The best royal hair colour swaps over the years

While Meghan’s glossy espresso brunette has been a trademark of her royal tenure, the Duchess once sported significantly lighter locks. Meghan’s hair in the earlier seasons of her popular series Suits was a warmer shade of brown, elevated with golden highlights that gave it a sun-kissed, effortlessly LA vibe.

In a similar fashion to the Princess of Wales, Princess Beatrice has recently erred on the blonder side of life. Known for her gorgeous auburn mane, Beatrice debuted a lighter hue at an appearance in London earlier in 2025, with effortless natural highlights blending seamlessly with her natural shade for a lived-in look.

Like her daughter, Sarah’s warm copper hair is one of her defining features, but the Duchess of York has also trialled a much lighter hue. Sarah was briefly a strawberry blonde in 2004 before returning to her roots, which she’s kept ever since.

The Queen is known for her icy blonde tresses, but her locks used to be a much deeper shade of sandy blonde – a sunlit tone that defined the early days of her public-facing reign.

Before she became known for her sleek, chocolate brown mane, Queen Letizia of Spain was a big fan of highlights in 2014. The royal previously favoured a golden cast with lighter blonde highlights peppered throughout, which created a multi-tonal blonde look worlds away from her rich colouring nowadays.

Nowadays a quintessential blonde, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, once experimented with a darker ‘do when she was newly married to Prince Edward in the 2000s. Sophie went for a medium brown with lighter highlights, a sophisticated look she briefly sported before returning to her stunning blonde.

Princess Charlene of Monaco has rocked many shades of blonde, but is perhaps most known for her classic sandy blonde with glossy ash blonde highlights. She debuted a platinum bob in the early 2000s, a frosty-toned look that added a fun edge to her look.

It’s hard to believe Princess Diana was a natural brunette, considering how perfectly her luminous honey-blonde locks suited her, but Diana still sported her natural tones in her earlier days as a media darling. The classic shades of light brown suited her perfectly and gave a glimpse of the effortless glamour she would soon become famous for.

The iconic blonde royal traded her golden locks for a rich shade of dark blonde back in 2016, a deeper hue that framed her striking face. Kitty quickly went back to blonde, however, favouring ultra-light locks with creamy highlights that look positively radiant.