Prince Harry and Meghan Markle may be the young, forward-thinking faces of the royal family, but that doesn’t mean the couple is going to buck all tradition.
According to reports, Prince Harry will most likely be wearing a ring following his May 19 wedding to Meghan. This may not seem like a big deal, however it is when you consider the fact that neither his brother, Prince William, nor his grandfather, Prince Philip, chose to wear rings.
Prince William made the choice to go sans ring not because he doesn’t love his wife, however, but because he simply hates jewelry.
“He doesn’t like jewelry, and the Palace issued a statement before their wedding saying so,” Penny Junor, author of “The Duchess: Camilla Parker Bowles and the Love Affair that Rocked the Crown,” told Vogue.
And though Prince Charles did indeed wear a wedding ring while he was married to Princess Diana, he now wears a ring on his pinky finger as a proclamation of love for his wife, Camilla.
“In the U.K., it is a modern tradition that men have adopted wearing a wedding ring,”Junor added. “But it’s not all that common among the aristocracy. Former prime minister David Cameron does not wear a wedding ring.”
So why do people think Harry will go a different route and wear a ring? It’s simple: He loves rocking a good piece of jewelry anyway.
According to E! News, a source informed them that Harry “does want to wear a wedding band.”
The Cut broke it down even further by explaining that Harry is often spotted wearing bracelets, necklaces, and other rings out in public, including a blue beaded bracelet that matches one of Meghan’s. In fact, Harry was spotted wearing a slightly hidden necklace underneath his button-down shirt while attending an event alongside his brother just this week.
It’s true that only time will tell if Harry decides to wear a ring, but all signs are pointing toward yes. And those signs become even more telling when you consider where Harry’s wedding ring material would come from.
“In 1923, the Duke of York, the future King George VI, received a nugget of gold from the Clogau mine,” Marlene Koenig, a British and European royalty expert, explained to Town & Country. “There was enough in this nugget to make rings for Princess Elizabeth, Princess Margaret, Princess Anne, and the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer.”
She added, “That nugget is largely exhausted, but the Queen has received gifts of other nuggets of Welsh gold during her reign. She gave gold to William for Catherine’s ring. One assumes she will do the same for Harry.”
