When Jennifer Aniston stepped onto the red carpet at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles for last Saturday’s Screen Actors Guild awards, it soon became clear that there was something different about her. It wasn’t her newly chopped long bob (courtesy of longtime hairdresser Chris McMillan), nor the fact she’d eschewed her faithful, strapless Little Black Dress look, a Jen An stalwart for decades, in favour of a silver, sequinned Celine gown with a thigh high split. Although neither of those things went unnoticed (of course when Jennifer Aniston makes a style switch up, it matters), what really made headline news was the fact that the 55-year-old actress was wearing a ring on the fourth finger of her left hand. ‘Jennifer Aniston sparks engagement rumours after wearing HUGE diamond ring,’ said one newspaper, while another calmly asked, ‘Is Jennifer Aniston ENGAGED?!’

And, if you were to go solely by the ring on Aniston’s finger, you may be inclined to agree, although Aniston herself has remained, up until the time of going to press at least, schtum on the significance of any ring – and she hasn’t been publicly linked with anyone for some time. Though she’s not prone to making statements about developments in her love life, nor does she share such details on social media, sources close to the star say that even for someone so private as Aniston, it would be hard to have a serious relationship without it being leaked in some way, especially with the development of Deux Moi, the gossip platform which farms out celebrity sightings from followers – though not unheard of.

So, what’s with the ring? A little bit of informed digging brings up the fact this isn’t actually the first time the Friends star has made such a statement, choosing to previously wear a giant diamond on her ring finger for the 2020 Golden Globe awards. At the time, Aniston had been single for three years since announcing her divorce from actor Justin Theroux, and wore a jewel on the ring finger of each hand.

This time, Aniston wore a large, round stone on a gold band, not dissimilar, in fact, to the $500,000 ring given to her by Theroux when they got engaged in August 2012. Viewers of the awards – where Aniston was nominated for her role in The Morning Show, which has been confirmed for a fourth season after a critically well received third – were given a good look at the ring as she took to the stage to present Barbra Streisand with a lifetime achievement award telling the audience, ‘Barbra did not just pave the way for us women; she bulldozed a clearing for us’.

To make such a pointed statement with her style is a very Jennifer Aniston move, according to those in the know. She has, they say, always liked to ‘have a little fun’, adding, ‘there’s every chance she just thought to herself “why shouldn’t I be able to wear a ring which fits on this finger of my hand if I like it?”’ And she’s right, after all, there are no rules – just traditions and expectations. And if anyone has been put under the pressure of such traditions and expectations when it comes to her love life over the years, it’s Jennifer Aniston – why shouldn’t she, then, play with the conventions and break the mould?

She has already pushed the boundaries when it comes to being a single, female celebrity in her fifties, when it comes to being open about being child-free in a world which puts such an onus on the subject. ‘[I don’t] like [the pressure] that people put on me, on women — that you’ve failed yourself as a female because you haven’t procreated. I don’t think it’s fair,’ she said in a Dec. 2014 interview with Allure.

Aniston once said, ‘Once you figure out who you are and what you love about yourself, I think it all kind of falls into place.”And having been married twice before, to both Theroux and Brad Pitt, the fact that Aniston recently declared that she simply has ‘no interest’ in another traditional marriage is somewhat revolutionary in a society which puts so much value in settling down. She has previously spoken positively about her experience of marriage, saying in a 2018 interview: ‘My marriages, they’ve been very successful, in [my] personal opinion. And when they came to an end, it was a choice that was made because we chose to be happy, and sometimes happiness didn’t exist within that arrangement anymore. Sure, there were bumps, and not every moment felt fantastic, obviously, but at the end of it, this is our one life and I would not stay in a situation out of fear.’

For now, sources say that Aniston is focused on a calm and happy life. ‘Jen is at a point in her professional life which feels like nothing she’s ever done before,’ said one source. ‘The stratospheric success of The Morning Show has been a new chapter in her work which has been gratifying and inspiring. There’s always room in life for dating and love, and that’s something Jen is never shut off from. But to be able to feel such a peace and balance at this point in her life feels special.’

Aniston hasn’t been linked with anyone officially since she split from Theroux in 2018, and that’s intentional says a source who says, ‘For Jen dating is still something she enjoys but very public dating is not. It’s something she has dealt with very publicly before, but that’s not a priority for her right now.’

Single, not single, engaged, not engaged, ring, no ring, Jennifer Aniston is doing things her way – exactly as she should. ‘It just feels like that [this] period right now is feeling really great about every single thing,’ she said last year. ‘I’m very grateful.’