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We are back to discuss the Royal and Noble Tiaras worn at last week’s State Banquet held by the British Royal Family for American President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump at Windsor Castle!
Link: https://royalwatcherblog.com/2025/09/18/royal-tiaras-at-the-american-state-banquet-at-windsor-castle/
You can find us on social media as ‘The Royal Watcher’ [@saadsalman719 on Twitter and @the_royal_watcher on Instagram], as well as on royalwatcherblog.com, while Sam (https://thebeaumonde.org/) is @thebeaumonde.inc on Instagram.
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0:00
[Music]
0:04
Hello and welcome back to another
0:05
episode of the Royal Water Podcast where
0:07
we're back again, I think second time in
0:10
a week, which is hopefully a sign of
0:12
good things to come to talk about the
0:14
TRS of the American State Banquet at
0:17
Windsor Castle, which was anticipated
0:21
not because of the politics, but because
0:23
of the jewels, cuz that's probably one
0:25
of the more positive things to talk
0:26
about.
0:27
Yeah, we're going to try and keep this
0:29
very neutral. I'm probably going to
0:30
fail, but let's talk about Tiara's.
0:32
Yes. So, um, we got a pretty standard,
0:37
uh, overall before we got into the
0:39
specifics. It was a series of kind of
0:42
regular appearances from all the ladies,
0:44
a lot of repeats, and nothing really too
0:48
exciting to talk about, but overall,
0:51
they showed up and did their duty as
0:54
best as they could.
0:55
Yes. Sadly, same old same old when it
0:57
comes to the tiaras. Now
1:00
I know. Okay, let's move on to the next
1:02
slide and we can discuss a bit about the
1:04
ceremonial stuff. So the president and
1:07
first lady were welcomed by the prince
1:09
and princess of Wales as they got off
1:11
their helicopter at um one of the houses
1:13
on the Windsor estate. I don't believe
1:16
they specified which one, but it was in
1:18
the garden of one of the it's full of
1:21
mansions at the state. So the wheels
1:24
welcomed them. Then they the king and
1:26
queen. There was a carriage procession
1:27
back to Windsor where there was a guard
1:30
of honor, a lunch. Then there was a
1:32
beating retreat and a lot of ceremonies.
1:35
But what is kind of most unusual about
1:38
this state visit is that it was almost
1:40
entirely inside Windsor Castle. Like
1:42
there the first day there's no visit to
1:45
London, none of the kind of usual
1:47
ceremony stuff. And yes, he's already
1:49
done that on his first visit. But this
1:52
is because I think one security issues
1:54
and then the second the state of the
1:56
world and public opinion.
1:59
Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.
2:02
Yeah. But I think let's move on to
2:04
jewels where we got a pretty standard
2:06
selection. The Princess of Wales um
2:08
because she was the first one we saw
2:10
wore the Prince of Wales feathers brooch
2:12
from Queen Alexandra. It's nice to see.
2:15
Um, she wore I believe you said those
2:17
ears are from Aspri, right?
2:19
Um, yeah, I could be wrong, but from
2:21
what I've heard, those are Asprey and
2:22
they're amethyst, which goes nicely with
2:24
the purple.
2:26
Yes, this really become one of her
2:27
uniforms. Um, she wears this color and
2:30
like a hat for I think it's like,
2:33
tell a lie, I don't think they're
2:34
amethyst. I think they're spinels. My
2:36
mistake. I think they're very dark red
2:38
spinels.
2:39
Yeah, she wore them u two or three times
2:42
over. M
2:44
remember yeah lovely kind of classic
2:47
timeless pieces and it's nice to see
2:49
them and this color and kind of this
2:53
general coat dress and hat thing that's
2:54
become her uniform for state visit. She
2:56
wore something very similar for the
2:57
Qatar state visit for the South African
2:59
state visit a few years ago. It's very
3:02
standard and then same thing for Queen
3:04
Camila who's worn this kind of blue coat
3:07
and hat I think every other appearance
3:09
for the past three four years and it's
3:11
very hard to distinguish. Nice to see
3:13
Queen Mary's Russian sapphire brooch
3:16
again that is it's massive and there's
3:19
some kind of heirlooms which look small
3:20
on Camila and some which look massive
3:22
and this is one of those. And the
3:24
earrings are really interesting because
3:26
some people claim that they're Princess
3:28
Diana's Saudi sapphire earrings, but the
3:30
design is very different, I feel, and
3:33
that would be quite a big news if she
3:35
wore those ones.
