The cameras at the NBA All-Star Game are built for spectacle: celebrities, courtside theatrics, the glossy proof of who gets to sit where. On 15 February, though, the flashiest thing in the frame wasn't a dunk or a diamond-studded wristwatch it wasMeghan Markle's right hand, held just long enough for the light to catch a large pear-shaped stone that looked, frankly, like it had arrived with its own lighting crew.
RadarOnline says the ring has shown up repeatedly in recent weeks, first appearing in a black-and-white image on Markle's 'As Ever' homepage in late January before resurfacing, unmistakably, at the All-Star Game with Prince Harry. The site quotes two jewellery figures Universal Diamonds owner Ronnie Agami and La Joya Jewellery CEO Nishit Mehta who estimate the diamond at roughly 6 to 7 carats and suggest it could be worth as much as $250,000 depending on the stone's quality and cut.
And then, inevitably, the internet did what the internet does: it turned a ring into a referendum.
To be clear, the ring in question isn't on her left hand the traditional home of an engagement ring but on the ring finger of her right hand, the sort of placement that can read as fashion, a milestone, or a quiet act of self-definition, depending on the viewer's mood. People magazine, covering the same outing, described the piece as a large pear-shaped diamond set on a gold band, worn while the Duke and Duchess of Sussex sat courtside in Inglewood, California.
RadarOnline frames it more provocatively: the new stone, it argues, is 'more than double' the size of the original engagement ringPrince Harrygave Markle when he proposed in 2017. That original ring, as Radar recounts, featured a 3-carat centre stone sourced from Botswana, flanked by two smaller diamonds taken from jewellery belonging to his late mother, Princess Diana. The symbolism is almost aggressively sentimental Botswana for the couple's early relationship, Diana for the family line Harry can't escape even when he tries.
Which is precisely why the new ring has landed with a thud among detractors. One user on X, quoted by RadarOnline, sneered: 'Looks like the Founder is giving herself the diamond ring she WISHED Harry gave her. She's been sporting this pear-shaped monstrosity for a minute.' Another went further, turning the story into a character judgement: 'Harry, being sentimental, designed the ring with his mother's two side diamonds, and she hated it. Now, Markle demands whatever she wants, and Harry abides.'
It's hard not to notice the pattern: the jewellery is almost incidental. The real target is the woman wearing it.
RadarOnline leans into long-running speculation that Markle has been unhappy with her engagement ring, pointing to the fact that it has been altered several times since 2017. The site says that in 2019 the original solid yellow-gold band was replaced with a micro-pavé diamond band, and that by 2022 more diamonds had been added around the main stone.
It also claims viewers spotted what looked like a changed centre stone shifting from the original cushion cut after a trailer for the Netflix lifestyle seriesWith Love, Meghanappeared in February 2025, with Radar asserting she replaced it with an emerald-cut diamond.
Whether you find that plausible, petty, or perfectly normal probably says more about you than it does about her. Rings are redesigned all the time; fortunes change, tastes mature, settings wear down, stones get reset. What makes Markle's case different isn't the alleged upgrading it's the ferocity with which strangers insist on reading emotional failure into a piece of metal.
Source: International Business Times UK
