Did The Bachelor Recycle An Engagement Ring, Again?

As if this week's The Bachelor finale didn't give us enough to talk about, Bachelor Nation added a minor conspiracy theory to the discussion. Eagle-eyed jewelry buffs noticed that the ring Arie Luyendyk Jr. gave to Becca Kufrin before breaking her heart looked awfully familiar. Was that sparkly symbol of TV romance actually the ring Benoit Beausejour-Savard presented to Clare Crawley on The Bachelor Winter Games last month?

Nope, says Neil Lane, who designed both engagement rings.

"Both are handmade, and although similar in design, they are not the same ring," he told People. To the naked eye — and especially from the comfort of our sofas — they look like identical oval-cut diamonds surrounded by 84 smaller diamonds on the halo and band. One key difference: Kufrin's ring features a 2-carat center diamond, while Crawley's is just 1 carat, Lane explained.

The jewelry designer — who may or may not get paid for his work on The Bachelor — told the magazine that he collaborated with Beausejour-Savard to design "a true expression of his love for her." Funny, then, how that expression wound up looking like so many others. But we’ll give Lane a break for this one. After all, he had just two weeks to turn the French Canadian's request for something shaped like a football stadium into something real.

Although this ring was unused, the show has actually recycled rings before. Last year, when Nick Viall proposed to Vanessa Grimaldi, he used the ring that Robby Hayes had picked out for JoJo Fletcher the year prior. Since Fletcher chose Jordan Rogers instead, that ring went back in the pool.

"I bring six rings and over the years, over the nine years, some are the same, some have changed settings or are redesigned, and some are totally new," Lane told Entertainment Tonight last year.

And since those diamonds can be pricey, no one expects ABC to toss them when things don't work out. In fact, The Bachelorette's Jesse Csincsak once told Hollywood.com that participants sign a contract saying show couples must return their ring if they're not together two years after their season finale.

Still, fiancées-to-be might appreciate getting something that isn’t already associated with the whiff of failure. Perhaps a redesign should be mandatory for all rings that actually appear on TV.