Celebrity Divorce: Stars Who Sold Their Jewelry Post-Split

Sometimes, memories of past relationships are too painful to keep around. Think back to those love letters you burned or the old sweaters you gave to Goodwill.

When a celebrity relationship goes south, selling off its spoils can come with a few added bonuses: not only do their objects tend toward the luxurious, but selling them off amounts to something of a public cleanse--a clear message to the world that "I'm so over it."

Below, 5 celebrities who auctioned off some of the most intimate gifts from their married (or in one case, soon-to-be-married) lives after their relationships ended: their jewelry. Click through the slides and let us know: which #GiftsFromTheEx did you sell off after your split?

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• Jennifer Lopez

  After only two years together, Ben Affleck decided to make "Bennifer" official, and proposed to Lopez with a remarkable Harry Winson six-carat pink diamond ring worth a cool $1.2 million. But when Jennifer went back on the (dating) market after her split from Affleck in 2004, <a href="http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,1025370,00.html" target="_hplink">so did the diamond</a>. It was "reacquired" by Harry Winston in 2005. Its new price? We'll never know: The starting bid was undisclosed and only available to <a href="http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/2-14-2005-65739.asp" target="_hplink">"serious bidders." </a> Just three years later, Affleck married Jennifer Garner. Apparently the actor took his past into account--he didn't spend nearly as much on Garner's <a href="http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1051999,00.html" target="_hplink">engagement ring</a>: her 4.5 carat diamond is valued at $500,000.

• Elizabeth Taylor

  Elizabeth Taylor's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Elizabeth-Taylor-Love-Affair-Jewelry/dp/0743236645" target="_hplink">love affair with jewelry</a> is well documented. Her enormous collection, valued at more than <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/10/elizabeth-taylor-jewelry-auction_n_847130.html" target="_hplink">$150 million</a>, was auctioned off' by Christie's. In keeping with Taylor's personal campaign for an HIV/AIDS cure, "the proceeds from the exhibition admissions, events, and publications related to the sales will be donated to the <a href="http://www.elizabethtayloraidsfoundation.org/" target="_hplink">Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation,</a> which the actress founded in 1991. But one of her most spectacular pieces, a "69.24 carat, inch thick <a href="http://www.dameelizabethtaylor.com/tb_diamond.html" target="_hplink">diamond</a>," purchased by ex-husband Richard Burton for $1.1 million, will not be included in the auction. After the couple's divorce in 1978, Taylor announced she was putting the remarkable gem up for sale and putting the proceeds toward building a <a href="http://www.diamond-legend.info/famous.html" target="_hplink">hospital</a> in Botswana. She seemed unattached to the jewel, <a href="http://www.dameelizabethtaylor.com/tb_diamond.html" target="_hplink">saying only</a>, "It was very large and very heavy...Anyway, I hadn't worn it in ages..."

• Kim Basinger

  Although she endured one of the most acrimonious divorces in Hollywood history, Kim Basinger did get one thing out of her marriage to Alec Baldwin: a gorgeous engagement ring. Although Basinger was reportedly <a href="http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20133526,00.html" target="_hplink">reluctant</a> to wed the "30 Rock" star, the 3.7 carat Tiffany and Co. <a href="http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/story/basinger-sells-off-baldwin-ring-at-auction" target="_hplink">diamond</a> must have convinced her. The ring was on her finger for the duration of her nine year marriage, but after a bitter <a href="http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20062122,00.html" target="_hplink">custody battle</a>, Basinger must have thought it was time to let go of the past. The animal rights <a href="http://www.peta.org/b/thepetafiles/archive/2009/09/23/Kim-Basinger-Tells-Designer-to-Furget-Fur.aspx" target="_hplink">activist</a> auctioned off the ring at Christie's, along with other pieces, including a multi-gem necklace given to her by Baldwin, to raise money for the <a href="http://www.pawsweb.org/" target="_hplink">Performing Animal Welfare Society</a>. The ring brought in an impressive <a href="http://www.hollywood.com/news/News_April_21_Madonnas_Label_Loses_Big_Bucks_Kim_Basinger_Sells_Engagement_Ring_Cannes_Releases_Film_Lineup_More/1750299" target="_hplink">$59, 750</a>.

• Ellen Barkin

  Ellen Barkin <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/fashion/21barkin.html" target="_hplink">felt</a> felt like something of a jewel in her marriage to billionaire investment guru Ron Perleman: "I was an accessory, being accessorized, the perfect one -- age-appropriate, the mother of two children, successful in her own right." Barkin reportedly got $40 million in her divorce from her husband but managed to squeeze another $20 million out of the jewelry given to her by her ex-husband after their <a href="http://nymag.com/relationships/features/16463/" target="_hplink">difficult divorce</a>. After six years of marriage, Ellen Barkin sold more than <a href="http://www.christies.com/Lotfinder/searchresults.aspx?intSaleID=20782#action=refine&intSaleID=20782&sid=5a513642-a4ee-4245-9305-0419a5ba89d1" target="_hplink">100 pieces</a> at Christie's New York. The trove also contained a 32-carat apricot diamond ring given to her by Perleman just weeks before the pair filed for divorce. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/fashion/21barkin.html" target="_hplink">Barkin's rationale:</a> the pieces were "not memories [she] wanted to wear every day." She pocketed the cash from the sale.

