Remember when Ben Affleck gave JLo a giant pink diamond engagement ring?

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By Megan C Hills, CNN

Delving into the archives of popular culture history, “Do you remember when?” is a CNN Style series that offers a nostalgic look at the celebrity outfits that defined their eras.

In the early 2000s, it was impossible to escape from “Bennifer”. The faces of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez have been pasted on tabloid covers and TV screens, with photos showing the couple cuddling on hotel balconies, stealing kisses at restaurants and taking romantic yacht cruises.

If this all sounds incredibly familiar, it’s because celebrity history is repeating itself – they seem to be a couple again, and they seem to relive their most photographed moment. For those who need a recap, the couple got engaged in 2002 after kindling their romance on the set of “Gigli”. But they ended their relationship two years later, just days before the wedding. While it’s not known exactly when Bennifer started dating again, Affleck was photographed visiting Lopez’s house in April of this year, shortly after she and Alex Rodriguez announced the end of their four-year relationship. Nostalgia hits all-time highs After the singer and actress shared a birthday post on Instagram of the kiss, some Twitter users were wondering what happened to the 6.1-carat pink diamond ring that Affleck originally proposed to her.

Jennifer Lopez shows off her engagement ring at a Gigli press conference. Credit: Vera Anderson/WireImage/Getty Images

After their engagement in 2002, the pink Harry Winston diamond became one of the most popular celebrity engagement rings ever. Other celebrities quickly followed suit, with Nick Cannon proposing to Mariah Carey with a 17-carat pink diamond ring in 2008, and Ryan Reynolds asking the question to 12-carat Blake Lively in 2012. Also—in February, rapper Lil’ Uzi Vert got He has a $24 million 10 karat pierced into his forehead – although he has since removed the gem.

According to Sally Ryder, founder of Ryder Diamonds and Diamond Marketplace, Lopez’s ring was against trends at the time. In the 2000s, Ryder said, the market was leaning toward “solitaire” white diamond engagement rings, which feature a single stone studded on the band.

“From my experience, monocarat solitaire has been the ring to have,” she said in a phone interview. “Classic Solitaire from Tiffany & Co. Six was the engagement ring of your dreams.”

Instead, Affleck’s choice of emeralds and pinks was unusual — especially since pink diamonds weren’t “all that is known” in the early 2000s, Ryder said.

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck at the Daredevil premiere. Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

At the time, Lopez confirmed her engagement to Affleck in an interview with Diane Sawyer, describing how he popped the question after he filled his family’s home with candles and covered the floor with “a quilt of rose petals.” With her song “Glad” playing in the background, Affleck read her a love letter and revealed the ring — but she said she was so overwhelmed that at first she couldn’t make herself look at it.

“He took off the ring, but I didn’t want to look at the ring because I could tell it was pink,” she told Sawyer. And I was just like, ‘Pink can’t be above this. “It was too much for me.”

When she finally looked, Lopez said it was the “most amazing thing” that ever caught her eye—high praise, given that it was her third engagement ring.

Ryder identified Lopez’s center stone as a “very fancy” pink diamond, a term gemologists use to describe stones with a strong, saturated color – a quality that increases their value. She estimated that Affleck likely paid about $2 million for the episode in 2002, and said it would likely cost him at least $6 million today.

A close-up of the “CTF Pink Star,” a bright 60-carat pink diamond that sold for $83 million in 2017. Credit: Murat Unlu / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images

Over the past decade, major bidding wars for giant pink diamonds have raged at auction houses. In 2017, the record for the most expensive stone was broken by a 59.6-carat pink diamond, renamed “CTF Pink Star”, bought for $71.2 million. The following year, an 18.96-carat diamond known as the “Pink Legacy” sold for $50 million, an auction record for the price paid per carat for a pink diamond. The value of Lopez’s ring is likely to rise, as the Australian Argyle Diamond mine, which previously produced more than 90% of the world’s pink diamonds, stopped production last year. That is, if she still has it, and to the delight of Bennifer fans everywhere, there’s a strong chance she has, according to former publicist Rob Shuter. “As far as I know, the fenugreek gene never came back,” he told Access Daily in May. .

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