Why Queen Elizabeth Wearing Blue to Royal Weddings Often Turned Out to Be a Bad Omen

Prince Charles and Princess Diana, Princess Anne and Mark Phillips as well as Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson all met the same fate

"Something blue" wasn't a good sign if it came in the form of Queen Elizabeth's outfit at a royal wedding!

The history-making monarch, who died in September 2022 at age 96, was known for her colorful wardrobe — it was a deliberate choice she made to ensure she could be easily spotted in a crowd. But blue seemed to be a favorite hue of the Queen when she was a guest at a close family member's wedding...even though it turned out to be a bad omen.

Queen Elizabeth wore blue to several royal weddings that eventually ended in divorce, from her sister, Princess Margaret, to three of her children.

The coincidence started in 1960 when Princess Margaret married Antony Armstrong-Jones, who became the Earl of Snowdon.

Queen Elizabeth wore a blue dress designed by Norman Hartnell, the designer behind her own wedding dress and many other ensembles the monarch wore through the years. According to the Royal Collection Trust, Hartnell designed Princess Margaret’s wedding dress as well as all of the outfits worn by all the royal women for the occasion.

"The wedding marked a turning point in the protocol of royal dress as it was the last occasion on which members of the Royal Family wore full-length day dress for a family wedding," the Royal Collection Trust stated. "Cecil Beaton, the official photographer of the wedding described his portrait of The Queen taken on this occasion: 'The Queen was enormously appealing to me. Her dress was quite wonderfully romantic – with a skirt of stiff folds – and everything of a kingfisher brilliance.' "

Princess Margaret and the Earl of Snowdon had two children, but they divorced in 1978.

Related: Queen Elizabeth Tells Photographers to Move in Hilarious Unearthed Video: 'Do You Mind?'

When the first of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip's four children got married — Princess Anne, who tied the knot with Mark Phillips in November 1973 wearing the same wedding tiara as her mother — the monarch wore a royal blue ensemble.

Anne and Mark, who welcomed son Peter and daughter Zara during the marriage, officially divorced 19 years later.

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The royal wedding of the century took place in July 1981 when Prince Charles, then heir to the throne, married Princess Diana. Again, Queen Elizabeth wore blue, opting for a seasonally appropriate shade of the color for the summer wedding. She accessorized with a coordinating hat as well as some of her signature pieces: a pearl necklace and gloves.

Charles and Diana — who welcomed two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry — had an infamously rocky marriage, separating in 1992. In 1995, Princess Diana sat down with host Martin Bashir for an interview in which she candidly discussed Charles’s infidelity, her own affairs and a feeling of isolation in the royal family. In her most-repeated quote, she said there were “three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,” referencing her husband’s affair with Camilla.

A month later, the Queen wrote to Charles and Diana encouraging them to officially divorce. They finalized the divorce in 1996, just a year before Diana’s death.

The blue curse continued in 1986 at the wedding of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson when Queen Elizabeth wore a periwinkle dress for her second son's nuptials.

The pair divorced in 1996 but remained close friends and co-parents to Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. In fact, Eugenie famously said, according to BBC, “They are the best divorced couple I know.”

Fergie, as the Duchess of York is affectionately known, told PEOPLE in a 2011 article that she and Prince Andrew get along so well that she asked her daughters, “Do you think Mummy and Papa should get back together again? And they say, ‘You’re great the way you are now; it’s fine.' "

In the years since, Queen Elizabeth has chosen other colors for royal weddings.

When her son Prince Edward married Sophie (now the Duchess of Edinburgh) in 1999, Queen Elizabeth opted for a purple ensemble. The couple are still together and parents to two children: Lady Louise and James, Earl of Wessex.

The Queen wore a yellow ensemble when Prince William married Kate Middleton in 2011 — and her sunny outfit matched her demeanor on the big day.

Courtiers have told PEOPLE that the monarch was uncharacteristically overjoyed on the couple's wedding day, content in the knowledge that the line of succession — so fraught in the years following the checkered marriages of three of her own children — was secure.

When Prince Harry married Meghan Markle in May 2018, Queen Elizabeth opted for the unofficial color of the day: green. The shade was also worn by the mother of the bride, Doria Ragland.

For her grandson's nuptials, the Queen was dressed in a “delicately flared dress in lime, lemon. purple and gray printed silk,” as described by British bridal designer Stewart Parvin. The coat, also created by Stewart Parvin, is an edge-to-edge design with a fastening in lime silk tweed. Her matching hat was made from the same silk tweed, which was designed by Angela Kelly, using sinamay adorned across the crown and handmade lace crystals and pearls made by Lucy Price.

Related: The Ultimate Royal Wedding Moments, as Chosen by PEOPLE Staff

However, Queen Elizabeth did wear blue to a few recent royal weddings: that of her granddaughters Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice.

After tying the knot in Oct. 2018, Princess Eugenie and her husband, Jack Brooksbank, are still together — and the parents of two young sons!

Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi are also still together after marrying in a small ceremony in July 2020. They welcomed daughter Sienna the following year, and Beatrice is the stepmother to Edo's son from a previous relationship.

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