Jane Seymour shares the story behind her 'unique' engagement ring

So first and foremost, tell me about your partnership with QVC and talk to me a little bit about the designs. Well, I am extraordinarily thrilled that I'm doing this with QVC because People, a lot of people know me from the Open Hearts collection, one of which I'm wearing here. And I've had so many people saying, you know, where can we get it? How can we find it? And I said, you know, it isn't anywhere right now. You can only get secondhand ones. But I said to QVC, and why I'm as excited about QVC is I can actually tell the story. And really, it's not just a piece of jewelry. It's not about just a carat weight or whether it's gold or yellow gold or silver or whatever. It has an enormous amount of meaning. And that's why I think people really responded to it when it first came out all those years ago. And from when it came out originally to where we are now, it could not be more appropriate to what's going on in the world right now. So really, the open heart speaks about... Showing that your heart is open, your heart and your mind are open to the idea of change, of connecting with other people, of not closing yourself off and just being stuck in whoever and wherever and whatever pain you're in or whatever trauma you've been through. But like my mother had said, having survived World War II, that everyone in life has challenges. And when they do, they close up their heart. And if they could open their heart, accept the biggest one. Reach out to help someone else. There will always be someone worse off than them, and they'll have purpose. So this represents an enormous amount. And over the years, I've just received the most amazing, oh gosh, letters and texts and emails from people and met people. For whom the open heart image has really, they say, changed their lives because they become part of the community. And when they wear one, people go, oh, I know what that is. And they speak openly about where they've been, where they were and where they are now and where they're going. So as much as anything, being able to do it with QVC, I'm able to tell the story. And the story is a very big part of it. I'm wearing one here now and these are all. Amazing, top-quality lab-grown diamonds. And we have earrings that match with the yellow gold and also with the silver finish. And I'm excited, especially the world as it is right now. I think... America and hopefully everywhere else people are going to open their eyes and their hearts and they're just going to go okay we're pivoting we're doing something new we're being our best selves we're going to connect and if your heart is open you can weather change. And you can invite possibility. And I think that is what the open heart means to me. And of course, we have our Open Hearts Foundation where we do a lot of charitable work as well. So I get to tell that story in QVC. And then I get to tell the story of the new one, which I'll put down here. I purposely wore black so you could maybe see what it looks like. Like, um... This is, I'm so excited about because no one's ever seen or heard about this. I rather famously, apparently, got engaged. Who knew I'd find love at this time in my life? And John Zambetti, who gave me this ring, had seen it, I think, in a vintage stall somewhere at an art show. And it spoke to him, and he went, that's what I want to give Jane when the time's right. And what is so special about it... And why I love it so much is it's, I don't know if you can see, it's actually, we found it's called a Trois-et-Moi ring. And apparently Napoleon presented one, this kind of design, to Josephine back in the day. So it actually is a known design, and I had no idea. But what I loved was we are together, we're connected, we're not on top of one another, we're not equally side by side, we're aligned. And his past and my past are represented with the diamonds that lead to the stone So I thought I want to come up with a modern version of that. And so this is my modern version. And we called it Soul to Soul. And I called it Soul to Soul because I think more than anything, we want to connect right now. And that's what's missing in today's society. And especially amongst young people, you know, with the texts and the Instagrams and whatever and social media, connection is incredibly important. And I wanted it to be something that wasn't, you know, specifically about, you know, engagement or marriage or anything like that. This is about being connected to another human being because you have something in common. You have a bond. You have a... The best way I could say it is a soul-to-soul feeling, and that connection can be a best friend, it could be someone that you're in love with, it could be a mother-daughter, grandmother, granddaughter, it could be people that are bonding, having gone through, for example, a family member of mine has been going through cancer a great deal recently, and she's really bonded with other people that have been going through what she's been going through. And also, Actually, one of my best friends, her daughter's husband just passed and she was just thinking of something she wanted to wear and feel and she wanted her granddaughter to have to always remember dad. And she was just saying how that really spoke to her, that his soul and their souls are together forever, regardless of whether we're here or not. So there are a lot of different