Camilla Draws Ire After Turning Princess Diana's Famous Emerald Necklace Into A Brooch

Camilla Parker Bowles is now under fire for altering one of Princess Diana’s most favorite jewels. As she celebrated her 72nd birthday last week, the Duchess of Cornwall turned the late Princess of Wales’ famous diamond and emerald necklace into a brooch.

The ownership of the controversial necklace remains a thorny subject until today. Princess Diana first got hold of the jewel in 1981, after marrying Prince Charles. It is a 150-year-old royal family heirloom that the late Queen Mother handed down to Princess Diana as she welcomed her new granddaughter-in-law into the royal family.

Princess Diana valued the necklace so much when she was still alive. It was one of the few jewels she would repeatedly wear in her royal outings, including the gala at the Vienna Burgh Theater in April 1986, where she matched the necklace with emerald earrings and a Catherine Walker designed sequined emerald green dress.

In her will, one of the wishes that Princess Diana wrote was to have all of her jewels — including the diamond and emerald necklace — allocated to her two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. “I would like to allocate all my jewellery to the share to be held by my sons, so that their wives may, in due course, have it or use it,” she wrote.

While the necklace was Princess Diana’s, the pendant actually belongs to Queen Elizabeth. Hence, when Prince Charles remarried, the piece of jewelry was automatically added to the collection of his new wife, Camilla.

When the Duchess of Cornwall celebrated her 72nd birthday earlier this month, many of Princess Diana’s fans were quick to notice the alteration that Camilla had made on the jewel, which is now a brooch. The move earned the ire of many, with some going as far as saying that Camilla’s move was “in poor taste.”

“Has she no shame?” one royal follower commented. “She had no shame when she broke the marriage up, why would she have any now?” another commented.

Camilla wasn’t the first to alter Princess Diana’s jewels. Just this year, Kate Middleton also made headlines after removing the diamonds from the earrings she had inherited from her late mother-in-law.