Karen: Imagine your husband bought a gold necklace and, come Christmas, gave it to somebody else.
Harry: Oh, Karen...
Karen: Would you wait around to find out if it's just a necklace or if it's sex and a necklace or if, worst of all, it's a necklace and love? Would you stay? Knowing life would always be a little bit worse? Or would you cut and run?
Jewelry has long been associated with romance. The most obvious example of this is the wedding ring or Enormous Engagement Ring.
So it makes sense that this is a gift often shared with The Mistress. Although it's not always male gifter, female wearer, it usually is. Sometimes The Mistress will wear the jewelry simply to signal of the affair, or jewelry will be discovered by an Emasculated Cuckold to implicate one or both parties in the affair. As a result, it may double as a Mineral MacGuffin of sorts, though it doesn't always have deeper plot significance beyond signaling the affair. Compare Perilous Marriage Proposal, where the appearance of an engagement ring usually means bad things are coming.
This trope may also be a variant of Affair Hair, where the jewelry is left behind by the cheating partner, only to be discovered by the other party's spouse or loved one. It may often function as an Iconic Item in-universe.
A Sister Trope to Affair Letters and Lipstick Mark, which are all other ways that an affair can be revealed (whether to the audience or to the characters) through physical signs.
Examples:
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Art
- Albertine in the Police Doctor's Waiting Room: An urban legend about the work states that, because artist Christian Krohg hired real sex workers to model for the prostitutes in the painting (being part of the Realism art movement, it was important to him that his painting reflected reality), several high society ladies were scandalized to see their jewelry in the painting, having been gifted by their husbands to their sex worker mistresses.
Comedy
- In one of his standups
, Dara Ó Briain shared a story about one time when he was buying jewelry for his wife during his Christmas shopping at Selfridge. He picked a necklace and called a saleswoman over, upon which he also decided to buy a pair of earrings that went with the necklace. In response, the saleswoman, according to Ó Briain, asked "and are these... for the same lady?"
Fanfiction
- Alea Iacta Est: Dinah's mother was already upset by how many extra hours her husband was putting in at work — and then, in the laundry, she found a jewelry receipt. And didn't receive any jewelry from him. Her chosen response was to try to win his attention back by taking more care with her own appearance, but since he didn't know that, he in turn started to become suspicious of whom she was dressing up for... Dinah makes them talk to each other, revealing that it's a case of poor communication; the necklace was in fact an Apology Gift for her due to missing their anniversary but because they were regularly arguing, he didn't think that it was the right time for it, not wanting to give the impression he was trying to bribe her.
- Captivating Liberty: Verosika accuses Blitzø of cheating on her when she finds a pair of unusual earrings. She backs off when he explains the earrings are a gift for her.
Films — Live-Action
- The Inciting Incident of The Affair of the Necklace is that Louis XV had had a very elaborate and expensive necklace for his mistress Madame du Barry but died before he could give it to her. Marie-Antoinette, knowing the provenance of the necklace, refused to buy it on the grounds that it was a symbol of the affair. This decision sparks a lot of scheming from Jeanne to acquire the necklace and use it as a ploy in a plot against Marie Antoinette.
- The Assistant: Jane finds an earring in the Producer's office on the floor by his couch. She mentions this to Wilcok as one of the few pieces of evidence she has about the Producer's sexual assault and Sexual Extortion but he chastises her for cleaning things up off the floor. It isn't clear if this refers to the Producer's ostensibly "consensual" affairs or the many sexual assaults and rapes he's committed.
- Played with in Atonement with elements of Affair Hair. Briony tracks Cecilia and Robbie down having sex in the library because she finds one of Cecilia's jewel hair pieces (which is in the shape of a star) on the floor outside.
- Il commissario Lo Gatto: Dr. Pedretti, the closest person Wilma Cerulli has to a "boyfriend", even if it's mostly on the doctor's part, finds out that she's cheating on him because he finds a ring he himself gifted to her on another man.
