Wedding Ring Removal

Lorelai: It's not over until he's out of the house with the ring off.
Rory: He took the ring off!
Lorelai: [horrified] Oh my god.

— Gilmore Girls

A character is about to do something of serious import (Shoot the Dog, fall Off the Wagon etc.). Just before they do so, they take off their wedding ring.

Maybe they don't want to give away the fact that they're married (particularly to a person they intend to commit infidelity with), which would make this the opposite of the Wedding Ring Defense. Or the wedding ring is an unwelcome reminder of their ties to their spouse. Perhaps their spouse is their Morality Chain, and they need to unbind themselves from them in order to carry out some morally questionable act. Or perhaps the character is a widow(er), and their taking off their wedding ring is a sign that they've moved on from their dead spouse (or are at least trying to move on). Yet another variation is the character not wanting a villain to realize they are married and track down their loved one. Sometimes the activity about to be carried out is just messy, and they don't want to get their ring dirty...but the act of removing the ring draws stares or commentary from other characters, or someone sees the now naked ring finger and assumes the character who took his/her ring off is back in the dating pool.

Note that the character need not necessarily still be married for this trope to be used: they could be a widow(er), or even separated or divorced. On rare occasion, it can be a symbol of mourning, if the widowing had just happened. Sometimes the character is only engaged, and removes their engagement ring.

Closely related to Lost Wedding Ring. Compatriots Insignia Rip-Off Ritual, when someone removes a (usually police or military) rank insignia to symbolize their resignation or that they are about to act against the organization's principles. Compare and contrast the Wedding Ring Defense, where a character wears a wedding or engagement ring to fool others into thinking they're unavailable... and can take the ring off anytime. Meanwhile, Returning the Wedding Ring signifies the end of a relationship. A Serial Adulterer might have a habit of doing this.

In Real Life, this act rarely carries the gravity that it does in fiction, and there are plenty of legitimate reasons for removing one's wedding ring, such as when washing dishes, carrying out electrical repairs or operating dangerous machinery. If there is some trivial reason such as these for a character to remove their ring, it's not an example of this trope.

Examples:

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Anime & Manga

The Daichis - Earth's Defense Family: Seiko Daichi in episode 6 before going to the Water Palace she's invited to, she takes off her wedding ring, puts it in her purse and goes on a date with Hayakawa. Since she hung up the phone around the removal of the wedding ring, Dai and Nozomi thinks that Seiko's on an affair with another man. The discussion regarding Seiko's removal of the wedding ring is brought up again in the alternative episode 11 when Seiko brings this up as the last thing to prove that Mamoru doesn't really care about him. This causes Mamoru to break down upon this revelation.
This was done unintentionally in Even Though We're Adults. Ayano is always forgetting her wedding ring, so she made it into a necklace. Her husband made a matching necklace, but they rarely wear them. They both eventually decided to predominantly use their rings as decorations for their home. Akari has fallen for married women before and knows to check for rings, but she doesn't see one on Ayano so she thinks she's single. It isn't until afterwards that Akari learns Ayano has a husband.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- Stone Ocean: Played for Laughs. During the ride towards the Kennedy Space Center, Anasui puts a ring on Jolyne's finger while she's sleeping to announce his plan to marry her, only for her to quickly toss it towards several alligators as she had no idea there was a ring on her finger beforehand, much to Anasui's comical dismay.
- JoJolion: After completing her fifteen-year prison sentence, Kaato Higashikata tosses her wedding ring aside to the pavement after learning Norisuke immediately divorced and never once visited her during her time in prison.
In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, while Athrun and Cagalli weren't married technically speaking, their decision to temporarily put their relationship on hold to focus on their missions was sealed by Cagalli removing a ring that he had given her.
In Private Actress this is played with, using engagement rings. Tomoomi tells his actress lover/fiancée to remove her ring when she's acting. Later, he almost panics, thinking that she's breaking up with him, thanks to his nephew's statements, until she obliquely reminds him that he "told [her] to" (in front of the nephew, no less, who, not knowing the subject, doesn't know what they're talking about, and is thus fooled by her acting).
In a filler episode of the Rurouni Kenshin anime, a guy who had a fight with his girlfriend threw the engagement ring he wanted to give her into a local river. It was eaten by a carp fish, then Kenshin caught the fish and gave the ring to his girlfriend Kaoru without knowing what this action meant, and Hilarity Ensued. At the end of the episode the ring was given back to the owners, and the were seen chatting happily as the girl wears it.

Comic Books

In 52, Ralph Dibney at one point sacrifices his wedding ring as part of his efforts to bring his beloved wife Sue back from the dead.

