Revisiting Grace Kelly’s 10-Carat Engagement Ring (One of the Most Expensive of All Time)

Bailey Bujnosek, Jennifer HusseinFri, October 9, 2026 at 5:45 PM UTC

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Grace Kelly wearing an evening gown in a portrait, circa 1950.Credit: UPI/Bettmann via Getty ImagesHer show-stopping 10.48-carat diamond continues to set the bar for celeb sparklers.The Gist -

Grace Kelly wore her famous Cartier engagement ring in her final film, 1956’s High Society.

Today, it’s valued at $38.8 million due to its association with the late actress and royal.

The ring features a 10.48 carat emerald-cut diamond and two tapered baguette-cut side diamonds, set in a platinum mount.

Grace Kelly’s whirlwind romance with Prince Rainier III of Monaco was a real-life fairytale—and she had the engagement ring to match.

The actress received a Cartier sparkler from the royal in 1956, featuring a blinding 10.48-carat emerald-cut diamond—truly a timeless masterpiece fitting for a bride- and princess-to-be. The stunning rock became a global phenomena long before going viral was a thing. It became the gold standard for engagement rings for decades to come, and continues to inspire celebrity baubles to this day.

Lesser known is the fact that this was the second engagement ring Prince Rainier gifted her. The first was an eternity band, rumored to be from Cartier and inspired by Monaco’s red-and-white striped flag—emulating its colors with rubies and diamonds. While not as outwardly lavish, it was a colorful alternative to classic styles. Kelly showed off this first ring while announcing her engagement to the press at her Philadelphia home in January 1956.

Prince Rainier III of Monaco and Grace Kelly announcing their engagement on January 5, 1956.Credit: Bettmann / Getty Images

Ring number two soon followed. Kelly wore this larger statement ring in High Society, the musical comedy that would contain her final performance before she left Hollywood for royal life in Monaco. Her dazzling diamond is practically a character of its own—in one scene, her character polishes and admires her ring, allowing viewers a closer look at the remarkable jewel.

Seven decades later, the star’s enormous ring still shines bright in our minds. Below, learn more about Grace Kelly’s breathtaking engagement ring, its lesser-known predecessor, and the major impact it had on modern bridal jewelry.

It features an emerald-cut diamond and tapered diamond baguettes.

Princess Grace Kelly in her office at the Prince’s Palace of Monaco in 1977.Credit: Ron Tom/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank

Kelly’s famous engagement ring is no small wonder. A 10.48-carat emerald-cut diamond sits at the ring’s center, flanked by tapered baguette-cut diamonds on either side. The glitzy trio is set in a platinum mount for an additional touch of elegance, per the Cartier website.

Kelly’s ring was the perfect match for her aesthetic. Its massive size even became the subject of a joke in High Society. Kelly’s on-screen love interest, C.K. Dexter Haven (played by Bing Crosby), comments that it’s “some rock” and jokingly asks if her character’s fiancé mined it himself.

It’s worth an estimated $38.8 million today.

Grace Kelly in 1955.Credit: API/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Given the massive size of the gem at its center, it’s no wonder the starlet’s engagement ring is worth a pretty penny. At the time of Kelly’s wedding to Prince Rainier, the ring was valued at $4.06 million. In the 21st century, various sources have estimated its worth at $38.8 million, making it one of the most expensive celebrity engagement rings of all time.

It’s the second engagement ring she received from the prince.

Grace Kelly shows off her first engagement ring, an eternity band, in Chicago in January 1956.Credit: Bettmann/Getty Images

Look carefully at the press photographs from Kelly’s engagement announcement, and you’ll notice she has a different ring on her finger. This colorful first engagement ring, an eternity band featuring rubies and diamonds, is considered by some to be a placeholder for the second ring.

It’s unclear when Kelly acquired her second, more famous ring, but the future princess made it famous when she wore it in High Society. Based on when that film was being made, the better-known sparkler must have been given to her sometime in January 1956.

Pierre Rainero, Cartier’s director of image, heritage, and style, told Vogue in 2023 that the jewelry house has some clues to the famous engagement ring’s history.

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“We have pictures of (Kelly and Rainier) peering in at the windows of the Cartier store on the Rue de la Paix [in Paris],” he said. “I don’t know if they were already married or engaged, but perhaps they were choosing this ring.” Rainero also said that Cartier has records of the ring’s transfer from Paris to its Monaco store.

Cartier’s official website shows a photograph from 1955 or 1956 of Kelly shopping at the house’s Fifth Avenue Mansion.

They married four months after the proposal.

Wedding of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco to Princess Grace on April 19, 1956 in MonacoCredit: Gilbert TOURTE / Getty Images

Kelly and Rainier got engaged on December 28, 1955, per People. They married in a star-studded wedding on April 19, 1956, shortly after filming for High Society wrapped. It appears, from photographs, that Kelly added a wedding band to her stack at the time, though little information is available on such a ring. Following the ceremony, she became her Serene Highness, Princess Grace of Monaco.

In true regal fashion, the lavish ceremony drew an astounding 30 million viewers. Although the couple’s union was tragically cut short by Kelly’s fatal car accident in 1982, their love remains immortalized in the hearts of all who watched their relationship unfold.

“Forty years on, she still captures people’s imagination,” the couple’s only son, Prince Albert II, told People of Kelly in 2023. “She managed to capture the imagination and attention of several younger generations and not many have done that. It’s an incredible gift that she had.”

It’s inspired countless other celebrity engagement rings.

Amal Alamuddin—now Clooney—and then-fiancé George Clooney display her engagement ring in September 2014.Credit: Rachel Murray/Getty Images for Celebrity Fight Night

Possessing a timeless appeal, Kelly’s ring has remained a blueprint for A-list proposal bling over the last 70 years. Perhaps the most notable homage to the princess’s iconic sparkler is Amal Clooney’s ring from George Clooney.

Like Kelly’s ring, Amal’s boasts an oversized emerald-cut diamond set on a platinum band, per Brides. Flanking the 7-carat central stone are tapered baguette-cut diamonds, making the ring a perfect mirror of the starlet’s.

Amal Clooney’s engagement ring, photographed in 2016.Credit: Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic

Similar, though not quite as alike, is Anne Hathaway’s engagement ring from husband Adam Shulman. The jewelry, which Hathaway first showed off at the 2011 premiere of The Iron Lady, according to People, has an emerald-cut diamond set on a thin ​​pavé band—putting a modern twist on Kelly’s famous jewel.

Both rings are in the possession of Monaco’s royal family.

Grace Kelly on her wedding day in April 1956.Credit: Mondadori via Getty Images

Naturally, fans have wondered what happened to Princess Grace’s two engagement rings since her death in 1982. The answer is that they became the property of Monaco’s royal family, the House of Grimaldi.

In September 2016, her well-known engagement ring and other jewelry from Kelly’s Cartier collection were displayed at the Maison’s 5th Avenue Mansion in New York City to celebrate its re-opening, per The Hollywood Reporter. Cartier showed the pieces at the mansion’s newly opened Princess Grace Salon.

For the 2025 Cartier exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Monaco’s Palais Princier collection once again loaned Kelly’s engagement ring for display, per W.

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