Sweet reason behind Prince William’s decision to use Diana’s ring to propose to Kate
Prince William has spoken fondly about his late mother Princess Diana over the years, dedicating much of his work – including his recent Homewards project – to her legacy.
As his mother died in a Paris car crash in 1997 when the prince was just 15-years-old, the future King was unable to introduce his now wife Princess Kate, who he met years after Diana’s death at St Andrews University in 2001, to her.
However, it seems the prince still wanted his wife to have a connection to Diana, which formed part of the reason why he used her iconic Sapphire ring to propose to Kate in 2010.
The proposal happened during a getaway with friends on October 20, 2010, in Kenya when the pair had a moment alone. Prince William had said he had been carrying the ring around for weeks beforehand.
However, the happy news wasn’t announced to the world until weeks later in November 2010, with the wedding taking place the next year in April 2011.
During an interview with ITV after news of their proposal was shared to the world, Prince William explained why he wanted to use his late mother’s ring to mark the couple’s engagement.
When asked about the family ring, Prince William said: “It’s my mother’s engagement ring. I thought it was quite nice because obviously she’s not around to share any of the fun and excitement of it all so this is my way of keeping her sort of close to it all.”
Kate then added: “It’s very, very special.”
Royal experts also commented on the prince’s decision to use Diana’s ring and how important it was for William.
Speaking in the 2017 documentary ‘Kate Middleton: Working Class to Windsor’, royal author Duncan Larcombe said: “William’s decision to give Kate his mother’s engagement ring – for outside observers we might look at that and say that was not a great marriage in the grand scheme of things.
“I think for William it has a far more intimate meaning. Prince William will rarely ever talk about his mother publicly. He will very rarely do anything to draw comparisons with him and his mother and certainly he hates the thought that Kate might be seen as the new Princess Diana.
But his decision to give her his mother’s engagement ring I thought was very significant because it showed that William wanted his mother on his big day to be right there at the very heart of what was going on.
“And actually, in a non-soppy way, I thought it was quite touching.
