Franklin Dean
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, also known as Jackie O, was an influential style icon and former First Lady of the United States. Her wedding and engagement rings, which included a 40-carat Lesotho III diamond ring and a Van Cleef & Arpels ring with a 2.88-carat diamond and a 2.84-carat emerald, were some of the most expensive and referenced rings in history. After her husband's passing, Jackie had two stones removed from her ring and made into signet rings for her children. Jackie's daughter Caroline received both her mother's and brother's rings, owning all ten emeralds from the anniversary band. Jackie Kennedy's rings continue to inspire brides and jewellery designers today.
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What You'll Learn
Jackie Kennedy's wedding ring was redesigned in 1963
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, also known as Jackie O, was an American style icon and former First Lady of the United States. She was well-known for her jewellery collection, which included two of the most expensive engagement rings in history.
Jackie continued to wear the redesigned ring discreetly throughout her and John's ten-year marriage, until his assassination in 1963. After his death, she had two stones removed from the ring and made into signet rings for each of her two children. The redesigned ring can now be found on display at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.
In addition to her engagement and wedding rings, Jackie Kennedy was known for her love of pearls. Her most copied look is a three-strand pearl necklace, which she had in both a 17" and a 19" length. She also owned a 47-carat Kunzite gemstone ring, a 17.68-carat ruby ring, and various other diamond and gemstone jewellery pieces.
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The ring was a Van Cleef & Arpels toi et moi design
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, also known as Jackie Kennedy, was a style icon with a love for jewellery. Her engagement ring from John F. Kennedy was a Van Cleef & Arpels toi et moi design, featuring a 2.88-carat diamond and a 2.84-carat emerald. The ring, chosen by Kennedy's father from the jeweller's Fifth Avenue store in New York, was redesigned by Kennedy in 1963, a decade after her wedding. The new design replaced the baguettes with flashier marquise-cut diamonds that tapered to round-cut diamonds on the side. This redesign marked Kennedy's growing self-confidence and her family's role on the world stage.
Van Cleef & Arpels is a French jewellery company known for its distinctive design style, characterised by the use of precious stones, intricate work, and imaginative themes inspired by nature, fairy tales, and mythology. The toi et moi design, which translates to "you and me", features two gemstones nestled side by side and has been popular for centuries, dating back to Napoleonic times. It is said that Napoleon Bonaparte proposed to Josephine de Beauharnais with a toi et moi ring in 1796.
Jackie Kennedy's ring is believed to have inspired countless brides over the years, including Ariana Grande, Kylie Jenner, and Megan Fox. However, she was not often photographed wearing the ring, and after her husband's death, she stopped wearing it altogether. Instead, she had the two stones removed from the ring and made into signet rings for her two children. Upon her death, her daughter Caroline received both her ring and her brother's, owning all ten emeralds from the anniversary band given to her mother by her grandfather.
In addition to her iconic engagement ring, Jackie Kennedy had a jewellery collection that included a 17.68-carat ruby ring, a 47-carat Kunzite stone, and a 40-carat Lesotho III diamond ring from her second husband, Aristotle Onassis. She was also known for her love of pearls, often wearing three-strand pearl necklaces of varying lengths, some of which were faux.
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It featured a 2.88-carat diamond and a 2.84-carat emerald
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, also known as Jackie Kennedy, was a style icon and is known for her jewellery collection. Her engagement ring from John F. Kennedy featured a 2.88-carat diamond and a 2.84-carat emerald, set in a 'toi et moi' (French for 'you and me') design. The ring was created by the renowned French jewellery company, Van Cleef & Arpels, and included several tapered baguettes that accented the main stones with a "flowery" look. This style of ring, with two stones set on a single band, dates back to Napoleonic times. Napoleon Bonaparte proposed to Josephine de Beauharnais with a similar ring in 1796.
The future first lady was rarely photographed wearing the ring, and she ultimately redesigned it with Van Cleef & Arpels' help before she stopped wearing it altogether following John F. Kennedy's death. In 1963, nearly a decade after her wedding, Jackie replaced the baguettes with 12 marquise-cut and round-cut diamonds, totalling 2.12 carats, that formed a laurel wreath underneath the larger stones. This redesign marked Jackie's growing self-confidence and her evolving role on the world stage.
