Meghan leaves her crown jewels at home! Duchess wears Princess Diana's watch and trendy fitness tracker but not her engagement ring on visit to Nottingham

Meghan Markle did not wear her engagement ring from Prince Harry for their first joint engagement since returning to the UK.  

Although the Duchess of Sussex, 45, has not been pictured wearing the ring in almost nine months, one may have expected her to bring the diamond sparkler out for today's royal-style outing in Nottingham. 

Nottingham is the city where the couple carried out their first royal walkabout together after announcing their engagement in 2017.

While Meghan, 45, wore a £1,500 cashmere coat and burgundy heels from London-based brand Jennifer Chamandi worth £650, she kept her accessories to a minimum - even leaving the £120,000 diamond sparkler that Harry proposed with at home. 

The Duchess has not been seen wearing the jewel since February 2026, when she wore it to an NBA game in California. 

Instead, Meghan accessorised her autumnal outfit - including the burgundy coat from Joseph - with her wedding band and her bedazzled fitness tracker that she is now rarely seen without. 

In addition to the Oura ring hidden inside a custom, diamond-encrusted gold 'sleeve' from Logan Hollowell, she wore a new, unidentified gold band on her right hand.

She also sported Princess Diana's Cartier Tank Française watch, worth £17,800 ($24,020), which was gifted to her after she married the Duke of Sussex.

Harry proposed to Meghan in 2017 – enlisting the late Queen Elizabeth II's regular jeweller, Cleave & Company, to design a unique jewel for his bride-to-be. 

The prince had even snuck a ring from Meghan's jewellery box so that the designers knew her size and, in a particularly touching tribute to his late mother, asked them to 'harvest' the diamonds from one of Diana's bracelets.

Since the proposal in Nottingham Cottage, it is believed the ring has been altered four times. At Trooping the Colour in June 2019, Meghan was spotted wearing the ring with a thinner band than its original design.

She also had little diamonds set down the sides of the ring, worth around £126,000 ($150,000), in what jewellery expert Arabel Lebrusan suggested was a more American style.

In his book Finding Freedom, royal expert Omid Scobie noted the decision to resize and reset the engagement ring with a new diamond band in 2019 was Harry's idea.

In the biography, jeweller-to-the-stars Lorraine Schwartz reportedly said of the prince: 'He's the loveliest person ever. So romantic, so thoughtful.'

The authors continued: '(So much so that Harry also thought to have Lorraine resize and reset Meghan's engagement ring with a new diamond band.)'

In 2022, there was further speculation that Meghan altered the ring for a second time when she attended the Invictus Games in The Hague, and it appeared that she had added additional diamonds to the setting surrounding the central diamond.

The ring was notably absent during several of Meghan's appearances in 2023, when a loose stone was reportedly being repaired – in what some believed was a third alteration.

In 2025, eagle-eyed royal fans noted that the ring's central diamond looked more like an emerald cut than the original cushion cut when it was seen in a trailer for Meghan's since-axed Netflix series.

A crowd of 100 fans gathered to greet Harry and Meghan during their first joint public appearance since returning to the UK. 

The Duchess accepted bouquets and balloons from well-wishers as she told them 'it's great to be back' ahead of a series of royal-style engagements in Nottingham today. 

Harry repeatedly placed a protective arm around her as they posed for selfies and chatted with members of the public during a royal-style walkabout, their first official public appearance together in the UK since the Queen's funeral in 2022.

The couple also posed for selfies with well-wishers, with Harry putting a protective arm around his wife on several occasions. At one point, Meghan appeared to show someone in the crowd her jewellery. 

The Duchess beamed as she shook hands and took selfies with fans, including one boy who asked if she lived in a mansion and another who wanted to know whether she had a Bentley.

Today's engagements came after the Sussexes were described as 'private citizens' by the King, who is in Wales with the Queen for an official engagement today.

Nottingham is the city where the couple carried out their first royal walkabout together after announcing their engagement in 2017.

But almost a decade on, Meghan does not see herself as a working royal and is instead more of a 'full-time mum and entrepreneur', a friend has said, adding that public events like this with her husband will be 'rare' for her.

Meghan took bunches of yellow and white flowers from supporters who had waited to see her and Harry this morning.

The couple were given balloons, including one in the shape of a unicorn. The duke stopped to tell one woman he liked her bright pink jacket and that it was 'very nice' to see everyone.  

Emily Davis, 21, who gave Meghan a bunch of yellow flowers said it was an honour to meet her.

Ms Davis told the Press Association: 'I gave her flowers, and I shook her hand. I just said, "I've always wanted to meet you. It's an honour".

'She looks amazing up close. She was dressed amazingly. I gave her a card, and she folded it up and put it in her pocket so she can read it later.'

Ms Davis said she wrote on the card that Meghan 'really inspires' her.

Harry and Meghan were greeted by the chief executive of the Community Recording Studio, Trevor Rose, before they entered the building.

The crowd cheered excitedly when the couple disappeared out of view into the community hub.

They are supporting a number of charities, including a community food project established in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy and a recording studio where Meghan will take part in an acting workshop.

The Sussexes are visiting three charities, starting with the Community Recording Studio, where Meghan is due to take part in an acting workshop.

The couple will then visit the Himmah food bank alongside the Hubb Community Kitchen and Epic Partners, a charity offering sports mentoring for children aged four to 18.

Hubb, which was established after the Grenfell Tower fire claimed 72 lives in June 2017, has long been a passion project for Meghan. She wrote the foreword to its 2018 cookbook, Together.

There is a 'really nice synergy' in their return to Nottingham nine years on, a source said, while adding that things have changed since they were last there.

And Meghan, who was out for lunch with her royal wedding hairdresser in London yesterday, will not be making these kinds of visits often.

'Her public appearances will be relatively rare. She is reading a lot of scripts at the moment. If she has time left after all of that, she will do some charity work,' the Sussex source said.

'But she's not a working royal. Her day isn't organised around a programme pulled together by a private secretary. She's a full-time mum and entrepreneur, and that alone takes up a lot of time and work.'

Meghan is hoping to launch As Ever in the UK by the end of this year.

Harry is focused on his charity work, especially Invictus, while Meghan is more focused on business and her potential return to acting.

'They have different professional priorities,' one source told the Telegraph.

'Prince Harry's is his philanthropic work and public service. Her focus is on her family and children, followed by her business, followed by rebooting her acting career.'

Meghan has been busy in the past fortnight, launching a new advent calendar and a collaboration with Nobel Peace Prize-winner Malala Yousafzai.

She is donating a day's proceeds of all jam and tea sales from her Californian brand As Ever to Yousafzai's charity, the Malala Fund, in honour of the International Day of the Girl on October 11.

Although the Daily Mail's Alison Boshoff revealed that this may end up being less than the £2,000 value of the trousers she wore when they met at Claridge's last week.

On Sunday, alongside a shot of her grinning at that tea, as Malala looked solemn, the Duchess shared a joint statement from the pair.

'When we support the girls today, we empower the women of tomorrow. Access to education is the key to unlocking this,' she said.

She then told her 4.9million followers: 'This International Day of the Girl, in partnership with Archewell Philanthropies, 100 per cent of net proceeds from As Ever jams and teas will support Malala Fund and its vital work to ensure every girl has access to free safe quality education. Tea for Two has never felt so good. Shop at asever.com'.