Dame Joan Collins has revealed that the engagement ring given to her by Warren Beatty when he proposed to her in 1960 was hidden in a container of her favourite traditional Jewish dish, chopped liver.
The Dynastystar discovered the cultured pearl and diamond engagement ring, set in a textured bombe mount, as she dug into the tub of offal.
The large ring, as well as another diamond engagement ring given to the 88-year-old actor by her second husband, actor and singer Anthony Newley, are being auctioned via Bonhams.
The former will have a guide price of up to £7,000 when it becomes available for auction on 27 April, while the latter has a guide price of up to £8,000.
Collins told The Times that Beatty surprised her with a number of “Jewish delicatessen delights” at their apartment in New York on the day he proposed.
She added that he must have known the chopped liver was her favourite, and so hid the ring in the container.
“Imagine my surprise when I found that massive ring inside the container as I greedily ladled myself a spoonful,” she told the newspaper. “He then announced that we were engaged.”
However, Collins and Beatty ended their relationship after nearly two years together and were never married.
In her 2013 memoir, Passion for Life, Collins wrote that she called off the engagement amid rumours that Beatty was having a number of high-profile affairs with other women.
She wrote: “It was a sad ending, but I knew that our relationship of almost two years was doomed. Marriage to Warren would never have lasted because he simply loved the ladies too much.”
Now, she has told The Times that she is selling the rings because “jewellery is meant to be worn, and these pieces belong to a different time in my life”.
Collis has been married five times throughout her life. Her first husband was Northern Irish actor Maxwell Reed, followed by Newley, American businessman Ronald Kass, Swedish playboy Peter Holm, and Percy Gibson, to whom she is still married.
Gibson, 56, is a Hollywood producer and married Collins in 2002. He is best known for the films The Time of Our Lives, Banksy’s Coming to Dinner, and the TV show Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