• Elin Nordegren

  After the public humiliation that Swedish former model Elin Nordegren endured, she evidently wanted to get as far away from memories of her life with Tiger Woods as possible. According to the National Enquirer <a href="http://www.nationalenquirer.com/celebrity/livid-elin-sold-ice?cid=RSS" target="_hplink">she asked famed auction house Sotheby's</a> to sell $2.5 million worth of diamonds, gold, and platinum--all gifts from her womanizing ex--after finalizing her reported $100 million <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/13/elin-nordegren-moving-on-_n_796002.html" target="_hplink">divorce settlement </a>with Woods.

Comments

[swan1]

10:55 AM on 07/16/2011

Ben Affleck, sold the ring and donated the money to a charity in Africa. He is quoted as saying Jennifer Garner would "hate herself wearing such a gawdy ring". He said the two Jennifers were opposites.

[joannevlavender]

08:44 PM on 07/11/2011

My ex had given me nothing in our marriage of any value except my children, and I wasn't about to give them up for any reason.

[AppleBaby]

04:12 PM on 07/15/2011

and were you expected to?

[nicurnmegan]

06:54 PM on 07/10/2011

Anna Bahr "Apparently the actor took his past into account--he didn't spend nearly as much on Garner's engagement ring: her 4.5 carat diamond is valued at $500,000." tacky, very tacky!

The part about Jennifer Lopez and Jennifer Garner was very tacky.

[ChrisDWard]

07:04 PM on 07/09/2011

The truth is, we don't have a clue as to a possible agreement Jen had with Ben to dispose of the ring. As I posted somewhere else, I read it was Ben who re-sold the ring.

Kudos to the great ladies who used the revenue from their jewels for doing good in the world.

[the commoner]

01:52 AM on 07/09/2011

Is that JLo? Looks at the nose she had before!

[LaSweetPoison]

11:03 PM on 07/08/2011

Please forgive me for seeming off-topic, but I will always have a special place in my heart for Elizabeth Taylor. She sold a precious gem to build a hospital for the needed. Who can top that?

[pattileigh]

10:51 PM on 07/08/2011

These ladies are sure high maintenance. Guess the jewelry is their savings plan. Kinda creepy.

[gayleg]

09:39 PM on 07/08/2011

OK so what has J Lo had done? She looks way better now than she did then.

[Richbruin]

03:44 PM on 07/09/2011

The question is what HASN'T she had done.

[AppleBaby]

04:13 PM on 07/15/2011

or who

[casey645]

08:43 PM on 07/08/2011

Very interesting title. ...Article, not so much.

[Jabandit]

07:11 PM on 07/08/2011

"Up in the Jeep, tinted with heat, beats bumpin" - Nas

[playsindirt]

06:26 PM on 07/08/2011

I'm assuming Lopez asked Affleck if it was OK to sell the rock? If not, that's pretty tacky.

[the commoner]

01:56 AM on 07/09/2011

JLo tacky? Is the pope Catholic?

[playsindirt]

09:25 AM on 07/09/2011

LOL. Point taken!

[ChrisDWard]

06:26 PM on 07/09/2011

I read that she gave it back to him, and he engaged the original jeweler to dispose of it.

[ash11111]

04:48 PM on 07/08/2011

Giggle... :) Booty made me click on the link...

[Jaqua Gamboa]

04:45 PM on 07/08/2011

That's called STEALING. Of course, it's women who benefit from this scam, so it's acceptable. You got that ring under contract. The contract has been voided. Return the ring like a decent person and move on.

[MIvoter1231]

05:47 PM on 07/08/2011

Um, no. In most states the ring belongs to the wife after a divorce. It's a conditional gift that becomes final upon consummation of the marriage. Sorry, you're misinformed. And your bitterness, kind of shows.

[Jaqua Gamboa]

06:39 PM on 07/08/2011

Sorry, I'm not. You are. Cowboys receiver Roy Williams proposed to some broad and gave her a $20,000 rock. She said no (granted, his proposal was lame. by mail). However, she kept the ring and he's having to sue her (meaning spend more money on legal fees) to get it back. Women DO feel entitled to the ring. And legally speaking, all of the laws these days in these situations tend to favor women. Though they'll bark about how Afghanistan treats women better than the U.S. yeah, right

[Gena Kyllo]

10:42 PM on 07/13/2011

I'm pretty sure the ring is a gift from fiancee to bride-to-be. She may give it back if she so chooses, but only if she chooses.

[Wood]

06:16 PM on 07/08/2011

I agree.. if you don't enter into the marriage contract..

Thought about getting mine back, but didn't want the hassle..

[Erinaleks]

04:43 PM on 07/08/2011

Are these stars perhaps human Christmas Trees? Is jewelry just another form of sexism on display? Does it take perhaps 10, 20, 100 carats to validate these women? As women came of age and burned the bra, isn't it time to get rid of being an ornament ,to be decorated by some male chauvinist?
I find jewelry from an old patriarchal hold over. These women are wise to get rid of those ghastly displays of opulence. Bravo!

[traceymarie]

08:52 PM on 07/08/2011

jewelery is beautiful

[Normscoffee]

10:42 PM on 07/08/2011

How dare someone like what you don't, is the gist of your point?

[Vantunow]

04:28 PM on 07/08/2011

A Hockey player once said, "My wife made me a millionaire. I used to have 2 million dollars".