Fan Works

An unconventional example used with an engagement ring in We Are the Night. Helena is nearly forced into an engagement ceremony with Damian's Evil Doppelgänger Xu'ffasch, complete with a ring. After being rescued, Helena sees she's still wearing the ring, which she rips off in disgust and crushes underfoot for good measure.
Mariella Smith-Rhodes tests a young candidate for a sponsored place at the Assassins' Guild School by showing him her wedding and engagement rings. She then requests him to take them off her fingers. The boy, who has heard about the sort of rings favoured by Lady T'Malia, is aware this is a test of his skills in observation and reasoning. He takes the rings off her fingers, wondering if a woman's wedding ring should come off so easily, notes her husband is present, and wonders if this is a coded message to him - do not assume these rings will remain on my fingers. I can take them off at any time.
Discussed in Public Favor (MHA). One key piece of evidence is the fact that Endeavor's wedding ring went missing, but none of his valuable hero equipment was taken, so the prosecution asserts that Shouto, who disapproved of his parents getting back together, took the ring after killing him. Fujimori, however, argues that Enji has been known to remove his wedding ring from time to time when on patrols, and likely was not wearing it at the time of the murder. Shouto discreetly buries the ring after being acquitted. It is implied that Rei, who actually killed Endeavor in self-defense, took the ring and gave it for Shouto when he went through with his plan of Taking the Heat for her.
The Sun Will Come Up, and the Seasons Will Change: After telling Dana he plans to divorce her, Todd takes off his wedding ring and places it on the counter.

Films — Live-Action

The Abyss: Bud throws his titanium wedding ring down a toilet in a fit of pique when he learns his estranged wife is visiting the underwater station he is running. Thankfully he has second thoughts and fishes it out. It eventually saves his finger (and life) when a bulkhead closes on it later.
Adrift (2018): At the very end, Tami takes off the engagement ring Richard made for her.
Les Barbouzes: At the start of the movie Francis explains to his wife that he's been ordered to seduce a widow, she helps him remove his wedding ring so he'll look the part.
The Big Cube: When Lisa realizes that Johnny is a Gold Digger who never loved her, she angrily flings her wedding ring to the floor.
Coming Home: Bob has just found out that his wife cheated on him while he was off fighting in Vietnam. He takes off all his clothes, then takes off his wedding ring, then goes walking off the beach into the sea. The wedding ring is likely to let the audience know that he is committing Suicide by Sea instead of, say, just taking a swim.
Cries and Whispers: After a particularly chilly dinner with her husband, Karin describes her marriage as "a web of lies" and removes her wedding ring. Then she mutilates her vagina with a shard of glass.
Damsel: After realising her new husband tricked her into marriage to sacrifice her to a dragon (and that his family has been doing the same thing to dozens of girls over the centuries), Elodie drops her wedding ring into a chasm before resolving to find a way to escape the dragon's lair.
Donnie Brasco: Near the end of the film as he's leaving his apartment, the mobster Lefty removes his wedding ring... and also his watch and other jewellery, which he puts on a table by the door. He's expecting to be killed by his friends, and is making sure that his wife will get to keep his valuables.
The Doorway to Hell: Doris and Mileaway are riding in the back of a taxi. Doris, who is putting out all sorts of mating signals, says "Where do you want to go?" Mileway says "I could think of a thousand places to go if you weren't married to Louie." (Louie being a gangster, Mileway's boss, and head of the Chicago mob.) Doris then makes a great show of removing her wedding ring, then says "Now where do you want to go?" They go off to a safe house to have sex.
Good Night, and Good Luck.: Two of the characters are married to each other, but remove their wedding rings every morning before work, because the TV station where they work doesn't allow married couples.