meanings behind it. But I think the biggest part and the thing that's most exciting to me about it is it's about whatever you are. Your idea of connection is. And I put the earring on. And I love this earring because I usually wear just a single diamond or something very simple. But this is lovely because it has the connection soul to soul and a little kind of gold ball where the hole goes because I hate seeing the hole, personally. So your engagement ring inspired a design that you made, correct? Yes, but no, the design, who knew it was famous? Napoleon gave it to Josephine. So I don't know whether he designed it, but it goes back that far. And, you know, the official name for that is called Toi et Moi, you and me. But I decided to call ours Soul to Soul. I love that. Okay. And so I drew it up like I always do. The open heart came from a painting, a drawing I did on the back of a paper napkin. And then I took it back to my art studio and it became all these paintings. And then it became, oh, behind me, you can see this is one of the sculptures. So these are bronze sculptures and they're in three different sizes. But what's really exciting about them is that I think there are at least nine or ten different large, huge sculptures like that between America and Canada in public places. Including, believe it or not, Bradenton, Florida. And I remember that one particularly because it's on the Broadwalk there. And it was, you know, magical to have it there, of course. And then when the terrible hurricane came through, I looked on my news feed and they're showing the hurricane. And of course, you can't really tell something's a hurricane unless you see something in the foreground. And some news person had decided, without knowing it was mine, to have this sort of lashing wind and storm and everything coming right through. The very resilient seven-foot bronze open heart. And I thought, you know what, that just speaks volumes to me, that that was there, that was standing with fortitude, that was there, you know, with this message of, you know, we can get through this, we will be open-hearted, we will help our neighbors, we will find purpose and we'll find something good out of this. So, yeah, so that was open hearts. And then... This one, obviously, I took it for the idea, the concept from the ring that John gave me. And I'm in love with this right now. A lot of really young people are loving it. I think, yeah, a lot of really young girls. Thank I think it's for all ages, but I think it really speaks to something people are looking for right now, which is human connection. Yeah. So when you got your engagement ring, was the first thing you thought of like, oh, my gosh, I need to like design something like this for my line? No, absolutely not. Not at all. But wherever I went, people. you. I just went, that's unique, that's different, right? And then I kind of went to some jewellery stores and I said, you know, do you have Toi et Moi wire rings? They said, yes. You know, all of a sudden, everybody wants a Toi et Moi wire ring. I thought, well, I wonder whether we started a, you know, a thing there. But we didn't. Napoleon started it with Josephine. So it goes way back. But I think the sentiment behind it as well was, That the idea that you connect with someone and you've had a life, you bring what you call it baggage or experience or, yeah, I mean, the spirit of your journey in life. I mean, nothing stops in life. You know, you get born and it just is a continual cycle, you know, and it's never too late. And I hope that. You know, that I can maybe inspire people to realize that you don't have to give up. You don't have to give up on finding a partner or finding love or finding a friend or someone that you can share. Whatever that stage of life is that you're going through, whether it's you've just had a new baby and you feel alone and how do I do it all? And now suddenly you have this community of amazing young women, you know, that you can go, you too, oh my God, you know. And whatever it is, you get to bond with other people going through the same thing. Or whether it's, you know, a teenager going through what happens in middle and high school where people can be bullied, you know, it's a huge deal. Thank And when you have a real friend, you have someone that you can connect with and be really honest with and trust your feelings with. I think that's really what I was hoping for you was that this would represent that. Yeah. And you know, you are the queen of jewelry. so So what can you share about the ring? Is there much. anything you can share about it from a details perspective? Oh, yes. Well, these are lab grown diamonds. So that is the best diamond you can possibly have. Plus no blood, no blood diamond. Which is very important to me. But it turns out that people have suddenly realized that a lab-grown diamond is so perfect that it doesn't matter how much money you spend on a mined diamond, if you've got the most expensive one on the planet, this is going to sparkle as much, if not more. So I love that. What about the engagement ring? Oh, my engagement ring, yes. Well, this is actually Victorian. It's a Victorian version, I was told, by my jeweler. And it has a diamond in the middle and it has a lot of smaller diamonds around it. So it's like a flower. And then it has single diamonds going up the barrel on both sides, which represents his life before me and my life before him.