‘I wear it on my middle finger’: The rise of the defiant divorce ring

Shimmering on Deb Marino’s finger are diamonds set in an eye-catching gold ring.

“Of course it’s a middle finger ring, because, why not?” the Florida-based blogger says on her Tiktok feed.

Getting rid of her engagement ring would have suggested a regret the 34-year-old doesn’t feel – after all, her marriage brought her daughter. Even just not wearing it would have felt like a waste.

“I didn’t want it locked away in a box,” she says. “Diamonds are precious.”

Plus she does sometimes feel like sticking one finger up after the break-up of her marriage.

Deb is part of a rising trend promoted by jewellers around the world of women marking a new chapter in their life with a new statement piece: the divorce ring.

Deb had the diamond from her engagement ring set at one end of an open circle and added a new sapphire to represent her daughter to the other end. It cost $3,000 (£2,245).

It’s a sizeable sum to part with when divorces can be expensive.

Ring resale values tend to be only around 30% of the original price so for many the trend of giving their old jewellery a new life feels a better investment.

And Deb’s middle finger statement fits right in with what the fashion pages are calling this year’s “hot divorcee summer” – a celebration of liberated glamour and a “don’t care energy”.

Divorce rings can also be a way of marking a kind of financial liberation, says Kate Daly, co-founder of Amicable, a UK company offering mediated divorce services.

“Your whole life gets thrown up in the air,” she says. “Your finances are under extreme pressure.”

If at that point a woman decides to buy a new ring it’s a sign that she is making her own financial decisions and “not needing to ask permission from anyone,” says Daly.

“It’s very easy to trivialise, but maybe that’s the first big spending decision you’ve made in a very long time, and certainly perhaps the biggest one you’ve made solo for a long time.”