3:36
She wouldn't dare wear Diana's sapphire
3:39
earrings. So, this is one of those
3:41
things where um she's worn this kind of
3:44
outfit so many times that it's
3:47
become such a
3:49
kind of part of her look, but it's hard
3:51
to distinguish appearances and kind of
3:53
the lack of new jewels is uh one of
3:57
those things that's just become standard
3:58
now and we can't really expect and a lot
4:01
of surprises from them anymore after
4:03
past few years. M
4:07
and then um later on the president first
4:09
lady gave her a vintage Tiffany brooch
4:13
um which she wore for the beating the
4:15
retreat and it was interesting that she
4:17
didn't have pearls on earlier but then
4:19
she had them on for the lunch and then
4:21
she had the brooch on later on. So she
4:23
did change things up a bit but then very
4:26
standard stuff. So not much. They look
4:30
nice and respectable for this sort of
4:32
event but nothing too exciting. and we
4:34
can move on from there into the next bit
4:37
which was the banquet that evening at
4:40
Windsor Castle. And I don't know about
4:42
you, Sam, but I'm kind of like the
4:44
standard of Windsor versus Buckingham
4:47
Palace cuz I feel like we get to see a
4:48
lot more of the royal family than we did
4:50
in the palace. And the setting is
4:54
different, but it's better in a sense in
4:56
my opinion to see different royals and
5:00
all the different processions more
5:02
clearly. Yeah, sorry. I just can't get
5:04
over the festo necklace with the Belgian
5:07
sapphire tiara. Just sorry, I find that
5:10
quite jarring.
5:11
Yeah, and we'll go actually let's go
5:13
into the next slide and then we'll
5:14
discuss the tiara which Queen Camila has
5:17
worn this tiara to the last statement
5:19
which for the French president and she
5:21
wore the same one again. And I mean for
5:23
a woman who does have access to one of
5:25
if not the largest collection of tiaras,
5:28
it is disappointing that she's repeating
5:30
so much. Uh the fue necklace was uh
5:35
different. She's only worn the large
5:37
version with the five strands. The three
5:39
strands is nice. It still quite massive.
5:42
So, but I think overall it wasn't really
5:46
u it didn't really blend. Wasn't a
5:48
cohesive look. the Queen Mother's
5:50
Cardier bracelets. And then the only
5:53
kind of surprise in a sense we got was
5:55
that she wore a Queen Victoria's diamond
5:58
bar brooch on the back of her sash,
6:00
which is kind of one of the oldest
6:02
heirlooms in the royal collection. And
6:03
that's kind of the only surprise and
6:05
something new she gave us. The rest was
6:07
very standard. And uh I mean I love
6:10
Camila, but it was quite boring.
6:12
I mean, why would you wear that bar
6:14
brooch down there?
6:17
Yeah, it's I mean
6:20
previous used to wear them like on top
6:22
of the shoulder. So even if they're
6:23
wearing the brooch and stuff, it would
6:25
be seen that's
6:27
kind of in the back.
6:29
It was I think the different styles of
6:32
the jewels didn't match. So the
6:33
necklaces are deco, the earrings are
6:35
modern, the tiara is Victorian. So the
6:39
different cuts of the diamonds and the
6:41
settings, it just looked very disjointed
6:44
and in my opinion wasn't a big success.
6:48
Mm-m.
6:51
Yeah. And then moving on to the Princess
6:52
of Wales in the next slide, who I mean,
6:56
we knew she was going to wear the same
6:57
tiara. A lot of us had hoped for an
6:59
updo, but this kind of tiara and the
7:02
Queen's antique diamond earring
7:04
combination, something that she's worn
7:05
quite a few times already, so that
7:07
wasn't exciting. But I did really like
7:09
that they're releasing just official
7:12
portraits with just the two of them for
7:13
the banquetss. And this one was, I
7:15
think, so lovely. And overall, this was
7:18
a very kind of princess look. And in a
7:20
way, we've not really seen her,
7:21
especially the both of them in a
7:23
portrait style before in this section.
7:26
So, I can see this kind of going around.