- Love Actually: Karen figures out that her husband Harry is cheating on her with his Sexy Secretary Mia because she finds a necklace while snooping for Christmas gifts. When Harry gives her his actual gift — a Joni Mitchell CD — she puts together what it means and bursts into tears.
- The Punisher (2004): Exploited by Frank Castle upon crime boss Howard Saint. Howard gave a pair of diamond earrings to his wife. Frank steals them and plants one in the bed of Quentin, Howard's (closeted) cohort. This leads Howard to think Quentin and Livia are having an affair behind his back, for which Howard kills them both. During the climax, Frank throws the other earring where the beaten Howard can see it on top of photos revealing Quentin's affair with another man, revealing that Frank played Howard for a sucker, tricking him into killing the two closest people in his life.
- sex, lies, and videotape: Ann's husband John is having an affair with her sister Cynthia. Ann discovers the affair when she finds one of Cynthia's earrings (which Cynthia mentioned earlier having lost) while vacuuming.
- Sister Act: Played with. In the beginning of the film, Deloris receives a fur coat as a gift from her boyfriend but realizes that it was actually his wife's when he sees her initials monogrammed on it. Her attempt to return it results in her witnessing him commit murder and having to go into Witness Protection, leading to the events of the rest of the film.
- Played with by Vertigo. Scottie begins an affair with the married and mentally unwell Madeline who wears Carlotta's ruby pendant. After Madeline's death, he meets Madeline's sweet and lower-class doppelgänger, Judy. They seem to be having a fulfilling relationship that also satisfies Scottie's desire for Madeline. And then, after all of that, Scottie closes Judy's necklace and realizes that it's Madeline/Carlotta's ruby pendant. The realization drives Scottie to madness as he realizes that he was Loving a Shadow and that Madeline and Judy were the same person all along. It's both a technical subversion of this trope (since Madeline and Judy are one person) and nevertheless indicates a major betrayal in both of Scottie's relationships.
Folklore
- Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, tale type 891, "The Man Who Deserts his Wife": A prince has a row with his wife and orders her to produce a child whose parents are him and her, then locks her in a dungeon. Fortunately, the girl is resourceful enough to find a way out of her cell and goes to fulfill her husband's task: three times, she disguises herself as courtesans and seductresses, makes love to her husband without him knowing, and gains a token to mark the sexual congress (some type of jewellery), then returns to her cell each time. The prince returns to gloat to his wife about his "affairs", which she takes in stride. At the end of the tale, she introduces the prince to their children, each holding one of the tokens given to the prince's "mistresses".
Literature
- The Accursed Kings:
- Marguerite and Blanche are discovered to be cheating on their royal husbands when their sister-in-law Isabelle sends them decorated purses containing small jewels. The adulterous princesses give these to their lovers, but when Isabelle expresses (feigned) surprise to see them not on the women but their lovers, everything is revealed.
- In a more direct way, Isabelle of France has nothing left of her original jewelry, as her husband Edward III keeps giving it to his Royal Favorite / boytoy Hugh Despenser right in front of her or even orders her to give them to Hugh.
- Daja's Book: Frostpine, who has a history of romantic adventures in his younger days, mentions that he was once involved with a tribal queen who gifted him some gold jewelry, which he subsequently had to return in a hurry when he found out that she had a husband who would cause trouble if he noticed the jewelry was missing.
- Kushiel's Legacy: After hiring Phèdre for a night of sex and sadism, Melisande gifts her with an expensive jeweled collar. After she's sold into Skaldic slavery, her erstwhile master Gunter takes the necklace and wears it around the steading to signal to everyone else that he's bedded her... which infuriates Hedwig, the woman he hopes to marry in order to secure his place in their tribe. After he gifts Phèdre and Joscelin to Waldemar Selig, he returns the collar to her, presumably in part to appease Hedwig.
