At this point we’ve all heard that Kelly Clarkson got really mad this week when (she says) she was denied the chance to buy a $15,000 wooden bird automaton. But this isn’t actually the first time Kelly Clarkson made headlines for being really, really mad that she wasn’t allowed to buy something.
In 2012, Kelly Clarkson outbid the Jane Austen House Museum at auction, paying £150,000 to buy the only existing ring ever to belong to Jane Austen. There are less than 50 existing Jane Austen-owned artifacts total, only three pieces of jewellery, and only ONE ring. The museum wanted the ring so they could preserve it as part of Jane Austen’s legacy and share it with Jane Austen fans for generations to come. Kelly Clarkson wanted it so she could wear it. As her engagement ring. There was a public outcry at the time, but Kelly wouldn’t budge.
NOBODY TELLS KELLY CLARKSON SHE CAN’T BUY A THING.
This is Just The Gist (MINI) of the time Kelly Clarkson was not allowed to buy Jane Austen’s ring: the 2012 Sotheby’s bidding war against Jane Austen’s House Museum, the export ban that declared the ring a national treasure, the scramble to raise enough money to match Kelly’s bid, Kelly’s very salty comments after she was forced to hand the ring back, and one LEGENDARY TikTok video that refused to tell the ‘diplomatic’ version of the story (hat tip to you @VainAusten).
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Cat (@bittergirlsclub) on Britain, museums and the Jane Austen ring (TikTok, 2026)
Kelly Clarkson: 'I've had to cry in record label offices to get my singles released' (The Guardian, 2015)
Clarkson: Austen Ring Is 'where It Needs to Be' (Associated Press on YouTube, 2015)
Kelly Clarkson: How I snubbed Simon Cowell and became a Grammy-winning superstar (The Independent, 2015)
Kelly Clarkson: My Jane Austen Ring (TIME, 2013)
Kelly Clarkson gives up Jane Austen's ring (The Guardian, 2013)
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