EXCLUSIVE: Chris Harrison and Former 'Bachelor' Contestants Reveal What Happens to the Rings After Breakups

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Ben Higgins and Lauren Bushnell went their separate ways on Monday, just over a year after getting engaged on the season 20 finale of The Bachelor -- but what happens to her ring? 

ET's Katie Krause caught up with Bachelor host Chris Harrison at the Bachelorette junket on Wednesday, where he revealed that rings are returned after a couple splits up. 


EXCLUSIVE: Ben Higgins and Lauren Bushnell Show Off Massive $100K Engagement Ring

"[The rings] go to heaven," he joked. "I really don't know, because obviously Neil Lane gives these rings, but I think we own the rings at a certain point. Well, not me. I'd be cashing in my diamonds and living in Hawaii."

"The rings that are given back go back to [the production company] Next Entertainment or whoever," he added. "There is probably a vault or a bucket of just rings."

Once the ring is returned to the show, Harrison said it's anybody's guess what happens to the jewelry.

"Here's the thing, what do you do with those rings? You don't want one. You cant give it to the [next] girl you love, because that's a tainted ring and it obviously didn't work out. That's bad juju. So I don't know what you do with those rings," he said. "Maybe we sell them back to Neil Lane."


WATCH: Details on Vanessa Grimaldi's Huge Engagement Ring -- and Her 'Bachelor' Dress That's for Rent!

Meanwhile, a source tells ET that couples only have to return the ring if they break up within two years of their finale date, and that "most Bachelorettes will tell Neil which ring they love the most, and Neil will lead the guys on which one to pick."


Bachelor in Paradise
star Ashley Iaconetti confirmed the two-year time frame to ET's Brice Sander at OK! Magazine's Summer Kickoff Party at the W Hollywood Hotel on Wednesday, saying that the ring "has to go back into production."

"[Production will] keep it, they return it back to Neil Lane... I have no idea," she confessed. "[Maybe] Neil Lane asks for it back. I actually just think they have it in a drawer."

Former Bachelor star Corinne Olympios has other ideas.


WATCH: Celebrity Sparklers! The 11 Best Engagement Rings of 2016

"It probably just gets remade into something else," she mused. "It could be made into my ring. I'm ready!"

However, rings that never actually make it onto a Bachelorette's finger have a much different fate.

"I thi​nk [all rings] are recycled, b​ecause ​I​'​m pretty sure Nick [Viall] used the same ring to propose to Vanessa [Grimaldi] that Robby [Hayes] used with JoJo [Fletcher]," said Chase McNary, who made it to the final three on Fletcher's season of The Bachelorette.

McNary is right -- the ring that Viall used was the same one Hayes intended to give Fletcher, but while it's the first time a recycled ring has been given to another woman on The Bachelor, Lane told ET in March that many of the rings he brings as options for the final two men will look familiar.


EXCLUSIVE: Robby Hayes Reacts to Nick Viall Using His Engagement Ring: He's Copying My Style Too!

"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," he confessed.

As for pricing, over the past six seasons of the show, rings have reportedly ranged in price from $50,000 to almost $100,000, with the custom designed 4.25 carat ring Higgins gave Bushnell taking the top prize.


Reporting by Jennifer Peros.

See more on Higgins and Bushnell's recent split in the video below. 

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