Note: This article contains spoilers for episode five of Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette.
In episode four of Love Story, John F. Kennedy Jr. (Paul Anthony Kelly) and his sister Caroline Kennedy (Grace Gummer) oversee the cataloguing of their family heirlooms for an auction. Looking over a table full of art and other belongings, Caroline picks up her mother Jackie’s “swimming ring” and explains: “She’d wear this when she’d swim so she wouldn’t lose her engagement and wedding ring.”
Later on in that episode, John slips the ring into his pocket—and in episode five, he proposes to Carolyn Bessette (Sarah Pidgeon) with it. In real life, the story behind the engagement ring and proposal is a bit different.
In reality, Kennedy Jr. truly was inspired by his mother’s swimming ring for the engagement ring, but he did not propose with his mother’s actual ring. Bessette-Kennedy’s engagement ring, made of round-cut sapphires and diamonds on a platinum band, was a copy of a gold and emerald ring that Jackie wore, according to Carole Radziwill’s memoir What Remains.
The first lady’s swimming ring is believed to have been gifted to her by her diamond dealer and long-time companion Maurice Tempelsman, although there is some speculation that the inspiration for Bessette-Kennedy’s engagement band was a Schlumberger Sixteen Stone ring that also belonged to her mother-in-law. “I can’t say with certainty which ring was Jackie’s swimming ring,” Marion Fasel, jewelry historian and founder of The Adventurine, tells Vogue, although Tempelsman is thought to have helped design Bessette-Kennedy’s band.
However, what is clear is that Bessette-Kennedy’s simple band perfectly encapsulated her style. You just have to compare it to her mother-in-law’s own dazzling engagement ring from Van Cleef & Arpels—a toi et moi comprising a 2.84-carat emerald and 2.88-diamond—to notice how simple the design was. “[Carolyn’s] engagement ring epitomized the minimalism of that style moment,” Fasel continues. “It was understated elegance.”
Bessette-Kennedy was not the only style muse to have worn an eternity ring as an engagement band, with Audrey Hepburn receiving a baguette-cut diamond band from Mel Ferrer in the 1950s. More recently, Sofia Coppola has sported an eternity ring from Cartier, gifted to her by her husband Thomas Mars. “I always wonder why eternity bands aren’t more popular; they are so easy to wear, beautiful, and modern,” Fasel comments. “They are such a great alternative to a solitaire, but have never been nearly as popular.”