7:28
In the past, all the portraits they had
7:30
only had suit and tie and that sort of
7:32
thing. And now this is proper gala
7:34
portraits to kind of same as all of the
7:36
royals, which for some reason they
7:38
didn't even have for almost 15 years
7:40
since getting married.
7:42
Oh.
7:44
Yeah. So, what did you think about
7:45
Kate's look
7:47
overall? Not
7:48
overall. Yeah, I know. Because you're
7:49
like, Sam, we know that you're fed up
7:51
with the lover's knot.
7:53
And I am fed up with the lovers, not
7:54
tiara. Um, no, it was a very um very
7:57
nice outfit. I'm not fond of the collar,
7:59
but hey ho.
8:01
Yeah, I'm I'd rather just like high
8:03
collars, but this is the Philippley
8:05
look, and it does seem to be something.
8:08
And I mean I don't blame Kate for
8:10
wanting to be fully covered up for this
8:13
sort of visit.
8:14
So
8:15
yeah. No, it was uh love to see. can um
8:18
actually we can discuss what you um Gard
8:23
they tried to claim credit for doing the
8:25
tiara which I find very odd that I mean
8:29
it's quite public knowledge that they
8:31
were not the makers but them trying to
8:34
for the sapphire tiara and for this one
8:36
and they keep on kind of repeating the
8:38
same thing which is a last date visit
8:39
and I know you called it out on social
8:41
media.
8:42
Yeah, if anyone's interested just go to
8:44
my Instagram. I think I spell out quite
8:45
clearly what I think of Gar. Um, but Gar
8:48
did not make this tiara, nor did they
8:50
make the Belgian Sapphire tiara. And I
8:52
think for um, what's the word? In order
8:55
not to get set demonetized, I won't say
8:57
what I really think.
8:59
Yeah, that's a good call. Now, it was
9:03
overall
9:05
slightly better than standard
9:06
appearance. And I like kind of this hair
9:09
with the tiara where it's much more
9:11
open. I mean, I love it updo most of
9:13
all, but the kind of straight slick back
9:16
hair that she had been doing for the
9:17
past few appearances, that just did not
9:20
look well. And this one kind of um makes
9:23
it sit properly. So, that's kind of my
9:25
opinion. And then we move on to Princess
9:27
Anne, who actually she has three tiaras,
9:30
but she felt the need to go take this
9:33
one out of the cardig exhibit at the VNA
9:35
and wear it for this banquet. And I
9:37
mean, it's a bit of an odd choice. She
9:39
could have worn the mean dirty with this
9:40
and no one would have been the wiser,
9:42
but it's I mean it's not a pretty piece.
9:46
We've seen it a few times recently, but
9:48
it was there and overall I mean she
9:51
looked as respectable as she could and I
9:53
think the dress is good 40 plus years
9:55
old and with a sash and orders
9:58
everything as standard princess
10:01
appearance.
10:02
Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Like you say,
10:03
I don't know why she took it out of the
10:04
VNA. Like she's got other tiaras.
10:07
Yeah. And she just wore um the feston
10:09
tiara for the previous fanquin. That was
10:11
what they shared for her 70th fth
10:15
birthday last month. So I mean she has
10:17
the meter tiara. She has access to quite
10:19
a few other TRS in the royal collection
10:21
and she could have worn one of the
10:23
mystery ones but like I said there's
10:25
kind of a bit of a lack of effort from
10:28
that I felt um in recent years um I
10:32
think past two years in the royal ladies
10:34
where they just um the 2022 and 23 we
10:39
got a bit more kind of they were pulling
10:41
out new jewels and got debuts all the
10:42
time and I was just they keep on
10:44
repeating the same thing over and over
10:45
again and then we're just bored by
10:50
Yeah. But interesting. And then we move
10:52
on to really the most pulled lady of the
10:56
night, the Duchess of Glouester, who was
10:58
wearing the Glouester honeysuckle tiara
11:00
with their massive diamond earrings, two
11:02
reversers, diamond clips on her collar,
11:05
and then the pendant that she's wearing
11:07
is actually very interesting because
11:09
it's the central portion of this diamond
11:12
corsage brooch that belonged to Queen
11:14
Victoria's daughter, Princess Helena.
