It has been more than a year since we last saw Princess Kate in her glittering tiara. Princess Kate has been recuperating since announcing her cancer diagnosis in March, and in June she was forced to miss a state dinner due to chemotherapy. But on Friday, October 11, Buckingham Palace announced an exciting event on the royal calendar.

King Charles III and Queen Camilla will host the state visit of the Amir of Qatar, His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and his wife Sheikha Jawaher bint Hamad bin Suhaim Al Thani, on December 3 and 4.

You may wonder what this has to do with tiaras, but bear with me. During official visits, the palace hosts glittering banquets where members of the royal family don their finest tuxedos, gowns, and jewelry. That's where the tiara comes in.

An Historian About Town royal historian Jessica Stroschuk told Marie Claire that the royal family “may wish to attend” the December dinner since they were forced to miss the official visit to Japan in June.

“Given that she is the wife of the heir to the throne and a typical senior royal official, she is likely to attend if medically possible,” Stroschuk noted.

The princess is gradually returning to her royal duties, including meeting this week with the families of three girls killed in a tragic knife attack this fall and with a teenage cancer patient earlier this month, but she has made it clear that she will take the job when she feels up to it.

“Throughout their married life, Princess Catherine has shown that she understands the soft power of formal events like state dinners, and that includes the glamour of gowns and tiaras,” Stroschuk tells Marie Claire. Nevertheless, the royal family has worn several prominent tiaras at state dinners over the years.

In 2015, the Princess of Wales attended the first such dinner held to honor Chinese President Xi Jinping, wearing a gorgeous red Jenny Packham ball gown, named after the scarlet Chinese flag. At the event, she was seen wearing a tiara for the first time since her 2011 wedding, and the royal family chose a lotus flower tiara in honor of this important symbol of Chinese culture.

Since then, the princess has attended five other state dinners, most recently in 2023 at an event honoring South Korean President Yun Seok-yeol and First Lady Kim Geun-hee, where she shocked royal fans by bringing a century-old tiara from the archives.

She wore the Queen Mother's Diamond Strathmore Rose Tiara to the glamorous dinner, becoming only the second royal to wear the tiara, which had not been worn since the 1930s.

Will we see Queen Kate at the December dinner? But in the meantime, I shall dream of which tiara she will unveil next.