Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, have broken many royal family rules and traditions since they got together. From engagement announcement, wedding ceremony, child's birth, to simple public appearance, the couple has broken barriers. Probably, the most talked-about of all is wedding traditions that Harry and Meghan choose not to follow.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex married in April 2018 in a star-studded wedding ceremony at Windsor Castle. Many may not have noticed that Harry broke a specific wedding tradition among the British royals because it was trivial to ordinary people. It's the groom's wedding ring.
Harry is among the very few male members of the royal family who decided to go against the tradition. Most royal grooms choose not to wear a wedding band at all. When Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip tied the knot in 1947, the Duke of Edinburgh decided not to have a wedding ring.
Prince Charles chose to wear a wedding ring while married to Princess Diana. According to BBC, when he tied the knot with Camilla, he wore his ring on his pinky finger next to his signature signet ring. In Prince William and Kate Middleton's nuptials, the Duchess of Cambridge was the only one who received a wedding band that day.
Prince Harry, on the other hand, did not forego a wedding band. Upon his marriage to Meghan, Princess Diana's youngest son decided he would wear a ring, and he also deviated from the traditional styles of royal jewelry. The Duke of Sussex's choice of metal was textured platinum.
Harry put a traditional wedding ring made of Welsh gold on Meghan's left-hand ring finger. Meghan's ring was a Queen gift from her collection of Welsh gold. The Duchess of Sussex, on the other hand, put a platinum ring on her husband's finger.
A groom's wedding band may be a simple part of the wedding or not even a tradition but a mere personal preference of the male members of the royal family. However, some royal insiders claimed it has a deeper meaning for Harry and Meghan.
Vogue cited Penny Junor, author of The Duchess, as saying that Harry's decision to wear a ring could signify his desire to have a normal life like other men do. The publication added that it could also mean that it's Harry and Meghan's way of saying that they won't necessarily have to follow everything written on the royal rulebook.
