When Georgina Rodríguez’s engagement ring from Cristiano Ronaldo first popped up in my Instagram feed, I assumed it was AI-generated. Ronaldo may be the richest athlete on the planet — making Georgina the wealthiest WAG by proxy — but a ring the size of Epcot center? Surely it had to be CGI.
Joke’s on me — it’s very much real, valued at nearly $5M according to jewelry experts and weighing in at an estimated 37 carats. Maybe after eight years and five kids together, he felt like he had to go BIG. Or maybe he wanted to make sure he could find her in the stands at his games. Or maybe when you’re worth close to a billion dollars, it’s all just Monopoly money.
Having covered celebrity engagement rings for over a decade at PEOPLE, I can tell you this: We’ve officially maxed out on the cultural scale of bling. We’re blinded — quite literally — by diamonds so outrageously large they’re almost comical and borderline costumey. How did we get here?
Engagement rings have a surprisingly long and complex history that’s not rooted in romance. According to the Gemological Institute of America, the tradition dates back to Ancient Rome, where rings made from ivory, bone, copper and iron were worn by Roman women to signify a business contract as well as obedience. It was an extension of dowry, symbolizing power and property more than love. Fast forward more than 1,000 years when De Beers, the British company that mined diamonds in South Africa, launched what is arguably the most famous and successful advertising campaign of all time with the slogan, “A diamond is forever.”
From that moment on, the diamond engagement ring skyrocketed to popularity in the U.S. and Hollywood’s biggest stars became walking billboards for loud, bold bling. Decoding and dissecting celebrity engagement rings also became a collective societal hobby. Stars served up inspiration for real life brides trying to “get the look!” Their rings have been pinned across thousands of inspo boards. And they still live rent free in my memory at least.
That’s why I yearn for the rings of the ‘00s, when a 12-carat rock was jaw-dropping. Think Victoria Beckham’s elegant 10-carat sparkler, Beyoncé’s dazzling 18-carat diamond, or Angelina Jolie’s sleek 16-carat emerald-cut. Jennifer Lopez’s 8.5-carat, radiant-cut green diamond ring was so symbolic of her rekindled romance to Ben Affleck that I was sure they would make it this time around. These were all extravagant pieces but still seemed to have a style identity beyond just “iceberg, right ahead!”
Now we’re in the era of boulder-sized baubles. Kendra Scott’s massive stone from Zac Brown, Lauren Sanchez’s 30-plus-carat diamond from Jeff Bezos (worth more than $2 million!), and, of course, Ronaldo’s jaw-dropping meteor of a ring. It seems the love story behind the ring has been eclipsed by the bling itself. In the era of mega yachts, week-long European weddings and $10 M Birkins, stealth wealth is officially over.
Even if my now-husband had that kind of cash when he proposed, I wouldn’t have wanted a ring that required its own security detail. (For the record, I still love my peak 2014 oval diamond with a halo set in platinum.) Safety and taste level aside, it just looks uncomfortable! She can’t put her hand in her jeans pocket or wave to a friend without blinding them. And how is she going to find a wedding band that works with that thing (unless it’s a diamond hula hoop)?! For all these reasons, I bet she ends up keeping it in a safe and downsizing to something slightly less massive. Either way, I’m calling this a 37-carat flop.
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