Divorce Rings Spark New Trend as Women Reclaim Wedding Jewelry

Emily Ratajkowski’s recent decision to reuse the enormous toi et moi engagement ring she received from her ex-husband, Sebastian Bear-McClard, made headlines.

Since Emily Ratajkowski and her husband, Sebastian Bear-McClard, the film producer, recently divorced, she has decided to transform her engagement ring into something completely different– a divorce ring.

Ratajkowski enlisted the aid of Alison Chemla, the creative director of jewelry business Alison Lou, to redesign her former engagement band into two new rings. The original ring included a pear-shaped and princess-cut diamond.

Divorce rings are a relatively recent trend.

The actress claimed she wanted to create a new ring when her husband requested a divorce in October 2023. The ring would “center my relationship with me” and be crafted from 18k yellow gold in a signet style. It would be set with a four-carat Asscher-cut lab-grown diamond.

According to Rachel Akmakjian of BriteCo, divorce rings are former engagement rings or bridal sets that have been reworked and remastered into pieces that symbolize the end of a marriage.

An expert advises creating a unique divorce ring by including symbols that represent your journey to recovery and self-discovery and reflect your experience.

With the square diamond transformed into a trilogy ring, her engagement ring’s pear stone is now a breathtaking pinky ring.

Different people have different preferences regarding the design of their divorce rings.

You may give your ring a new significance by adding additional diamonds, such as your birthstone.

In many Western cultures, wedding bands are traditionally worn on the left fourth finger.

This custom stems from the thought that this finger’s “vena amoris” vein goes straight to the heart. However, all fingers are fair game with a divorce ring.

Judith Hoetker, 50, head goldsmith at Reinstein Ross, suggests a few ways to make divorce rings look less engagement-like: adjusting the band’s proportions, adding additional stones to detract from the diamond, switching up the finger or hand that wears the ring (some people say the middle finger is more fitting), adding color, or going for a whole different style.

The number of divorce rings Ms. Hoetker has seen has increased by 25% from 2023 to 2024. Price points range from $1000 for redesigned wedding bands to $5,000 for engagement rings.