Socialite keeps expensive diamond engagement ring after ditching suitor

UK socialite Amanda Cronin rejected the marriage proposal. Photo / Instagram

A London-based model and socialite has revealed that she accepted a $488,000 engagement ring, despite turning down the man's proposal.

Amanda Cronin, founder of Forever Young, received the ring, valued at nearly half a million dollars, by a suitor who first proposed to her in a hotel in New York.

The Instagram model said the man is "one of the most powerful men in Northern Europe".

"I noticed a very good-looking older man making eye contact. He gave me his number and first name," she told the Daily Mail.

She said she texted him the next day and her phone "blew up with pages of love texts".

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Pure White ..nothing added nothing lost ...Happy Friday from me ! Make it count ! ❤️ .#winterwhite #white #whiteboots #luxe #style #fashionista #lovefashion

A post shared by Amanda Caroline Cronin (@amandacarolinecronin) on Dec 20, 2019 at 12:03pm PST

It didn't take long for her to discover who the man was - and the fact that he had a wife.

"I said I can't possibly meet him. He said he was prepared to dissolve his marriage immediately and then he proposed," she said.

"Eventually, we met up in London and he proposed again, this time with a 10-carat ring. But it was getting all too weird.

"I offered him the ring back but he said it would make him happy if I kept it."

Cronin is now dating a Canadian man but doesn't want to reveal his identity.