Pam Bondi’s Engagement Ring Is Massive Enough to Steal Any Spotlight

When Donald Trump tapped Pam Bondi to become the 87th U.S. Attorney General, essentially the nation’s top law enforcement official, pending Senate confirmation, reactions were mixed. Many were excited, but others were deeply concerned. Amid fears that Pam might target Trump critics for their lack of loyalty, she reassured the public, "There will never be an enemies list within the Department of Justice."

As discussions continued to unfold about her nomination, they grew increasingly louder about her engagement ring. The ring is undeniably an attention-grabber, and folks are eager to know: Who gave it to her, and more importantly, what does he do for a living?! Here’s the scoop.

Pam’s been pretty quiet about her personal and romantic life, but with an engagement ring like that, it’s hard to keep things under wraps. First and foremost, it seems Pam may be engaged to John Wakefield, a founding principal of a private equity firm, based on the size, style, and location of the ring.

While we don’t know exactly how many carats or the value of Pam's sparkler, its size — comparable to Zendaya's $200,000 5-carat engagement ring shown off in January 2025 — gives us an idea of just how much it might be worth.

Pam and John have been together at least since 2017 when she first featured him on Instagram at a Bruno Mars concert. According to John’s Instagram bio, he's a father to three "monster" children who are "roaming the world."

For the past 10 years, Pam’s presumed fiancé, John, has served as a founding principal for Varner Wakefield Equity Partners, based in Tampa, Fla. The firm specializes in value-add real estate investments and also has offices in Charleston, S.C. John co-founded VW Equity in January 2015, but prior to that, he was Vice President of Corporate Business Development and Strategy at Lyke Bros. Inc. from August 2007 to December 2014, according to his LinkedIn bio.

Prior to that, he worked as the Commercial Banking Relationship Manager and Wealth Strategist for SunTrust Bank from January 2002 to July 2007. For those unfamiliar, SunTrust merged with BB&T, creating the new bank, Truist Financial. So, those Truist banks you see today were likely former SunTrust or BB&T branches.

Before his time at SunTrust, John worked at Wachovia Bank from January 1999 to July 2001. He secured these roles after earning his Bachelor of Arts in English from the College of Charleston in 1994 and his Master of Business Administration in International Business from Thunderbird School of Global Management in 1998.

John likely owes the ability to afford that astonishing, sparkly engagement ring perched high on Pam’s finger to his role at the firm, but he’s got a few other notable accomplishments under his belt, too. One of them is the Tampa Oyster Fest, which he founded in December 2019 and still operates today.

All the funds raised from the event benefit Frameworks of Tampa Bay, an organization dedicated to equipping children in the community with the skills needed to become "capable citizens."

Clearly, John is doing something right, professionally speaking, considering he was able to afford that engagement ring.