Royals News

Duchess of York’s Diamond Suite

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Happy Birthday to Sarah, Duchess of York, who celebrates her 65th Birthday today! The exuberant former wife of the Duke of York who continues to live with him at Royal Lodge in Windsor as the ‘happiest divorced couple in the world’, she received this magnificent Garrard Diamond Suite as a wedding gift from the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh.

York Diamond Tiara | Diamond Suite | Ruby Suite | Queen Victoria’s Bow Brooches

To mark her wedding to the Duke of York in 1986, the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh presented their new daughter-in-law with this Garrard Diamond Suite, which consists of modern diamond earrings, a necklace, and a bracelet, that were bought at Garrard for around £250,000. The modern Diamond Suite was presented alongside a striking Diamond Tiara, which was worn on the Wedding Day.

The new Duchess of York began wearing the Garrard Diamond Suite soon after her Wedding and wore it for numerous Gala Events, among them the Royal Variety Performance later that year.

The Duchess also wore the Diamond Suite with her Diamond Tiara during the Royal Tour of Canada in 1987 and for the Saudi Return Banquet at Claridges Hotel in 1988, when the bracelet was threaded through her hair, in addition to numerous Galas and Concerts, among them a notable visit to Los Angeles in 1988.

In the early 1990s, the Duchess of York wore the Garrard Diamond Suite for countless Gala Dinners, Galas and Performances, which continued to be worn throughout the period of her separation from the Duke.

In 1995, the Duchess (or as she later claimed her lady-in-waiting, Jane Andrews) mistakenly put a case containing the Garrard Diamond Suite in the carry-on luggage while traveling back to London from JFK Airport.

The Jewels were stolen by a teenage baggage handler and stashed in a locker and in a toolshed behind his house, until being discovered by the FBI, whose assistant director questioned the decision by the Duchess after its return:

I don’t think it shows a lot of wisdom myself. I certainly wouldn’t do it. But I personally wouldn’t have a half a million dollars of jewelry.”

While she retained the Garrard Diamond Suite after her divorce, following the theft, Sarah, Duchess of York stopped wearing the Suite as regularly, with it only making a few rare appearances since the 1990s, most notably for a Garrard Party hosted by Jade Jagger at the Tower Of London in 2002, and the Diamond Butterfly Ball in 2011 and 2012.

More recently, Sarah, Duchess of York wore her Garrard Diamond Suite for an event at Claridge’s Hotel in London in July 2019. We saw Princess Beatrice wearing the York Diamond Tiara last year, so let’s hope we see the Diamond Suite worn sometime soon!