ODD ANDERSEN/AFP via Getty Images
Meghan Markle was spotted without her engagement ring while attending the Invictus Games with Prince Harry — but there’s a perfectly good explanation.
Meghan, 42, was without the diamond because it’s currently being serviced after the setting came loose, a source tells Us Weekly. The Duchess of Sussex was first seen sans ring when she and Harry, 38, attended the Family & Friends party on Tuesday, September 12. The accessory was missing once again when the pair stepped out for the wheelchair basketball tournament the following day.
Harry designed the ring with Cleave & Company, who also served as the late Queen Elizabeth II’s regular jeweler. Harry told BBC during a post-engagement interview in November 2017 that he used a new rock from Africa — where he and Meghan spent time together early in their relationship — combined with diamonds that his mom, Princess Diana, once wore.
“The ring is yellow gold, because that’s [Meghan’s] favorite, and the main stone itself I sourced from Botswana, and the little diamonds on either side are from my mother’s jewelry collection to make sure that she’s with us on this — on this crazy journey together,” he said.
Meghan, for her part, gushed over the design at the time, telling the BBC, “Everything about Harry’s thoughtfulness and the inclusion of [Princess Diana’s stones] and 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.”
In June 2019, Meghan had her first public appearance following the birth of their son, Prince Archie, now 4, at the annual Trooping the Colour parade. She showed off a new pave-set ring sitting next to her wedding band.
Chris Jackson/Getty Images for the Invictus Games Foundation
Harry created the piece to mark the couple’s wedding anniversary and celebrate their growing family. Within the eternity band, the prince placed birthstones for Meghan, Archie and himself on the underside of the delicate piece. (The pair have since expanded their family with Princess Lilibet, whom they welcomed in June 2021.)
While Meghan was missing her engagement band in Germany this week, she did sport her Welsh gold wedding ring for the games, which is an international sports competition for injured sick and wounded service people and veterans that Harry co-founded in 2014. Harry and Meghan made their public debut as a couple while attending the event in Toronto three years later.
This year, Meghan was a date late to the competitions due to taking care of the twosome’s children before making her way across the pond.
“Just like so many of you, we know this is about family and friends and the community that Invictus has created, that Fischer House has created, and so I had to just spend a little bit more time getting our little ones settled home,” she told attendees on Tuesday, per Hello! “I just landed a couple of hours ago. I am thrilled that the first event that I can do with Invictus is here with all of you, It is amazing.”