, it's incredible.' The prince then humorously quipped, 'Make sure it stays on that finger' before his fiancée replied: 'Of course'. When Ms Husain enquired how Meghan felt about the significance of having 'stones on your finger that once belonged to Princess Diana', the future Duchess described it as being 'incredibly special'. She added: 'Obviously, not being able to meet his mom, it's so important to me to know that she's a part of this with us.

'To be able to have this, which sort of links where you come from and Botswana, which is so important to us. It's perfect.' Harry also shared that he believed his late mother and Meghan would have been 'thick as thieves' and 'best friends', describing how he envisioned Diana being 'over the moon' and 'jumping up and down' in excitement at the prospect of her youngest son getting married. The couple said 'I do' during a fairytale ceremony at St George's Chapel in Windsor on May 19, 2018. Writing in Spare, Harry revealed more details about his surprisingly simple proposal at Nottingham Cottage.

He explained he opened up a bottle of champagne that he had been 'saving for a special occasion'. He then asked Meghan to grab a champagne flute and accompany him outside, where he had laid out electric candles on a blanket. 'I wanted it to look like Botswana, the bush, where I'd first thought of proposing,' he wrote. It was in that moment, as the couple sat among the night stars in the bitter November cold, that Harry knelt on the blanket and looked up at his wife-to-be. With tears in his eyes, the prince asked Meghan: 'Spend your life with me? Make me the happiest guy on this planet?

'Yes,' Meghan answered. When Harry asked her for confirmation, she replied: 'Yes!' 'I laughed. She laughed. What other reaction could there be? In this mixed-up world, this pain-filled life, we'd done it. We'd managed to find each other,' the prince emotionally recalled in his memoir. He added that Meghan was so caught up in the emotional moment that she forgot to ask about the ring. As the elated pair quickly 'hurried' back into Nottingham Cottage, he could hardly believe that the engagement had gone without a hitch.