When Princess Diana (who was known simply as Diana Spencer at the time) married King Charles on July 29, 1981, it wasn't just her silk taffeta and antique lace Emanuel wedding dress—complete with 10,000 pearls and puffed sleeves—that caught the attention of royal watchers everywhere. Her glittering, diamond-encrusted hair accessory—a tiara not from Queen Elizabeth's vault, where many royal brides-to-be choose from, but from the bride's own family collection instead—was much discussed. Aptly named the Spencer Tiara, the diadem was made of heart-shaped scrolls and had been part of the Spencer family since the early 1900s. So, where is that iconic tiara today?

Before we can consider where the Spencer Tiara is today, it's important to understand the history of this stunning headpiece. According to Sotheby's, who had the tiara on display in London in 2022 as part of Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee celebration, the headpiece dates back to 1767, when it was created for Viscountess Montagu. The piece was then gifted to Lady Cynthia Hamilton in 1919 ahead of her wedding to Albert, Viscount Althorp. In the 1930s, jewelers at Garrard "remodeled" the diadem into the design we know today.

In the mid-1970s, Princess Diana's father, John Spencer, the 8th Earl Spencer, inherited the famous headpiece. His three daughters, Jane, Sarah, and Diana, all walked down the aisle on their respective wedding days with the Spencer Tiara atop their heads. In the years following Princess Diana's wedding, she was often spotted wearing the Spencer Tiara for other important events, like state banquets and galas. After her passing, however, it wasn't seen at a wedding again until 2018, when the late princess's niece, Celia McCorquodale, donned the tiara for her own nuptials; neither of Princess Diana's daughters-in-law, Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle, wore the tiara for their weddings.

Where did the Spencer Tiara go after Ceclia's wedding in 2018? Before her death, Princess Diana created a "letter of wishes," which included a specific note about the future of her jewelry collection, the Sun notes. “I would like you 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... I leave the exact division of the jewellery to your discretion." For that reason, some people speculated that the tiara would be given to Prince William, the future King of England, for his wife, Kate Middleton, to wear for future events, but that's simply not the case. According to the Sun, Kate will never inherited the famous headpiece because it was never officially gifted to Diana—it was simply on loan. After the 8th Earl Spencer passed away in 1992, the tiara was inherited by his only son, Diana's brother, Charles, the 9th Earl Spencer. She continued to borrow the headpiece, the Sun notes, from her brother up until her tragic death in 1997. At that point, it was returned to the Spencer family.

Though we don't know exactly where the tiara is, we do know that Charles, the 9th Earl Spencer, is in possession of it. The Sun also notes that Princess Charlotte, the daughter of Prince William and Kate Middleton, could potentially wear the headpiece one day.