Meghan Markle wore a stunning royal tiara worth an estimated £2 million when she married Prince Harry on May 19 2018, with the headpiece once belonging to Queen Mary.

However this tiara was reportedly not her first choice, as she had initially plumped for the Greville Emerald Kokoshnik but was refused as no one could trace its origin.

But Princess Eugenie later wore the £10 million Greville at her own wedding to Jack Brooksbank at the same location on October 12 that year.

Harry and Meghan stepped down as working royals less than two years later, but have remained on good terms with Eugenie and Jack – despite the royal rift.

The couples also have children of a similar age, with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex parents to Prince Archie, five, and Princess Lilibet, three, while Eugenie and Jack have two sons – August, three, and Ernest, one.

The Queen Mary tiara worn by Meghan is still an impressive piece, featuring a centre stone comprised of 10 diamonds which was once a brooch.

Queen Mary, the wife of King George V, was given the brooch as a wedding gift from the County of Lincoln and it was subsequently made into an Art Deco bandeau style tiara in 1932.

Before she married Harry, Meghan went to Buckingham Palace at the invitation of the late Queen Elizabeth to pick out her tiara, and she originally opted for one featuring emeralds.

The late Queen reportedly denied Meghan her first choice due to the “controversy” surrounding the tiara’s origin, as expert Maxwell Stone from UK retailer Steven Stone explained.

He said: “Thought to have come from Russia, the headpiece is said to have found its way into the collection through undefined channels.

“According to reports, the tiara isn’t the mystery that we once thought it was though – it’s thought to have been the Greville Emerald Kokoshnik tiara, which Princess Eugenie borrowed from her grandmother just six months later.”

The Greville tiara is the most expensive in the royal collection and is made of rose-cut pave diamonds set in platinum and adorned with six emeralds.

It was commissioned for famous society hostess Dame Margaret Helen Greville by Boucheron, a French luxury jewellery and watch house, in 1919.

According to Mr Stone, it is the 93.7-carat cabochon-cut emerald in the centre that makes it so valuable.

The Greville tiara was bequeathed to the Queen Mother in 1942, but until Eugenie’s wedding day no member of the Royal Family had worn it in public.