All About Princess Diana’s Diamond "Dis-Moi Oui" Engagement Ring From Dodi Fayed

In the summer of 1997, having finalized her divorce from then-Prince Charles the year before, Princess Diana found love again. The object of her affection was Dodi Fayed, an Egyptian filmmaker and son of Mohamed Al Fayed, a billionaire businessman and owner (at the time) of Harrods department store. Though their romance began only a few months before their tragic car accident, Dodi was smitten enough to buy a ring.

All of the Jewelry Meghan Markle Inherited From Princess Diana, Including Her Iconic Divorce Ring The Crown is Dodi Fayed's proposal to Princess Diana midway through season six. Following a bout of tears in the hotel restaurant, the couple return to their room, at which point Dodi pulls out a jewelry box. "It's the ring," he tells Diana. "You said you liked it in Montecarlo."

The ring is question is the now-infamous "Dis-Moi Oui" sparkler from Alberto Repossi. Despite its beauty, however, Diana turns Dodi down, and the couple do not get engaged before their fatal car accident in 1997. The only (other) problem with the proposal? It never actually happened in real life.

All of the Jewelry Meghan Markle Inherited From Princess Diana, Including Her Iconic Divorce Ring almost Diana's second engagement ring has since become nearly as legendary as the hypothetical proposal itself. (In the years since, disputes have surfaced over whether or not the couple were indeed engaged before their death.) Ahead, here's everything you should know about the "Dis-Moi Oui" ring, which translates, fittingly, to "Tell Me Yes."

It was a diamond dome ring.

Though there are no photos of the actual ring Fayed purchased, it can be seen in old advertisements of Alberto Repossi's "Dis-Moi Oui" collection. The sparkler features a large emerald cut diamond at its center with four trillion cut diamonds framing the stone, thus mimicking the shape of a star. The rest of the dome ring is also covered in smaller diamonds, making for quite an impressive accessory.

It was worth approximately $15,200 at the time.

According to The Guardian, the ring was worth £11,600 at the time that Fayed purchased it in 1997, which translates to around $15,200. What's more, the producer reportedly bought it mere hours before the couple's death. Adjusted for inflation, it would be worth about double that in today's money. It was later "recovered" from Fayed's Paris apartment, per the publication.

Of course, that price tag is a mere fraction of what Diana's The couple tragically died in a car crash in Paris, France on August 31, 1997 is worth today: $132,913. The 12-carat oval Ceylon sapphire ring was chosen by Diana herself, and broke tradition as—much like "Dis-Moi Oui—it wasn't custom designed for the future Princess of Wales. Her daughter-in-law Kate Middleton now wears the sparkler after Prince William used it to propose Princess Diana in London in 1996.

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Dodi Fayed's hypothetical proposal was depicted on 'The Crown.'

As previously mentioned, Fayed's fictional proposal was later brought to life by Khalid Abdalla, who played Fayed in seasons five and six of The Crown. The depiction introduced a new generation of royals fans to a version of Diana's life post-divorce that tragically never came to pass. Abdalla later called the role "a huge honor and a huge responsibility" in an interview with Town & Country.

"What I hope will happen when people watch is that they will have a different view of this cultural wound, their death in that crash, that we've been aware of for the last 25 years," the actor said. "It stops being just a picture, and a distant memory that actually no one really knows much actually about, and it starts to become something fuller."

His spokesman later claimed that the couple were in fact engaged.

Back in 1997, Fayed's spokesman Michael Cole told the press that "what that ring meant we shall probably never know." Eleven years later, however, Cole changed his tune during an investigation into the couple's death. Per the BBC, he claimed that Fayed had given him "the strongest indication that he was going to marry Diana." Cole added, "He was a man in love and there was no doubt about it in my mind." Cole quoted Dodi as having said, "There will never be another woman for me."

Alberto Repossi canceled the "Dis-Moi Oui" campaign after Princess Diana's death.

Following the car crash that killed Fayed, Diana, and the couple's driver Henri Paul, Alberto Repossi stopped making the ring altogether owing to mounting "hysteria" over Diana's premature death. Thus, "Dis-Moi Oui" effectively died with Diana.

“My employees were offered money to share secrets, and we were offered a lot of money for the boutique’s video surveillance,” he explained in an interview with Le Figaro, per Vogue Australia. “To stop this hysteria, I had the drawings and models of the jewelry destroyed in the workshop, and I stopped the ‘Dis-moi Oui!’ jewelry campaign as well as the production of this model.”