With all of the romantic scenarios that The Bachelor creates for its contestants, a fairytale engagement is the end goal. Since, on Good Morning America, Bachelor Ben Higgins already revealed that he will propose in the season finale, did Ben pay for the engagement ring he will give to either JoJo or Lauren B.? According to Us Weekly, who quoted an anonymous "insider," the ring Ben will give on the March 14 Bachelor finale is a 3-carat emerald-cut diamond set in platinum that reportedly cost $100,000 from Bachelor favorite jeweler Neil Lane. So did the software salesman foot the bill on this extravagant engagement ring?
I am a woman who absolutely takes no stock in engagement rings considering I'm an engaged woman myself and my fiancé respected my request to not give me a ring. Yet, though an engagement ring goes against my personal values (well, doesn't everything about The Bachelor go against my personal values?), I can completely understand the allure of wearing a diamond on your finger. I'm certain that neither JoJo nor Lauren will squawk when Ben chooses one of them and gets on one knee with that beautiful ring. And, I'm equally certain that whoever gets the ring won't care whether or not Ben paid for it since she will just be thrilled that Ben chose her to spend the rest of his life with. (You know, if the couple manages to stay together despite The Bachelor 's imperfect track record.)
An engagement is not a requirement on The Bachelor, but if a marriage proposal does happen in the Bachelor and Bachelorette worlds, the ring is not paid for by the person (read: man) who proposes. While, back in Season 2, Aaron Buerge paid for the ring, since then it's pretty much been standard procedure that the men on The Bachelor franchise don't have to be financially committed to the epic diamond ring they hand out. And from all existing reports on Ben's big proposal, it doesn't look like Ben has broken from this tradition.
Former Bachelorette winner Jesse Csincsak told Hollywood.com that The Bachelor has a rule that if the couple splits ups before two years, the woman must return the ring. And, considering how often that happens, it's fairly low-risk for the show to foot the bill or for Neil Lane to gift it to the show; it's not really clear who actually pays for it. But, it's definitely not the Bachelor.
The expensive ring-giving makes sense for The Bachelor. Back in the day, the Bachelors were men who were wealthy in their own right (remember Andrew Firestone?), but nowadays wealth is not a requirement to win the affections of 20 plus women, as shown by Ben's pretty modest career. Yet, The Bachelor is all about make-out sessions set to fireworks and trips to exotic locations, so it would be sort of a letdown for The Bachelor brand if the engagement ring given by the Bachelor was underwhelming.
Although it's yet to be seen who Ben will actually propose to, it won't be a surprise that the woman he chooses will be blown away by the ring Ben gives her. After having to keep the engagement a secret for months, JoJo or Lauren will love flaunting the gorgeous gem that Ben gives during The Bachelor finale.
Images: Kelsey McNeal/ABC, ABC
