As the sun sets on the annual spate of summer weddings, Canadian rockers Avril Lavigne and Chad Kroeger made a shock announcement on Tuesday the 21st – they were engaged! The duo met whilst working on Avril’s forthcoming new album, and had been dating for six months before their engagement.
Those of us contemplating buying platinum engagement rings have every reason to be in awe of the beautiful ring, which is rumoured to have cost Chad somewhere in the region of $350,000! Jewellery expert Michael O’Connor told Us Weekly that ‘the centre diamond is approximately 10 carats, with an additional 4 carats of total side diamonds.’ Such an expensive engagement ring is befitting a couple that has produced platinum hits on multiple occasions! Beverly Hills jeweller Caryn Alpert designed the custom made band: “We helped Chad custom create Avril’s dream ring: a platinum-set pear-shaped diamond with half-moons totalling 14 carats from XIVKARATS in Beverly Hills… What a perfect pair/pear!” Chad Kroeger has reportedly not yet met Avril’s parents – an event he is approaching with some (understandable!) apprehension, saying about the impending encounter, “you just never know when someone is going to come out of the woodwork with a story that starts off with ‘Let me tell you about the time…’ But I know she is dying to take me to La Pizzeria to try her favourite pizza in the world!”
Let’s hope that for Chad’s sake he doesn’t have too many embarrassing stories for when he finally meets Avril’s parents! The engagement follows Avril’s split from Brody Jenner, the Kardashian step-brother and reality television star, after almost two years together. The news has been met with predictably scathing comments on various social media, including Twitter and Facebook. One user tweeting “a positive thought: They have a child. It rebels. And becomes an actual musician.” Such mockery and negativity has, unfortunately, become commonplace as of late, though we would like to avoid that and say; best wishes and congratulations to Avril and Chad.