Outdoing himself. Ben Affleck proposed to Jennifer Lopez for the second time with a new ring — even rarer than the one he gave her in 2002.
Lopez, 52, revealed her engagement on Friday, April 8, in a late night “On the JLo” newsletter. A video showed the “Waiting for Tonight” singer fawning over her ring in slow motion while audio included her whispering, “You’re perfect.”
Affleck, 49, previously proposed to his Gigli costar in November 2002 with a rare pink diamond. They never made it down the aisle, breaking up in 2004. However, Us Weekly confirmed in May 2021 that the pair reconnected, and nearly 20 years later, the Oscar winner popped the question with a different ring — but it might be even rarer.
The new engagement ring is 8.5 carats with a natural green diamond center stone, Us confirms.
Jenny Luker, president of Platinum Guild International USA, estimates that the cost of the green gem is likely double the pink diamond’s price tag.
“Jennifer’s ring appears to feature a natural green diamond … set with side white diamonds on a platinum band,” Luker said in a statement to Us. The Platinum Guild president believes the 8.5-carat stone could be worth around $10 million.
Corrine Taylor Davis, a gemologist at Do Amore, said the ring would’ve likely fetched several million at auction. She also assumes Affleck had to pay a premium for a stone of that color and quality. “There is literally nothing else on the market like it,” Davis explained in her analysis. “This means that Ben has been working on this ring for months through private channels.”
The pink Harry Winston diamond was a rarity, costing an estimated $2.5 million in 2002 (even more now with inflation). The green diamond, however, is even rarer, according to author and geology TikToker Amanda Smith (@dashboardgeology). She explained to followers how the stunning color gets into the stone, part of what makes it such a tough stone to find.
“The way that you get a green diamond is you have to get a diamond that meets all the criteria of being a gem quality rare diamond to begin with,” Smith explained in a video. “It needs to grow to a large size. It needs to grow to a large size without any visible flaws or clarity characteristics. It can’t crack, it can’t fracture — things that would make it uncuttable later. So it’s gotta get to that size, it’s gotta grow with those conditions, and then it has to get to the surface.”
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All of that made Affleck’s 2002 engagement ring for Lopez very valuable, but the green color is what makes the stone even rarer. “Then, it has to hang out next to uranium and be irradiated by beta or gamma waves for long enough to turn the stone green because that’s how you get a green diamond. It is from radiation, and it’s incredibly rare. To get the depth of color you can see in that? Good job, Ben,” Smith said.
The color was likely a specific choice on the Argo director’s part. “I always say the color green is my lucky color. Maybe you remember a certain green dress,” Lopez wrote in a previous edition of her newsletter, referring to the Versace gown she wore to the Grammy Awards in 2000. “I’ve realized there are many moments in my life where amazing things happened when I was wearing green.”
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