Ginger Alden was Elvis Presley‘s fiancée at the time of his death. Only two months after they began dating, Elvis gifted Ginger with a massive 11.5-carat engagement ring. The former beauty queen shared details of the life moment, and showed off the jaw-dropping statement piece, in a new social media post honoring the couple’s engagement anniversary.

Ginger Alden and Elvis Presley became engaged in January 1977

Ginger Alden took to Facebook on Jan. 26, 2025, to celebrate her engagement anniversary to Elvis Presley. She shared four photographs and memories of the intimate experience.

She wrote, “Forty-eight years ago today, January 26th, what special memories of Elvis on bended knee, asking me to marry him! In August setting our wedding date, him having waited, wanting to announce our engagement by putting it in our local Memphis paper and share from the stage during his last concert in his hometown.”

Ginger concluded, “We loved you Elvis, and thank you for all you did and wanted to do for me and my family. It will never be forgotten.”

Along with her message, Ginger posted four photos of the massive 11.5-carat engagement ring gifted to her by the king of rock and roll. She presented three photos of herself wearing it and another of the diamond sparkler in its original box.

Intimate details of Elvis and Ginger’s engagement

On Jan. 26, 1977, in the lounge area outside of his bathroom, Elvis Presley proposed to Ginger Alden, his girlfriend of two months, with a massive engagement ring. He was 41 and she was 20.

In her book Elvis & Ginger, she recalled when Elvis asked her to marry him. He said, “Ginger, I’ve been searching for love so long, and never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would find it in my own backyard. I’ve been sixty percent happy and forty percent happy, but never a hundred percent. I’ve loved before but I’ve never been in love. Ginger, I’m asking you: Will you marry me?”

The massive center stone for Ginger’s engagement ring was taken from the center diamond of Elvis’ TCB ring and placed in a setting for Ginger. Lowell Hays, Elvis’ favorite jeweler, designed it.

Reportedly, Elvis called Hays in the middle of the night to make Ginger’s engagement ring. However, Elvis wanted a size diamond that Hays didn’t have.

As a result, the King of Rock and Roll told the jeweler to use the diamond in his ring for Ginger. A faux diamond was set into Elvis’s ring, which remains today.

In August, Elvis told Ginger, “I’d like to announce our engagement to the audience at the end of the tour in Memphis. We’ll put it in the local paper too, under the regular engagement section, nothin’ fancy.”

Ginger Alden found Elvis Presley dead in August 1977

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Ginger Alden shared her story of finding Elvis Presley dead in his Graceland bathroom on Aug. 16, 1977. In addition, Ginger shared her first-person account in her memoir, Elvis & Ginger.

“His arms lay on the ground, close to his sides, palms facing upward. It was clear from the moment he landed on the floor, Elvis hadn’t moved,” Ginger explained.

“I gently turned his face toward me. A hint of air expelled from his nose. The tip of his tongue was clenched between his teeth and his face was blotchy. I gently raised one eyelid. His eye was staring straight ahead and blood red.”

Following Elvis’s death, Ginger pursued acting and modeling and wrote a memoir. She married Ronald Leyser in 1991 and they had a son, Hunter. Ronald died on Aug. 16, 2015, on the 38th anniversary of Elvis’s death.

Ginger Alden regularly makes public appearances to talk about her life with Elvis Presley. She returned to Graceland for Elvis Week 2024 after reportedly being banned by the family.