Why the Koh-i-noor diamond won't make an appearance at King Charles III's coronation
LONDON — Of all the glittering British crown jewels, one will be conspicuously absent at King Charles III's coronation: the Koh-i-noor diamond.
Legend has it the 105-carat diamond — whose name means "mountain of light" in Persian — was found on a bank of the holy Krishna River in southern India at least 800 years ago. From there, the story goes, it spent centuries hidden inside a golden statue at a Hindu temple.
It passed through Mughal, Persian, Afghan and Sikh empires before ending up in the hands of Queen Victoria in the mid-19th century.
Along the way, people came to believe it was cursed. Calamity is said to have struck many a male royal who wore it. One strapped the diamond to his bicep. Another folded it into his turban. Most met grisly deaths — murdered, betrayed, defeated.
So it's thought that only women — especially queen consorts — can wear the Koh-i-noor safely. Elizabeth, the wife of King George VI, , and again to her daughter Elizabeth II's in 1953. (There is no known record of Queen Elizabeth II wearing the diamond).