- In Lethal White (and in the Strike (2017) adaptation), Robin learns that her husband Matthew has been having an affair with his ex-girlfriend, Sarah Shadlock, after she shakes Sarah's earring out of their bed. She realizes later that Sarah left it there deliberately out of frustration with Matthew for not leaving Robin earlier.
- Let Me Call You Sweetheart:
- Skip says one of the reasons he believed Suzanne was having an affair is because he kept finding expensive jewelry he hadn't given her; she claimed her father gifted it to her but he didn't believe her. Some of Suzanne's jewelry went missing from the house the night she was killed, though everything Skip gave her was untouched. Suzanne asked her father to lie about giving her the jewelry her lovers gifted her and he upheld this after death, including taking some of the jewelry from the crime scene to conceal her infidelity.
- Grace realised her husband was having an affair with Suzanne when she saw a photograph of Suzanne wearing a distinctive diamond pin of hers, which her husband gave Suzanne among other pieces he thought Grace wouldn't notice were missing. Grace subtly let Jonathan know she was aware of the affair by casually mentioning how much she wanted to wear the pin again.
- Played With in Natsuneko's "Rooftop Miracle": Kyouko and Mirai realize that they have been conned out of their life savings by the same woman when Kyouko notices that Mirai is wearing the same type of ring that the conwoman had given her, as well.
- The State of Affairs: The author tells an anecdote of one patient she saw in her therapy practice who realized her husband was having an affair by way of finding matching earrings.
- The Three Musketeers: Invoked. Queen Anne gives the Duke of Buckingham a diamond necklace she received from her husband King Louis XIII as a gift. Cardinal Richelieu attempts to weaken Queen Anne's influence on the court and takes advantage of this situation by having the king demand the queen to wear said necklace to an upcoming soirée, knowing that her lack of it would make him suspicious of her. Fortunately for the queen and her honor, D'Artagnan and his fellow musketeers manage to retrieve the necklace.
- Lampshaded in the book Unuseless Japanese Inventions, in that the loss of an earring can be inconvenient, or even incriminating, depending on where the earring turns up; and this can be prevented by wearing special receptacles on your shoulders, to collect any earring which might fall out of your ear.
Live-Action TV
- In one episode of Agent Carter, Carter and Jarvis acquire a list of the recent lovers of the unmarried but ridiculously promiscuous Howard Stark by going to his favorite jeweler and getting the list of people he'd commissioned jewelry for at Howard's request.
- In the adaptation of Apples Never Fall, Troy's boss learns about Troy's affair with his wife (though not that it's actually Troy) after he discovers a necklace hidden in her boot.
- Castle: Invoked in "Probable Cause", which sees Castle framed for the murder of the Victim of the Week. The apparent motive is that they were having an affair, and she was threatening to tell Beckett, so he killed her. The frame-up is sold with a stray earring planted in the woman's apartment, which when traced back to the vendor leads to footage of Castle buying the earrings. The celebrity lookalike used to fake the footage leads Castle to the real killer, 3XK.
- Gets a disturbing riff in several episodes of Criminal Minds:
- In "Seven Seconds", Richard is a pedophile who has been molesting his now-missing six-year-old niece, Katie. He gave her an expensive necklace as part of the grooming process, which had been found torn off and thrown in the trash at the time of Katie's kidnapping. This allows the BAU to find the real kidnapper: Richard's wife Susan, who tore the necklace off in anger and jealousy at how she saw Richard's molestation of Katie as destroying their marriage.
- "The Tall Man" has a variation: JJ discovers that her sister, Roslyn, was groomed and taken advantage of by her guidance counselor because his MO is to give a heart necklace to each girl he's targeting (which became JJ's Tragic Keepsake after Roslyn's suicide).
- The Crown: Though it's never explicitly confirmed that he is having (or did have) an affair, Elizabeth becomes suspicious of Philip after she discovers a locket, containing a picture of Galina, in his travel suitcase.