A character in the Alien Invasion movie Grey Skies removes her wedding ring after her husband is taken over by the aliens. He puts it back on her finger after she's taken over.
It: Chapter Two: After she escapes from her abusive husband to return to Derry, Beverly takes off her wedding ring and puts it on the railing.
Limite: A man waiting in a cemetery takes off his wedding ring. It turns out he is laying in wait for another man, who is coming to visit the grave of his own wife, and is having an affair with the first man's wife. After the other man arrives at the grave, the first man confronts him.
Marathon: A middle-aged man going through a Hollywood Mid-Life Crisis is considering starting an affair with an aerobics instructor. At the start of the class, he takes his wedding ring off and puts it with his other personal items in the corner of the room. Then it rolls out to the middle of the room, very loudly so that everyone can hear. He makes his buddy go and collect it, claiming it to be his.
Played with in Natural Born Killers: Mallory takes off her wedding ring to wash the dishes, but Mickey is horrified by this and insists that she must never take it off.
O Brother, Where Art Thou?: Funny Background Event, as the guys encounter the singing sirens, Everett pulls his wedding ring off right before the girls come over and start getting cozy with them.
Phone Booth: Stu takes off his wedding ring just before calling the woman he intends to have an affair with. After going through a lengthy Trauma Conga Line, he puts it back on near the end of the film.
The Prestige: During the The Reveal that Borden's having an affair with Olivia, there's a scene where he kisses her while rolling his wedding ring across his knuckles with his free hand. Then again, Borden is secretly a pair of identical twins and only one of them, Alfred, is in love with his wife, Sarah, unlike the other twin Frederick.
The Raffle: Newly-widowed Francesca finds out that her husband had a mistress, and in fact was driving back home from her house at the time of his fatal accident. She pulls her wedding ring off in a fit of rage and flushes it down the toilet.
The Rock: Hummel takes off his wedding ring before going to visit his wife's grave, apologizing in advance for the terrorist act he is about to carry out.
The Scar of Shame: Louise does this when deciding to leave Alvin, after he confesses that he never told his mother about their marriage.
Played with in Sherlock Holmes (2009). Holmes does a Sherlock Scan on Watson's fiancée Mary and observes that she has a lighter spot on her ring finger, leading him to the assumption that she was engaged before but left her fiancee for not having enough Gold Digger potential. Mary is outraged and splashes her wine on Holmes. Then she reveals that the cause for the removed engagement ring was that her former fiancée died.
Suffragette: Maud takes off her wedding ring after her husband threw her out of the shared flat and gave their son up for adoption without her consent. Shortly after, she writes a letter, refusing the offer to become a spy and betray her fellow suffragists in order to get her old life back. It symbolizes her commitment to the cause of voting rights for women.
Till Death ends with Emma removing her wedding ring as she lies on a frozen pond, symbolizing her freedom from her abusive husband, Mark.
True Lies:
- Inverted just after the Action Prologue. Upon returning home after the mission to Switzerland, Gib has to remind Harry to put his wedding ring back on after he'd removed it for his cover ID.
- Later, when Helen is playing a High-Class Call Girl and modifying her outfit into a Little Black Dress with Boyish Short Hair, she struggles to remove her wedding band so she can put it on a different finger as generic jewellery. After they escape from the Crimson Jihad, Harry chides her that "This is the wrong finger," and puts it back on her. Cue The Big Damn Kiss.
Unbreakable: David removes his wedding ring before flirting with a girl on a train. After a while, she ends the conversation by telling him she's married.