After John F. Kennedy's assassination, Jackie had the two stones from her ring removed and made into signet rings for her two children. When her son, JFK Jr., and she passed away, her daughter Caroline received both of their rings, owning all ten emeralds from the anniversary band given to her mother by her grandfather.
Jackie Kennedy's second engagement ring was a 40.42-carat diamond ring from Harry Winston, given to her by Aristotle Onassis before their marriage in 1968. This ring was part of the famous South African Lesotho brown diamond and was one of 18 stones cut from the original 601-carat rough stone. Jackie rarely wore this ring in public, preferring to keep it in a bank vault, and it sold for $2.58 million at a Sotheby's auction after her death.
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The ring's stones were made into signet rings for her children
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, also known as Jackie Kennedy, was an influential style icon and former First Lady of the United States. Her wedding and engagement rings were as iconic as her fashion sense.
Jackie Kennedy's engagement ring from John F. Kennedy was a Van Cleef & Arpels ring with a 2.88-carat emerald-cut diamond and a 2.84-carat emerald, both emerald-cut, on a band of baguette-cut emeralds and diamonds. This style of ring is known as a "toi et moi" design, which translates to "you and me" and features two gemstones nestled side by side. The ring was reportedly chosen by Kennedy's future father-in-law, Joseph Kennedy, from the Van Cleef & Arpels Fifth Avenue store in New York.
In 1963, ten years after her wedding to Kennedy, Jackie had the ring redesigned, replacing the baguettes with flashier marquise-cut diamonds that tapered to round-cut diamonds on the side. This redesign reflected Jackie's growing self-confidence and her evolving role on the world stage as the First Lady.
After Kennedy's assassination, Jackie remarried the Greek shipping industry mogul Aristotle Onassis in 1968. Onassis proposed with a 40-carat Lesotho III diamond ring from Harry Winston, which was part of the famous South African Lesotho brown diamond. This ring was so large that Jackie only wore it twice before storing it in a bank vault.
Following John F. Kennedy's death, Jackie had the two stones removed from her original engagement ring and made into signet rings for each of her two children, John F. Kennedy Jr. and Caroline. When Kennedy Jr. and Jackie passed away, Caroline received both of their rings, thus owning all ten emeralds from the anniversary band given to her mother.
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Jackie's engagement ring from Aristotle Onassis sold for $2.6 million
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, also known as Jackie O, was married twice. Her first marriage was to President John F. Kennedy, and after being widowed at 34, she married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis. Jackie O was known for her love of jewellery and had some of the most expensive engagement rings in history.
Jackie Kennedy's first engagement ring, from John F. Kennedy, was a Van Cleef & Arpels 2.84-carat emerald and 2.88-carat diamond ring. The ring was redesigned in 1963, almost a decade after her wedding, with the baguette-shaped accent stones replaced with round and marquise diamonds.
Jackie Kennedy's second engagement ring, from Aristotle Onassis, was a 40.42-carat marquise-shaped diamond known as the Lesotho III. The diamond was discovered in Lesotho, South Africa, and the original rough gem weighed 601 carats. It was cut into 18 gems, and the third largest gem was given to Jackie by her second husband. Jackie primarily kept the ring in a bank vault and only wore it twice.
In 1994, Jackie Onassis died. Her will directed her children, Caroline and John F. Kennedy Jr., and the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, to choose whatever they wanted from her possessions and sell the rest. In 1996, her engagement ring from Aristotle Onassis was sold at a Sotheby's auction for $2.58 million, far exceeding its estimated value of $600,000. The ring was bought by Albert and Felice Lippert, founders of Weight Watchers, on behalf of an anonymous purchaser.
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Frequently asked questions
Jackie Kennedy's wedding ring was a toi et moi design from Van Cleef & Arpels. It featured a 2.88-carat diamond and a 2.84-carat emerald, both emerald-cut, on a band of baguette-cut emeralds and diamonds.
No, he did not. The ring was actually picked out by Kennedy's father, Joseph Kennedy, from Van Cleef & Arpels’s Fifth Avenue store in New York.
No, she redesigned the ring and stopped wearing it altogether after John F. Kennedy's death.
The ring's current status is unknown. It is known, however, that after her death, Jackie Kennedy's jewels were sold at an estate sale in April 1996.
Yes, she had another wedding ring when she married Aristotle Onassis in 1968. This ring was a 40-carat Lesotho III diamond ring from Harry Winston.