11:17
And so that is like one of the first
11:20
times she's worn this way. And she likes
11:22
to kind of play around with jewels quite
11:23
a bit. So this is something we're seeing
11:25
for the first time.
11:27
Yeah. I mean, she's the only one that
11:28
can impress me when it comes to jewels.
11:31
Yeah. And then she uh wore kind of a lot
11:35
of bracelets. She wore two pearl and
11:37
diamond bracelets which uh have the
11:39
class of King William IV and Queen
11:41
Adelaide. And then also she wore four
11:44
very kind of thin art deco diamond
11:46
bracelets which were originally a
11:47
sutuire given to her mother-in-law by
11:49
the city of London when she got married
11:50
in 1935.
11:52
Wow.
11:52
So that's kind of one of the like she
11:54
literally just piled it on. And then
11:56
also her orders she was I think the only
11:59
lady wearing two stars. So she has this
12:02
um sashin star of the order of the
12:03
garter and then she also has the royal
12:05
Victorian order. So she wore the star of
12:06
that and I think it's the first time
12:07
she's worn both together. So out of all
12:11
the I mean Queen Camila has gone a bit
12:13
of flack for only wearing the King's
12:14
family order and then I think props to
12:17
Jes for kind of wearing all the proper
12:19
orders that you should have.
12:22
Lovely appearance overall. And then from
12:23
there on we move on to our lady uh the
12:28
kind of just a preview of the um queen
12:32
and princess an you can see a couple of
12:35
the other tiaras which is what we're
12:38
focusing on next is that is um kind of
12:42
the best parts of I think banquetss is
12:44
that we get to see a lot of other
12:45
ladies. So, starting off with the Lady
12:47
Miris of the City of London wearing her
12:50
pearl and diamond tiara from Lady
12:52
Rumbled, which you and I went to go see
12:53
in London a few weeks ago.
12:55
Yes, we're very lucky to see it.
12:58
Yes. Lady Marco graciously invited us to
13:01
Mansion House and we got to see the
13:02
tiara and sadly she didn't get a proper
13:05
kind of photo this time around, but it
13:08
was quite lovely to see overall. And uh
13:10
I think this is we're kind of two months
13:12
out from the end of their tenure. So
13:14
this might be their last banquet at
13:16
Windsor,
13:17
but it won't be the last banquet in all.
13:19
So keep your eyes out for another
13:21
appearance.
13:23
We do have a few hopefully. So this was
13:26
lovely to see. And then next on we had
13:28
the queen's uh two lady in waitings. One
13:32
of which is um wait I will actually have
13:35
to search it up because their names and
13:38
titles are so long that it was I had to
13:43
like literally go on Google and
13:47
match the faces to the different titles
13:49
cuz these aren't the usual ladies and
13:52
waiting that she has all the time. And
13:54
so um what the one on the left is uh
14:00
Jane Juan Weston Holes who is wearing
14:03
this kind of the tiara is small but the
14:06
rivier she wore with it was quite
14:07
massive. And then on the other side we
14:10
have Baroness Chisel of Awopen who wore
14:15
a tiara from the Baron's veganfield
14:19
which is her kind of maternal family.
14:21
She stood out of one of the bars and it
14:24
the tiara is very interesting because it
14:26
may originate from the Duchess of
14:28
Cleveland who was one of the 18th
14:31
century kind of society hostesses. So
14:34
it's not a pretty tiara but it is quite
14:36
historic.
14:38
Interesting.
14:40
Yeah. And then we move on to the next
14:42
lady which is why countest Hood. Her
14:46
husband is the lord in waiting and he
14:48
had the unenviable task of welcoming the
14:51
president when he arrived in the UK and
14:54
kind of sticking with them the entire
14:56
time. She wore this diamond fringe tiar
14:58
which is like one of the many fringe
15:01
tiars out there. This one's quite lovely
15:03
and she's worn this to a couple
15:04
banquetss so far. Yeah. And then we move
15:06
on to the next lady which is uh who was
15:10
identified by one of the readers on the
15:13
royal royal messy board. This is Lady
15:15
Charles Spencer Churchill who's a great
15:17
friend of Queen Camila and they were
15:19
flatmates back in the '7s I believe and
15:22
she wore this um really striking diamond
15:25
tiara which I believe is the same one
15:27
that was loaned to the Sabbees exhibit
15:29
in 2022.
15:31
And is it a family tiara?
