The top 10 celebrity engagement rings

British luxury jewellery retailer Chisholm Hunter has unveiled a list of the top celebrity engagement rings, according to UK data. David Ho takes a peek at who made the list

Kate Middleton topped the list with her engagement ring, which consists of a 12-carat oval sapphire surrounded by a whopping 14 diamonds. The ring previously belonged to Prince William’s late mother, Princess Diana.

The ring’s design was inspired by a sapphire-and-diamond brooch made by British jeweler Garrard in 1840, when Prince Albert commissioned it for his future wife, Queen Victoria. She loved it so much she even wore it on her wedding dress. The brooch is now a crown heirloom and even the late Queen Elizabeth had been seen wearing it as recently as 2015 at the Royal Ascot.

What makes it even more interesting is that the ring was chosen by Diana from the Garrard Royal Jewellers’ Catalogue in 1981. She skipped on royal tradition by not having her ring custom-made with a royal heirloom. By picking a ring that even members of the public could buy, Diana established herself as the People’s Princess.

Meghan Markle comes next on the list with her engagement ring from Prince Harry, which he designed himself. The ring consists of a three-carat cushion-cut Botswana diamond with two diamonds from Princess Diana’s tiara on either side of it. Though it is less searched in the UK, Markle’s ring is the most talked-about globally with around 1,600 proactive Google searches per month over the past year.

Here is the full list:

Chisholm Hunter based their list on all-time UK searches for “engagement ring” since 2004 until April 17, 2024. By using Google Trends’ ‘People Also Search’ indicator, their researchers selected keywords associated with celebrities. They then shortlisted a seed list of 28 engagement rings based on a normalised search volume of at least 2 out of 100, relative to broader searches such as “engagement ring UK”. It should be noted that the study ranks rings, not their ownership. So the all-time search volumes for “Kate Middleton” and “Princess Diana” are combined as these refer to the same ring.

After this, Chisholm Hunter’s researchers created the ranking by measuring the 28 shortlisted engagement rings against three factors: historical interest, current relevance and global newsworthiness. 

“Time and time again, we come to the conclusion that jewellery is, first and foremost, only as precious as the story behind it,” says Max Brown, the retail director at Chisholm Hunter.

“Engagements are absolutely not about the ring – the ring is but an enduring keepsake to remind us over time of the moment two people in love decide to become partners for life. The world’s greatest diamond is worthless without the overwhelming feeling of ease in your heart that someone chooses to share their entire future together with just you by their side.”

Also see: De Beers Jewellers to open first Paris flagship store