With so many celebrity engagement rings pooping up around Hollywood over the holidays, it is hard to know where to look. Reese Witherspoon received an amazing 4 carat Ashoka diamond ring set in platinum from her husband to be, Jim Toth, reportedly worth $500,000. Next LeAnn Rimes was seen flashing a custom designed, 5 carat, Oval diamond ring given to her by fiancé Eddie Cibrian, reportedly worth around $85,000. They are, of course, gorgeous, and stunning, and beyond our wildest dreams, but it turns out that they are not even close to being the most expensive celebrity engagement rings in history.
When Michael Douglas proposed to Catherine Zeta Jones in 1999, on New Year’s Eve, he set quite the celebrity standard by presenting her with a 10carat Marquis diamond, set sideways, and platinum ring with 28 smaller side diamonds. The 1920’s inspired ring is reportedly worth around $1.5 million, and is still one of the top 5 most expensive engagement rings of all time.
Jacqueline Kennedy has always been a fashion icon, with her legacy echoing even today, and when she agreed to marry Greek Shipping Magnate Aristotle Onassis in 1968, he made sure she had a ring befitting her style. The Lesotho III, one of the 18 diamonds cut from the legendary 601 carat rough Lesotho diamond, was a marquis cut, brown diamond weighing just over 40 carats. However, it is rumored that Jackie O only wore the massive diamond ring twice and then locked it in a bank vault in New York City until it was auctioned off in 1996 for $2.6 million, and yet still only making it to fourth place on the list.
Donald Trump takes a certain pride in being ostentatious and outspoken, and it isn’t hard to imagine that his personal mantras range from ‘bigger is better’ to ‘money is power,’ so when he proposed to model Melania Knauss in 2004, he tried his best to set a new bar. At the time, the 15 carat Emerald cut diamond engagement ring he presented her with had an estimated value of $3 million, leading Trump to claim that it was the most expensive engagement ring ever. And he was most likely right, until 2005.
It was in May of 2005 that party-hardy Paris Hilton announced she was engaged to Greek shipping heir Paris Latsis, and say what you want about her, but she knows what she is worth. Apparently so did Latsis, which is why he gave her a 24 carat Emerald cut diamond and platinum engagement ring that was so massive, it is said that Hilton actually claimed her hand hurt from wearing it. Fortunately she only had to wear it for five months until the couple parted ways and she reportedly auctioned it off for charity. The whole thing is so believably Paris Hilton that it isn’t hard to believe that the title for history’s most expensive engagement ring belongs to her, except that it doesn’t.
The honor belongs to one of Hollywood’s favorite couples, Beyonce and Jay-Z. The two music superstars began quietly dating after their 2002 duet of ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ and let the media gossips spin their heels for the next four years, trying to guess the status of their relationship. The intensely private couple actually exchanged wedding rings in a private New York City ceremony in April of 2008, but the ring that doubles as Beyonce’s engagement ring and wedding ring didn’t make its first public appearance until September of 2008. The ring is an impressive 18 carat Emerald cut diamond, set onto a platinum split shank, reportedly worth $5 million dollars. It is in fact so impressive that Jay-Z has even had a $5,000 copy made for her to wear on stage and in public. Two years later, and the people that Forbe’s Magazine once listed as the top earning Hollywood couple, still retain the title of the most expensive engagement ring in Hollywood.