Margot Robbie has become one of the most watched names on any red carpet, for which fans wait with bated breath, leaving no occasion behind, be it a premiere or a press tour stop, to see what she’ll wear next, whether it’s a bold designer gown or something that represents the character she’s playing. So when she stepped out for the Wuthering Heights premiere, all eyes were on her outfit as usual, except this time, the real showstopper wasn’t the dress. It was the necklace around her neck.The Taj Mahal necklace has been passed down through empires, auction houses, and Hollywood marriages and carries more history in it than most museum pieces get credit for, but how did the jewel Margot Robbie chose to wear make its centuries-long journey from a Mughal empress to Hollywood?
The story of the Taja mahal necklace that Margot Robbie wore at a movie premiere
At the Los Angeles premiere of Wuthering Heights this January, Margot Robbie showed up wearing something extraordinary that exudes Indian history: the legendary Taj Mahal diamond necklace that was once also owned by Elizabeth Taylor’s, paired with a custom Schiaparelli gown.According to Forbes Australia, the heart-shaped diamond is mounted in jade and hangs from a custom gold, ruby, and diamond chain made by Cartier, styled to resemble the original silk cord the diamond hung from when it was first created for a Mughal emperor in the early 17th century.The pendant’s surface carries an inscription in Parsee, translating to “Love is Everlasting,” along with the name of Nur Jahan, the first woman to receive it as a gift from her husband, Jahangir..
The stone’s story actually begins centuries before Hollywood entered the picture
Nur Jahan received the diamond from her husband, the Mughal Emperor Jahangir. It was later passed down to their son, Shah Jahan, who gifted it to his own wife, Mumtaz Mahal. When she died four years later, Shah Jahan commissioned the Taj Mahal as a monument to her memory, and the mausoleum eventually lent the diamond its name.The jewel’s path into modern history runs through Cartier, which acquired it and had it remounted. The piece eventually made its way into the hands of Elizabeth Taylor’s two-time husband, Richard Burton, “who presented it to Taylor in 1972 for her 40th birthday in Budapest.” Burton had asked Cartier for gift ideas around Valentine’s Day and Taylor’s birthday, and secretly bought the necklace before surprising her with it during an elaborate birthday celebration.After Taylor passed away, the necklace was sold off as part of her estate auction. Forbes Australia reports it “was last sold to an anonymous buyer in 2011 for $8.8 million, breaking records for Indian jewels at the time,” with the money from that sale going to the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.
But why did Margot Robbie choose to wear the necklace to the Wuthering Heights premiere?
Burton had actually played Heathcliff himself, back in a 1958 TV version of the same book by Bronte, long before Robbie and Jacob Elordi stepped into the roles of Catherine and Heathcliff for this new version; it was just like a sweet, full-circle link back to Burton’s own turn as Heathcliff.
