Even More Bernadotte Tiara Moments from the Swedish Royal Birthday Gala

Last week, I covered a whopping nineteen tiaras worn for the King of Sweden’s big 80th birthday dinner in Stockholm. But there were more tiaras sprinkled around the room, including four interesting sparklers worn by Bernadotte family members.

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden was the youngest of five siblings. His four elder sisters were known collectively as the “Haga Princesses.” Two of them are still living today: the eldest, Princess Margaretha (who is 91 and did not travel from her home in England for the celebration), and the youngest, Princess Christina (who sparkled in the Six Button Tiara at the dinner). The two middle sisters, Princess Birgitta and Princess Désirée, have passed away, but their children were present for their uncle’s birthday party.

Princess Désirée’s death is a recent one: she passed away at the end of January. Her three children, Carl, Christina-Louise, and Hélène, were all in attendance at the gala dinner. The youngest, Hélène, arrived on the arm of her partner, Fredrik Dieterle. Delightfully, she paid tribute to her late mother by wearing her diamond tiara.

The diamond tiara that Princess Désirée owned and wore originally belonged to her step-grandmother, Queen Louise of Sweden. Louise, who was born Princess Louise of Battenberg, is wearing the diamond scroll tiara in the portrait above. I have theorized in the past that the tiara was given to Louise as a wedding present in 1923 by her younger brother, Lord Mountbatten. The gift that Louis and Edwina offered to Louise was described at the time of the wedding as a “delicately designed diamond bandeau,” a description that I think fits the scroll tiara very accurately.

Eventually, Louise’s diamond tiara became a favorite piece used by her granddaughters-in-law, the Haga Princesses, in the years before their marriages. When Princess Désirée married a Swedish aristocrat, Baron Niclas Silfverschiöld, in 1964, Gustaf and Louise reportedly gave the tiara to Désirée as a wedding present. Désirée wore the tiara for decades, making one of her final prominent public appearances in the jewel at her brother’s 70th birthday gala in April 2016.

Here’s another look at Hélène wearing her mother’s tiara. She paired the jewel with pearl drop earrings, a four-row pearl choker necklace, and a brooch that also belonged to Princess Désirée. The jewel features a red gemstone–perhaps a ruby, spinel, or garnet–in a diamond surround.

Princess Birgitta died in December 2024, and her family was also represented at the dinner by her three children: Prince Carl Christian, Princess Désirée, and Prince Hubertus. Her only daughter, Désirée, is pictured here with her husband, Eckbert von Bohlen und Halbach, as they arrived for the dinner. Her jewels for the evening also came from her mother’s jewelry box: Birgitta’s Pearl Circle Tiara, as well as a small diamond and sapphire cluster, worn as the clasp on a pearl necklace.

Princess Birgitta’s tiara was also a wedding gift from her grandfather and step-grandmother, King Gustaf VI Adolf and Queen Louise. The tiara was a new creation from Carlman, featuring tiny pearl flowers set in pearl circles, with additional small diamond flowers rising from the base. Birgitta wore the tiara for the first time during a gala held on the eve of her civil wedding to Prince Johann Georg of Hohenzollern in Stockholm in May 1961.

The birthday gala wasn’t the first time that we’ve seen Désirée wear her mother’s wedding gift tiara. Birgitta gave the tiara to Désirée many years ago, and she’s worn it often at Swedish royal celebrations. Here, she wears it with the same blue evening gown for the wedding of Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia in 2015. She’s also wearing the same diamond and sapphire cluster with a different pearl necklace. Trond Norén Isaksen writes that the cluster may have originally been part of the sapphire and diamond necklace that Birgitta inherited from her mother, Princess Sibylla.

Two Bernadotte cousins were also present at the dinner, wearing interesting tiaras. This is Madeleine Kogevinas, née Countess Madeleine Bernadotte, on the arm of her partner, Bernard Mach. Madeleine is the only daughter of Prince Carl Bernadotte, the only son of Prince Carl and Princess Ingeborg of Sweden. Madeleine, therefore, is also the niece of Princess Margaretha of Denmark, Crown Princess Märtha of Norway, and Queen Astrid of Belgium.

For the dinner, Madeleine wore a diamond and pearl tiara with a floral design motif, paired with diamond and pearl drop earrings and a five-row pearl choker necklace.

Madeleine has worn the tiara to numerous Norwegian and Swedish royal galas over the years. Here, she wears the tiara (and the earrings) at the King’s Dinner for the Nobel Prize laureates in December 2022. Trond Norén Isaksen writes that the tiara comes from the family of Madeleine’s mother, Countess Elsa von Rosen.

And here’s one more tiara-wearing Bernadotte relative at the banquet: Countess Jill Bernadotte af Wisborg, who attended the banquet with her husband, Count Bertil Bernadotte af Wisborg. Count Bertil is the youngest son of Count Folke Bernadotte, a grandson of King Oscar II of Sweden, who was assassinated while working as a mediator for the United Nations in Jerusalem in 1948.

Countess Jill arrived for the banquet wearing a tiara that belonged to the family of Count Bertil’s American-born mother, Countess Estelle Bernadotte, née Estelle Romaine Manville. Trond Norén Isaksen shares that the diamond jewel came from the collection of her mother, Henrietta Estelle Romaine.

Countess Jill has worn the diamond tiara on various Swedish royal gala occasions through the years. Here, she wears the jewel for the wedding of Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia. For that event, she paired the tiara with a modern suite of diamond and aquamarine jewels.

And speaking of diamonds and aquamarines, here’s a little sneak peek at what’s coming this weekend on Hidden Gems. I’m sharing the first installment of this year’s London travel diary, which covers a visit to the V&A and all the behind-the-scenes info from Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style at Buckingham Palace. Paid subscribers will have full access to the article first thing on Saturday morning. See you there!