- CSI: NY:
- In "Dead Reckoning", a wife discovers her husband is having an affair when he arrives home on his birthday and goes to take a shower while she's setting the table with his favorite meal. Seeing a bulge in the pocket of the jacket he draped over a chair, she snoops and finds a jewelry box. Thinking it odd that he got her a gift on his day, she opens it and is shocked to find a man's ring and a note; it's his birthday gift from another woman. Turns out to be more than an affair; he actually married her, too.
- A variation in "Crushed": At the request of a high school Alpha Bitch, her boyfriend seduces less popular girls whom she invites into her clique, then gives them identical necklaces. Unbeknownst to the girls, the jewelry is a "scarlet letter"-type Mark of Shame, signaling to the popular crowd that they'd all lost their virginity to the guy.
- Death in Paradise: In "Murder from Above", there's a head maid, Audrey, who's one of Dwayne's many former flings. She now hates him and Dwayne honestly has no idea why. In the end, JP finally just asks her, and it turns out that whilst he was dating her, Dwayne was also unwittingly dating her sister and aunt, with the three only finding out when he bought them all identical bracelets. Played for Laughs.
Dwayne: Well, Turtle Pete had a good deal going on — buy one, get two free.
- In the third season of Family Law (2021), Harry's legal problems begin when he sheepishly asks his ex-girlfriend Crystal to return a ring that he'd given her. Realizing that he's going to give the ring to his current lover Joanne, an incensed Crystal reports him to the bar association, accusing him of having an affair with her while he was negotiating her divorce and using that affair to manipulate her into accepting a lesser settlement from her ex-husband. While the affair is the only part of her accusations that's actually true, Harry cannot come up with an innocent reason why he would have given her jewelry, and he fears that letting the case go to trial might expose other affairs he's had with clients, and thus he ends up having to accept a suspension.
- Feud: Capote vs. the Swans features a variation: Babe Paley's extensive jewelry collection stems largely from her husband buying her expensive jewels every time he got caught cheating on her.
- Played with on House of Anubis. When Fabian and Patricia come across Nina's locket in Eddie's stuff, they jump to the conclusion that they had a summer affair and, as a result, Nina was too ashamed to return to school. This is not only because the locket appeared to be a gift, but because the locket is Nina's Iconic Item — it's so heavily associated with her that in their mind, being a romantic present was the only explanation. They're wrong, however.
- Law & Order:
- In "Sundown", Marjorie Hallenbeck is revealed to have been having an affair with con artist Raymond Quinn via her jewelry, which was stolen on the day of her murder. The detectives piece together that it actually disappeared before, exonerating Quinn but implicating Marjorie's husband.
- A variant in "Hubris". It's revealed jewelry clerk Gail Churchill was killed because she learned the necklace given to her by her boyfriend, "Mark", was actually registered to missing woman Beth Fazekas. Beth was "Mark's" (his real name is Richard) girlfriend, and he is heavily implied to have killed her. He definitely gave the necklace to Gail and then shot her alongside several other people in the store.
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit gives this a crossover with Creepy Souvenir:
- In "Closure, part 1" Harper realizes Kenneth Cleary is her rapist (as she wasn't able to identify him after six months had passed) because the detectives reveal he had her ring. In "Closure, part 2" this crosses over more overtly with an "affair" since Cleary's wife has a breakdown on the stand after the lawyers confront her with jewelry Kenneth had given to her that he'd stolen from his other victims.
- A rare platonic example in "Soulless." Mitch's once-adoring mother turned against him and realized he was guilty after the detectives realize that Mitch gave her the bracelet he stole from the girl he raped and murdered.
- Luther: In an example that overlaps with Creepy Souvenir, Graham Shand is a Serial Killer of three young women, who he's implied to have raped before killing them. He takes jewelry from their bodies and gives it to his wife Linda. When he tracks her down, Luther recognizes the necklace Linda is wearing as one stolen from the victim, which prompts her to share her suspicions with Luther.
