What if I told you that Jackie Kennedy wasn’t just America’s first lady, but also the first lady of fabulous engagement rings? Did you know she had three engagement rings from three different men? Where are these legendary rings now? Who picked them? Did she even like them? Let’s slip into Jackie’s jewelry box and find out.
When most people think of engagement rings, they picture love, promises, and a box opened with trembling hands. But when it comes to Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onases, nothing was ever that simple. Each of her three rings tells a different story of political power, heartbreak, and bold transformation. But before the world knew her as Jackie Kennedy or Jackie O, there was another ring.
One lost to time and almost to history. The almost Mrs. Husted, Jackie’s first engagement ring. Before Camelot and Onasses, there was a summer engagement that few people remember. In early 1952, 22-year-old Jackie Bouvier, already known for her beauty and wit, fell into a whirlwind romance with John Husted Jr., a Yale graduate and Wall Street stockbroker.
After just one month of dating, he proposed and she said yes. But the sparkle faded fast. At their engagement party in June 1952, Jackie and her mother Janet Aenclaus reportedly learned that Hustid made only $17,000 a year, a respectable salary at the time, roughly $185,000 today, but not quite the level of wealth Janet envisioned for her ambitious daughter.
According to the biography Jackie, Janet and Lee by J. Randy Terabarelli, Janet pulled Jackie aside that very night and whispered, “You’re not going through with this.” The wedding was called off soon after. As for the ring, no known photo or public description survives. It was likely a traditional diamond engagement ring. But whatever the cutter carrot, it wasn’t enough to overcome the chill of social ambition.
Whatever that first ring looked like, it couldn’t compete with destiny. Not long after the broken engagement, Jackie met a man whose charm, power, and promise would reshape her world. The Kennedy ring. When John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier first met in 1952, he was a rising young senator from Massachusetts, and she was working as a reporter for the Washington Times Herald.
Just a year later, in 1953, JFK proposed But the ring, well, that part came a bit later. There’s still debate over the proposal’s location. Some say it happened at Martin’s Tavern in Washington, DC, while others insist it was at Parker’s, a restaurant in Boston’s Omni Hotel. Surprisingly, when the couple announced their engagement, Jackie wasn’t seen wearing a ring.
In fact, during the press frenzy, she openly admitted, “I haven’t won yet. Jack and I have looked at dozens. Some I didn’t like and others just weren’t the right kind. According to biographer Jay Mulvaney, in the end, it was actually her future father-in-law, Joseph Kennedy, who picked out the ring from Van Clee and Arpel’s Fifth Avenue store in New York.
Created by Van Clee and Arples, the ring featured a 2.84 karat emerald and a 2.88 88 karat diamond set in a distinctive bypass design where the two gems swirl past each other like two separate fates destined to meet. Tua at which translates as you and me and features two gemstones nestled side by side.
This style actually dates back centuries with Napoleon Bonapart proposing to Josephine de Baharn with one in 1796. When JFK proposed, Jackie didn’t say yes right away. She was in London at the time covering Queen Elizabeth’s coronation for the Washington Times Herald and reportedly took several weeks to accept.
She was thinking carefully, not just about love, but the life she’d be stepping into. 600 guests attended the wedding, which was consecrated by Archbishop Cushing of Boston and blessed by the Pope. A crowd of 3,000 fought for a glimpse of the glamorous newlyweds. On September 12th, 1953, 24year-old Jackie Bouvier walked down the aisle in a candleit ceremony at St.
Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Newport, Rhode Island. The gown designed by Anne Low was made of 50 yards of ivory silk tetetta. But here’s the twist. Just 10 days before the wedding, a water pipe burst in Lowe’s New York Atellier, destroying 10 dresses, including Jackie’s. Lo and her staff worked day and night to remake it in secret.
After the ceremony, over,200 guests gathered at Hammersmith Farm, Jackie’s stepfather’s estate. The wedding cake was 4 feet tall, and the press coverage was relentless. It wasn’t just a marriage. It was a merging of dynasties. The Bouvier girl and the Kennedy prince. A new American fairy tale was born. In 1962, 9 years after their wedding, Jackie had the ring revamped.
The band was upgraded with marquee and round diamonds, replacing the baguettes. Some say it was to make the ring more presidential as she stepped fully into her role as first lady. Others believe it was Jackie subtly putting her own stamp on a gift she hadn’t chosen herself. What happened to it? After JFK’s assassination in 1963, Jackie stopped wearing the ring.
Like many of her most precious pieces, the symbolic and history steeped engagement ring is in the permanent collection at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, where it occasionally goes on display. The original ring was a stunning diamond and emerald design by Van Clee and Arples, but it wasn’t the most practical piece for everyday wear, especially for swimming or casual activities.
So, Jackie had a second, less elaborate ring made, often referred to as the swimming ring. It was more comfortable and low-key, something she could wear during sports, swimming, or when she didn’t want to draw attention to a big jewel. It still had meaning, but was more functional for daily life. Interestingly, this simpler design inspired Carolyn Besset Kennedy’s own diamond and sapphire engagement ring many years later.
But love, especially in the public eye, rarely rests. The Camelot chapter had closed. Yet, Jackie’s story was far from over. Because just 5 years after that tragic November day, another diamond entered her life. This one far larger and infinitely more controversial. The Onasis ring. Love or lavish distraction. Fast forward to 1968.
Scorpios, the tiny island that shot into the headlines when Jackie Kennedy, America’s former first lady, became the second Mrs. Aristotle anasis. The world gasped as Jackie, the widow of America’s most beloved president, married Greek shipping billionaire Aristotle Onasses. As the Greek shipping magnate had previously dated her sister, Lee Radzil, the Jackie O era officially began when Kennedy said, “I do.
” to her longtime friend, Aristotle Onasses. When Aristotle proposed, he did so with a positively massive stone, cementing Jackie’s status as one of the wealthiest women in the world. And what did he give her? One of the most expensive engagement rings in history. At the time of their engagement, Aristotle presented Jackie with a 40.
42 karat weight diamond ring that was part of the famous South African Lassto brown diamond. Jackie wore it just twice. Once to a charity event and once in a private photograph. The rest of the time it was kept in a bank vault in New York. The wedding took place in the tiny white chapel on Onass’s private island. Only about 40 guests attended, including Jackie’s sister, Lee Radzil, and Onases’s two children, Christina and Alexander.
Her own children, Caroline and John Jr., here were present, though reportedly uncomfortable. Jackie wore a cream colored Valentino dress and a white lace Mantilla veil, far simpler than the gown she wore to wed JFK. The ceremony was Greek Orthodox despite Jackie remaining Roman Catholic, a decision that later upset the Vatican and strained her relationship with the church.
There was no choir, no public vows, no media invited. Yet the paparazzi found their way. Zoom lenses captured grainy images of the ceremony from boats offshore. Within hours, the news had spread like wildfire across the globe. After Jackie’s death in 1994, the ring was auctioned at Sues in 1996. It had originally been valued at $600,000 and sold for a staggering $2.
59 million reportedly to a private collector. And just like that, the ring vanished from public view again. Its secrets intact. Three rings, three men. One woman who turned every stone into a symbol of reinvention. So, which ring would you choose? The classic bypass, the mega marquee, or the mystery ring that no one’s ever seen? And if you thought this story was glamorous, just wait till you dive into the rest of our channel.
From royal tiaras that vanished without a trace to Hollywood’s most scandalous jewels. Hit that next video. You never know which diamondstudded drama you’ll uncover next.
