The major alteration Kate Middleton made to Princess Diana's iconic engagement ring

According to the Express, the Duchess of Cambridge has made some little changes to her engagement ring. Reports say that when Kate received the engagement ring from her then fiancé, Prince William, she realized that it was a bit bigger than her ring finger, so she decided to modify it by adding platinum beads, making it her perfect fit.

Origins

The ring’s origins date back to when Prince Charles engaged the young Princess Diana in February 1981. In a memorable interview between Diana and her biographer, Andrew Morton, the People’s Princess revealed that the dashing prince asked her to marry him at the Buckingham Palace, but did not have a ring to propose to her at that moment. Charles later asked Diana to handpick her own ring from a collection of designs by Garrard, the Royal family jeweler at the time.

Lady Diana reportedly chose the sapphire-diamond cluster Marguerite ring, which was reminiscent of the sapphire-and-diamond brooch Prince Albert commissioned Garrard to create as a gift for his wife-to-be, Queen Victoria, in 1840.

Diamonds are forever

Oprah Daily revealed that Princess Diana, unlike most royals, opted for a design in the jeweler’s collection that could have been replicated by any member of the public, as long as they had up to 60,000 pounds! She was really one to break the norm during her time. You could easily tell that the princess had taste and loved ‘big rocks.' Her engagement ring was a 12-carat oval Ceylon sapphire surrounded with 14 solitaire diamonds and set in 18-karat white gold.

Before the late Princess passed on, the ring was willed to Prince Harry. Princess Diana willed all her jewelry to her sons because she wanted their wives to be able to wear them when the time was right. Prince Harry reportedly gave the ring to his older brother when he noticed William was set to engage Kate, so he could propose to her with it.

Prince William made his proposal to Kate with it in October 2010, while they were on vacation in Kenya. William said this in an interview:

The African continent holds a very special place in my heart, it is the place my father took my brother and me shortly after our mother died, And when deciding where best to propose to Catherine, I could think of no more fitting place than Kenya to get down on one knee.

I had been carrying [the ring] around with me in my rucksack for about three weeks before [the proposal],

I literally would not let it go, everywhere I went I was keeping hold of it because I knew this thing, if it disappeared, I would be in a lot of trouble.