What Happens to Neil Lane Engagement Rings After Bachelor Nation Splits? Former Leads Explain

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What Happens to Neil Lane Engagement Rings After Bachelor Nation Splits? Former Leads Explain

It’s not uncommon for Bachelor winners or Bachelorette leads to slip a Neil Lane diamond on their finger during the finale of their respective seasons — but how many former contestants get to keep their rings? Us Weekly has rounded up the answers, Bachelor Nation. There are two ways for Bachelor Nation members to keep the engagement ring gifted to them by the ABC series. Make it down the aisle … or stay engaged for at least two years. “After a certain number of years, you get to keep it anyway. But after months … it goes back,” former host Chris Harrison confirmed to Entertainment Weekly in 2016 before joking that he keeps the rocks after a breakup. “They’re on a necklace and I’ll wear it around sometimes. I’ll wear it out [and] I have, like, 20 different engagement rings.” Chris added Neil, the designer who has been supplying rings for the franchise for more than a decade, may not realize that some of the jewelry is returned. During a 2016 interview with StyleCaster, Neil quipped that the diamonds go to “ring heaven” if the couple doesn’t last. “After they get the ring, I don’t have a say in it, and what happens after that, I don’t know,” he said. “I do make these rings with a great deal of passion — I have my whole staff working on them, with a lot of romance involved. And we hope it lasts forever. And surprisingly, there are some that are doing amazingly well.” [jwplayer Jg4zoyPT-zhNYySv2] Season 14 Bachelorette Becca Kufrin once joked about a “ring graveyard,” telling the “Bachelor Party” podcast in December 2020: “They get to keep them all locked away, hidden from everyone — all the scorned rings.” There are exceptions to the two-year rule, however. Season 6 Bachelorette Ali Fedotowsky revealed on Us Weekly’s “Here for the Right Reasons” podcast in 2020 that producers came to collect her engagement ring after her 2011 split from Roberto Martinez — but she refused to hand it over. “[We were together for] 18 months and the reason I know that so well is because I remember they wanted to, like, take my engagement ring away. And I was like, ‘No, this is part of my history, like, this is mine, you cannot have it!’” Ali recalled. “Per the contract, it was supposed to be two years, but they let me keep it.” While the former reality TV star is now happily married to Kevin Manno, with whom she shares daughter Molly and son Riley, Ali admitted she was “emotionally distraught” from the breakup at the time. “I was like, ‘You're not taking this from me, like, I'm keeping it.’ I put my foot down,” she told Us. “And then they were fine with it. They understood when I, like, broke it down.” Scroll through for more on history on what happens to the rings after a Bachelor split:

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Estella Gardinier

The two-year rule wasn’t established in 2004, per the season 4 winner, who auctioned off the promise ring Bachelor Bob Guiney gave her. Per reports at the time, she sold the $45,000 piece of jewelry for $22,300.

Credit: ABC/Adam Larkey

DeAnna Pappas

According to Jesse Csincsak, his ex and former lead was obligated to give her ring back in 2008 after they lasted less than one year. ”In the contract, it says if you are not together for two years after the final day of the show airing, you have to give them back the ring," he told Bustle.

DeAnna confirmed she returned the rock during a 2019 interview with Entertainment Weekly: “I had to give it back. It wasn’t painful for me because it had no meaning anymore."

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Jillian Harris

The season 5 Bachelorette managed to keep her rock after calling it quits with Ed Swiderski one year after the 2009 finale. “I still have it. It’s in my panty drawer …  but now I have to move it because everybody will know,” she quipped to EW.

Credit: ABC/Matt Klitscher

Ali Fedotowsky

The former Bachelorette told Us in August 2020 that producers let her keep her ring even though she and Roberto only lasted 18 months. “They were like, ‘That is something that's emotionally valuable to you, and we're gonna let you keep it,’” she recalled. 

Credit: Mark Wessels/ABC

Emily Maynard

“I gave those back, gladly,” Emily, who got engaged to Jef Holm on season 8 of The Bachelorette and Brad Womack on The Bachelor season 15, told EW. “They just had bad omens.

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Andi Dorfman

The season 10 Bachelorette returned the ring Josh Murray gave her in 2014. “The sentiment of it had been lost, for sure,” she told EW.

Credit: Courtesy of ABC/Rick Rowell

Kaitlyn Bristowe

The season 11 Bachelorette confirmed she kept her 2015 ring from Shawn Booth after their 2018 split. “I don’t know what to do with it … but I don’t feel right selling it,” she told EW.

Credit: ABC/Paul Hebert

Becca Kufrin

The season 14 Bachelorette announced her split from Garrett Yrigoyen right around the two-year mark of her 2018 finale. She confirmed in December 2020 that she got to keep the ring. “I don’t want to reuse the diamonds for anything, like, for myself. I don’t want that juju,” she told Kaitlyn on her "Off the Vine" podcast, noting she was “never going to wear [the ring] again.”

During a separate interview with Insider in January 2021, Becca noted that the ring means “so much more” to her than just a token of ex Garrett.

"Some people who have been in my position still have their rings because it's a great remembrance of their time and the memories on the show, which I understand," she said. "For a hot second, I was like, do I sell it and donate all of the money to some charity? Do I sell it and put it towards a down payment on a house?"

Becca, did, however, return her Bachelor season 22 ring from Arie Luyendyk Jr. after he broke up with her for runner-up Lauren Burnham.

Becca went on to propose to Thomas Jacobs in spring 2022. That June, she told Us that she still has her ring from Garrett “somewhere in the house.”

“I haven't looked at it in over a year, but I still have it. It's around. I don't know what to do with it — probably sage it,” she quipped.

Credit: ABC/Craig Sjodin

Clare Crawley

Slightly over one year after leaving season 16 of The Bachelorette early with fiancé Dale Moss, Clare and the former athlete split for good in October 2021. The former lead later revealed in March 2022 that she returned her diamond while in Los Angeles for an appearance on Clayton Echard’s season 26 finale.

“That was the reason I was in L.A. — I was taking my engagement ring back, [that's] the truth,” she said during an Instagram Live. “Which is fine, I mean, whatever. Why would I want to hang on to something that is — whatever.”

Credit: ABC/Christopher Willard

Michelle Young

The season 18 Bachelorette and Nayte Olukoya split in June 2022, six months after the finale aired — meaning the rock is no longer hers. She addressed what the split means for her future jewelry collection for the first time in February 2023.

“It was my dream ring. I wanted the relationship to work. I was willing to put in work for the relationship. And I had the person take off,” she said on the “Almost Famous” podcast. “I feel like that was literally kind of stripped away from me. So it pisses me off. But I’m also like, ‘Great, I can't wait to do it, like, for real this next time with somebody who [I] really know will be there.’ S-t, I'm gonna have to figure out a different cut of a ring because pear-shaped ain’t happening anymore!”

Credit: Craig Sjodin/ABC

Rachel Recchia

Rachel and season 19 winner Tino Franco called it quits while the season was airing after he kissed another woman. She made a point to take off the ring during their heated breakup, which aired during the September 2022 finale, and revealed on the “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast that she doesn’t have the 3.25-carat diamond anymore.

Credit: Craig Sjodin/ABC via Getty Images

Gabby Windey

The season 19 co-lead stopped wearing her ring in November 2022 amid speculation about her status with Erich Schwer. The duo confirmed their split — which came two months after the proposal aired — later that month.