Princess Anne Rewears Meander Tiara at Oman State Banquet

Princess Anne joined King Charles III and other senior members of the British royal family at Windsor Castle on October 20, 2026, for a state banquet honoring Sultan Haitham bin Tarik of Oman. The Princess Royal wore a gold evening gown and the Meander Tiara, a family heirloom associated with three generations of royal women.

The banquet formed part of the Sultan's three-day state visit to the United Kingdom, which began that morning. According to reports from Yahoo and Tatler, approximately 150 to 160 guests attended the diplomatic gathering in St George's Hall, where the royal family welcomed the Omani ruler and members of his delegation.

Anne paired her structured gold ensemble with white evening gloves, diamond jewelry and a blue sash bearing royal insignia. Her choice of headpiece continued a longstanding tradition of rewearing jewelry from the royal collection rather than introducing a different tiara for each formal occasion.

The Meander Tiara, also known as Princess Alice's Meander Tiara or the Greek Key Tiara, features a diamond bandeau with a repeating Greek key pattern and honeysuckle motifs. A central brilliant-cut diamond surrounded by a laurel wreath forms the centerpiece of the design, according to Tatler.

The piece originally belonged to Princess Alice of Battenberg, the mother of Prince Philip. She presented it to her daughter-in-law, the future Queen Elizabeth II, as a wedding gift in 1947. Although Elizabeth did not wear the tiara publicly, she eventually passed it to Princess Anne in the late 1960s, according to Tatler and Town & Country.

Anne has worn the heirloom at numerous official engagements over several decades. Her appearances in the tiara include the State Opening of Parliament in 1970 and the Guildhall Banquet in 1988. She also selected it for the Nigerian state banquet in March 2026, according to Tatler and Town & Country.

The tiara has another connection to Anne's family through her daughter, Zara Tindall. Zara wore the piece at her July 2011 wedding to former England rugby player Mike Tindall, using it as her something borrowed. The choice linked the jewelry to three generations of women in the same family.

The Express reported that jewelry expert Deborah Papas had previously estimated the tiara could be worth between £2 million and £4 million if it was made by Cartier. However, its precise origin and market value have not been officially confirmed.

Anne typically rotates among three favorite tiaras: the Meander Tiara, the Festoon Tiara and the Queen Mother's Cartier Aquamarine Pineflower Tiara. According to Town & Country, she wore the Pineflower Tiara for the German and US state banquets in 2025 and selected the Festoon Tiara for the French state banquet that year.

The Princess Royal has also worn Queen Mary's Fringe Tiara, which she chose for her wedding, and the Halo Scroll Tiara, which Catherine, Princess of Wales, wore on her own wedding day. Town & Country reported that Anne has not worn the Halo Scroll Tiara since before her first marriage.

The Oman banquet was held at Windsor Castle rather than Buckingham Palace, which remains under renovation. The occasion marked the first state visit to Britain by an Omani sultan since Sultan Qaboos bin Said visited in March 1982, when Queen Elizabeth II was on the throne, according to the Express.

King Charles III and Queen Camilla hosted the evening alongside the Prince and Princess of Wales, Princess Anne and Sir Timothy Laurence, and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester. The gathering brought together members of the royal family, political figures and representatives from Oman as the two countries continued their longstanding diplomatic and military relationship.