Kate Middleton Returns With an Accessory She Wore to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Wedding

On Tuesday, Kate Middleton made her first appearance at a Buckingham Palace garden party since 2023. Even though the day’s events were celebrating some of the UK’s most charitable citizens, the Princess of Wales chose an outfit that makes it clear she had weddings on her mind. She wore a pale yellow Emilia Wickstead dress, which she accessorized with a pair of Robinson Pelham earrings that made their initial debut at her own wedding to Prince William back in 2011. Kate completed the outfit with a matching Philip Treacy hat that she wore during Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Windsor wedding ceremony in May 2018.

Kate has attended at least one garden party most years since she joined the royal family, but in 2024, her cancer treatment meant that she attended no public engagements during the spring. During Tuesday’s party Kate and William reunited with the family of Liz Hatton, a young photographer who visited the princess at Windsor Castle in October 2024. Hatton died of a rare and aggressive form of cancer in November 2024, nearly a year after she was diagnosed.

Her earrings were a gift from Kate’s parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, and London-based jeweler Robinson Pelham designed them especially for the occasion. Each earring features a pavé diamond oak leaf inset with a diamond acorn, finished with a pear-shaped drop, and the motif was inspired by the Middleton family coat-of-arms that was designed shortly before the wedding. When Kate’s Alexander McQueen wedding dress went on display at the palace shortly after the wedding, the earrings were featured beside them, along with the Cartier Halo Tiara Kate wore for her big day.

Though Kate’s pastel dress seems like she pulled it right off the runway, the Emilia Wickstead number has been in her wardrobe for a few years. She last wore it at the St. Paul Cathedral service of thanksgiving during the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June 2022.

The Phillip Treacy hat that Meghan wore to the Sussexes’ wedding in 2018 is another popular choice from her closet, and she was last spotted in during Trooping the Colour back in 2019. Still, it’s a telling choice only one day after Harry and Meghan celebrated their seventh wedding anniversary with a public post full of memories from their relationship. It might be impossible to tell if Kate was sending a message to her estranged brother- and sister-in-law with her choice of headwear, but Harry and William are reportedly still not on speaking terms. The August 2024 funeral of their uncle Lord Robert Fellows was the last time the brothers were spotted in the same room, and fellow attendees said that the brothers kept their distance.