- One episode of M*A*S*H (1972) sees Frank buying two pearl necklaces — a fake one for Margaret at the 4077 and a real one for his wife back home. He accidentally gives Margaret the real peals and scrambles to switch them with the fakes before the post goes out.
- Invoked in Only Murders in the Building, Season 1:
- Theo gave Zoe an emerald ring (that she'd stolen from his apartment) as a signal of his feelings for her. Upon seeing it, Teddy made him get it back as proof of his and Theo's grave-robbing shenanigans.
- Jan killed Tim because she found an engagement ring in his apartment that he didn't give to her, thus triggering her into thinking he was cheating on her. The reason why Tim had that engagement ring was that he was looking for Zoe's emerald ring that she was wearing the night she died, which was given to her by Theo before her sort-of accidental death.
- Sherlock: A variant shows up in "A Study In Pink": Holmes notes by the jewelry the victim is wearing that she was cheating on her husband; specifically, he notes that her wedding ring was polished on the inside and dirty on the outside, indicating that she didn't take care of her ring but frequently removed it.
- Wire in the Blood: In "The Name of Angels", the Serial Killer gives his wife jewelry he's stolen from his victims — women he raped and murdered. The police identify him as the killer due to her possession of the jewelry.
- In C-drama A Womans Choice, a wife learns that her husband is cheating on her because she gets a mysterious text telling her to look in his jacket pocket. She does and finds a receipt for a necklace bought at a jewelry store.
Music
- Taylor Swift's evermore (2020): In "No Body, No Crime", the speaker's friend (Este) figures out her husband is cheating on her due to finding jewelry bought on their account that isn't for her. He murders her after she confronts him.
That ain't my Merlot on his mouth.That ain't my jewelry on our joint account.Oh, there ain't no doubt.I think I'm gonna call him out.
Theatre
- A Chorus Line: Sheila recounts during "At The Ballet", when I was five I remember my mother dug earrings out of the car/I knew that they weren't hers but it wasn't something you'd want to discuss-
- Invoked and played with in The Merchant of Venice. Portia and Jessica give rings to their husbands as symbols of their fidelity. They then disguise themselves as men and succeed in getting the rings back. Then they refuse to have sex with their husbands until they see the rings (which they have taken). In a subtextual romantic twist, Bassanio refuses to give up his ring until Antonio talks him into it — and Antonio is Ambiguously Gay and implied to be in love with Bassanio in a way that most modern productions make explicit.
Video Games
- Yakuza: Like a Dragon: If Ichiban completes the optional romantic encounters with all the available partners, there will be a cutscene where Saeko finds an earring next to Ichiban's futon, leading to a chain of events where all of Ichiban's paramours discover each other then collectively beat him up for two-timing them (despite the fact that most of them are the ones who initiated). And then it's revealed that the earring actually belonged to the Survive Bartender.
Western Animation
- King of the Hill: "Hanky Panky" opens with womanizer Buck Strickland attending Hank's Blue Flame of Valor award ceremony with regular mistress Debbie Grund, who is dressed to the nines with a set of dangling earrings. When his wife, Miss Liz, shows up and catches him in public with Debbie to call him out, she realizes that Debbie is wearing her mother's earrings.
- Played with several times in Miraculous Ladybug:
- In "Lies", Adrien accidentally drops the charm that Marinette gave him way back in the first season while running from his date with Kagami. Kagami finds it and believes that the reason Adrien keeps disappearing is because he's cheating on her with Marinette.
- At the end of "Queen Banana", Ladybug tries to slip Chloe a Magical Charm so that she won't get akumatized again but Chloe refuses to accept anything from her, still bitter about Ladybug taking away the Bee Miraculous from her. Chloe's half-sister Zoe, who is the product of an affair, tricks Chloe into taking the charm by showing it off and claiming that it was a gift from their mother. Chloe, incensed at the idea that her mother showed Zoe any affection, demands that Zoe hand it over.