15:34
Not that I'm aware of because she's
15:36
funny enough she's a cousin of the
15:38
Baroness Chisolome in the last two
15:40
slides and she um like a first cousin
15:43
and she also comes from the Baron's
15:45
leaking field but it's not one of their
15:46
tiaras. So and so her husband was the
15:50
son of the Duke of Malbrook but the
15:53
Mulros don't have this tiara. So that is
15:56
one of those
15:58
kind of mystery things. Did they buy
16:00
this? Did she borrow this from someone
16:01
else? some other friend or relative.
16:04
Who knows? It's mystery. But it was kind
16:06
of nice to see her and the fact that she
16:08
was in the procession as like a friend.
16:10
That was very interesting.
16:14
Yeah. But she does have quite a lovely
16:16
collection of jewels. We've seen her
16:18
wear kind of massive diamond star
16:19
earrings. She has a couple of lovely
16:21
diamond brooches, including one that's a
16:22
replica of the Queen's Cartier
16:26
Williamson pink diamond brooch.
16:27
Oh, interesting. So,
16:29
so she does have a quite interesting
16:31
collection and she's usually in the
16:33
royal procession at Ascot every year
16:34
with the king and queen. So,
16:37
one of those people that just kind of is
16:39
part of the royal family circle who just
16:41
gets uh goes on under the radar most of
16:43
the time.
16:46
I know. Interesting. And then we move on
16:48
to the last two tiaras. One of which I
16:51
believe um the lady from the back looks
16:53
like Lady Susan Hussie and she's still a
16:56
regular at state banquetss. I think
16:58
she's been attending them since the late
17:00
50s. So she is one of the kind of stars
17:04
of that and she probably wore her
17:06
regular water tiara. Then the other lady
17:09
is someone who's I've seen quite a bit
17:11
at state openings of parliament and
17:14
state banquetss and she always wore this
17:16
white gown with this tiara and uh one of
17:20
our uh followers uh who runs a lovely
17:23
website called regal events they
17:25
identified her as lady true whose
17:27
husband is the
17:29
opposition leader in the house of lords
17:31
so that's why she's always there.
17:33
Okay.
17:35
Yeah. And then we go to the last side
17:37
and I'll ask your opinion on what you
17:40
thought about the jewels on this visit.
17:41
Sam
17:43
underwhelming. And that's me being
17:45
polite. It's the same old same old now.
17:47
And it's just, you know, they have an
17:50
entire vault. You know, they've got
17:52
surprises down there that we haven't
17:54
seen for centuries. I don't know why
17:55
they don't break them out. I mean, if if
17:58
these things are going to be a rarity,
17:59
banquetss, then there should be a little
18:01
bit of um variety when it comes to the
18:04
jewels. Yeah,
18:06
exactly. No, I feel that too that like I
18:08
was saying earlier, I feel like there's
18:10
really been a lack of effort in the past
18:12
couple of past year or so and kind of
18:16
bringing out new jewels or debuting new
18:18
stuff. So this is it's very
18:20
disappointing that for people that do
18:22
have such a mass collection. It's not
18:25
like it's a lot of it's on display or
18:27
something and just some things are on
18:29
display currently but at the same time
18:31
it's they have so much more that they
18:34
could wear and it would in a sense add
18:36
to the occasion. It would kind of take
18:39
attention away or bring attention to
18:42
events more than they kind of fear. And
18:46
that's one of the reasons they do kind
18:48
of repeat so much is because they don't
18:50
don't want to take attention away from
18:52
the political stuff or from the guest of
18:54
honor. So it's
18:56
it's a fine line and I'm not really sure
18:58
they're succeeding.
19:00
That's a good way to put it.
19:02
Yeah. So overall underwhelming banquet,
19:05
nice to see the jewels and hopefully we
19:07
can expect something better in a few
19:11
months time. We won't get a state
19:12
opening of parliament this year, but
19:13
we're there's a German state visit
19:15
that's been announced for December. And
19:17
then we have the annual diplomatic
19:18
reception and I'm looking forward to see
19:20
how that will play out in Windsor for
19:22
the first time. So that is kind of
19:25
something to look forward to overall.
19:29
Wonderful. Great talking to you, Sam.
19:30
And we hope the listeners will join us
19:33
again soon. Yeah.