Report: Heather Locklear's Engagement 'Off' After She's Seen Without Her Ring

1:00 pm, January 10, 2021

Heather Locklear smiling in a red dress and black jacket against a white background — (Ga Fullner/Shutterstock.com)

Melrose Place star Heather Locklear announced her engagement to high school sweetheart Chris Heisser in June 2020. One tabloid reports that the engagement has been called off after Locklear was spotted without her engagement ring on. Gossip Cop investigates.

‘The Ring Is Off’

According to New Idea, Locklear and Heisser’s engagement is off after Locklear’s “ring finger was bare during a recent outing in California.” The outing has “[prompted] speculation that [Locklear] has called off the wedding.” The tabloid also notes that Heisser “hasn’t appeared on Heather’s Instagram page since they celebrated his birthday in September.”

A source told the tabloid this “relationship with Chris was very toxic for a long time, so she’s putting it on the back burner for now.” With the wedding called off, “she finally feels at peace and is super happy.” The article closes by saying this “romantic turmoil hasn’t set her” sobriety back.

Heather Locklear’s Wedding Is Still On

Tabloids make a very big deal about wedding rings and expect them to be on 100 percent of the time. This whole story is adapted from an article in the Daily Mail about Locklear being spotted for the first time in six months. That article even said Locklear was still engaged, a sentiment New Idea either didn’t read or deliberately chose to ignore.

Just to be sure, Gossip Cop checked in with Locklear’s spokesperson about the engagement. We were directly told that “she is still happily engaged.” This story about a ringless Locklear is completely bogus.

What’s With The Ring Fixation?

More than most other tabloids, New Idea is always on the lookout for ring fingers. It’s strange that Gossip Cop has to say this but sometimes people wear rings that aren’t wedding rings, and sometimes people take wedding rings off. Rings are a convenient thing for tabloids to look out for, but they’re not 100 percent accurate in predicting how a relationship is going.

Last month, we busted an extremely similar story when Bindi Irwin was spotted without her wedding ring on. Irwin is very active on Instagram, unlike Locklear, and posts gushing photos about her husband all the time. That same month, this tabloid reported that Ben Affleck and Ana De Armas were engaged after spotting the Knives Out star wearing a ring. De armas has had that ring for years, so the story was bogus.

We also busted a story about Jennifer Aniston wearing an engagement ring from Brad Pitt when she was really just wearing a prop for a movie. This is just a tabloid trope using soft evidence that shouldn’t be taken seriously. Heather Locklear and Heisser are still engaged regardless of if she has the ring on or not.