Literature

At the start of The Crosses-Boy's Counselor, when he attends a speed-dating session at his local bar, Dover notes that a few of the men who are present have pointedly taken off and hidden their wedding rings.
The Drop: George Irving takes off his wedding ring before flinging himself off the top floor of the Chateau Marmont.
Gravity's Rainbow: A despairing Franz Pökler emerges into the ruins of the Dora work camp and happens upon a dying Jewish woman. He removes his wedding band, places it upon her finger, and wanders out into the wastelands of the Zone.
In Lethal White from the Cormoran Strike Novels, Robin Ellacott takes off her wedding ring when going undercover as Venetia Hall in the House of Commons. Her relationship with her husband Matthew is rocky at best and when she forgets to wear the wedding ring on their trip for their first anniversary dinner, he is quick to notice and chastise her for not even bothering to remember to wear it for that.

Live-Action TV

1000 Ways to Die: "Pimp My Death": A man sees a woman (secretly a hooker) flirt with him at a bar, and covertly hides his wedding ring from her.
Arrow: In the Season 7 flashforwards, Felicity no longer wears her wedding ring. It's later revealed that she did it because she is mourning for Oliver, who died during the Crisis. When the Monitor offers to take her to the afterlife and reunite with him, she is shown putting the ring back on.
Battlestar Galactica (2003): In the finale, William Adama removes his wedding ring and places it on Laura Roslin's finger when she dies.
Castle:
- Happily Married Ryan takes off his wedding ring in one episode as an experiment. Basically, he's jealous that all the women they're interviewing in a case are flirting with Esposito and ignoring him, and Esposito told him the wedding ring was the reason. So Ryan convinces Esposito to wear his ring, but the next woman still flirts with Esposito (despite him drawing attention to the ring and claiming to be married) and ignores Ryan. Esposito then explains that Ryan is so devoted to his wife that, even though other women don't know that he's married, they can still sense his Seduction-Proof Marriage. Ryan, now confident that he isn't undesirable, requests his ring back.
- Ryan also takes it off in a later episode when he goes undercover, since his false identity isn't married (and is sort of in a relationship with a witness). His wife is aware of it this time; her only concern is the danger of the assignment.
CSI: NY: In the season 1 finale, "What You See Is What You See," Mac takes his wedding ring off finally. He had been unable to bring himself to remove it before then, as he was still struggling with the loss of his wife on 9/11 (almost 4 years earlier). He continues to struggle for a while, but taking off the ring is symbolic of him being ready to start dating again.
Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor wore a ring at all times, mostly to disguise the actor's own wedding ring. After Twelve has regenerated, there's a shot of the ring sliding off the Thirteenth Doctor's (smaller) finger and falling to the floor.
Frasier: After catching Maris having an affair with their marriage counselor Niles finally accepts the relationship is over. He takes off his wedding ring and decides to get closure by throwing it off Frasier's balcony while declaring that Maris can't hurt him anymore. He turns to go back inside...only for Martin to point out the ring landed on his car and dented the bodywork.
Friends: Chandler lies to his boss, Doug, and claims he and Monica split up to cover for the fact that she hates Doug and doesn't want to be around him. Doug takes Chandler out drinking to "console" him and notices that Chandler still has his wedding ring on. He tries to convince Chandler to take it off, but since Chandler is still Happily Married he makes excuses not to.
Doug: No, it's a wedding ring. You gotta get rid of it. We're gonna go to the East River right now and throw it in there!
Chandler: Oh no-no-no!
Doug: Oh yeah-yeah-yeah, y'know I did it and I felt a hell of a lot better and if you whip it just right you might hit a seagull in the head.
The Gold: In episode 1.3 Cooper's marriage blows up. Having decided to get divorced, he takes off his wedding ring and buries it in the mud, along the very riverfront land he has bought with hopes of building a housing development.
How I Met Your Mother: Played for Laughs in an early episode, in which Lily removes her engagement ring after she finds herself missing the attention of random men hitting on her. Later, when Robin gets engaged, she has the same realization. Only, in her case, men have gone from worshipping her and giving her free things to either treating her like a normal person or outright not seeing her. She removes her engagement ring several times throughout the episode to highlight the difference. In the end, she realizes that she can live the disappointment as long as her fiancé sees her.
Iron Fist (2017). At the start of "Under Leaf Pluck Lotus", a trio of sexy saleswomen are pitching the Hand's synthetic heroin to prospective buyers. One of them removes her wedding ring while her back is turned (and she's bending over) and slips it on another finger so the ring looks purely decorative.
Subverted on an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Dennis, utilizing a Sherlock Scan, notices an attractive fellow airline passenger removed her wedding ring recently, and deduces from this and some other clues that she is available. She isn't. The high altitudes make her fingers puffy.
Jekyll: Tom Jackman always slips his wedding ring off just before turning into Hyde, as he doesn't want Hyde to know that he's married. When Jackman turns into Hyde in front of his wife Claire for the first time, the wedding ring falls off to mark the moment of transformation. Basically, if Jackman's ring comes off then he's either about to become Hyde or has already done so.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: A variation. In season 26, Carisi unwittingly walks into an armed robbery in progress at a bodega, and becomes part of a hostage situation. The robber makes him turn over his wallet and his phone, and then also his wedding ring, as if to really drive home how helpless Carisi is in this situation as a civilian, despite being former law enforcement. When the ordeal is over and the suspects arrested, the very first thing Sonny does is grope for his wedding band and shakily slip it back on. This also comes out at trial and Amanda (his wife) is given a Reaction Shot of Tranquil Fury.
Lizzie McGuire: A variant in "First Kiss", when Ronnie breaks up with Lizzie, she throws off the ring he gave her right in front of him.
Love Is Blind: In Season 1, Diamond removes her engagement ring during her break up with Carlton and he dramatically tosses it in the pool in response.
The Mentalist: Protagonist Patrick Jane continues to wear his wedding ring long after his wife and daughter were murdered by the Serial Killer Red John. After tracking down and killing Red John he continues to wear the ring, only removing it in the last episode, as he's preparing to marry Teresa Lisbon.
Moonlighting: Inverted in a Season 4 episode. Dave, who has been saying that Maddie's Fourth-Date Marriage isn't real, notices at the end of the episode that she isn't wearing her wedding ring. He insists that she put it on, and she does.
Murdoch Mysteries: In "The Tesla Effect", as Murdoch and inventor/businessman James Pendrick are discussing how and why his wife Sally Pendrick framed Pendrick for murder and masterminded an art theft, Pendrick removes and looks at his wedding ring before placing it on a table.
Nash Bridges: One episode has Joe try to prove a point to Nash by removing his wedding ring and hitting on some girls. Unfortunately, he loses it and has to spend the rest of the episode trying to find it and keep Inger from finding out.
The Office (US): Holly shows off her newly bare ring fingers. Kevin, counting fingers wrong, flips the bird "back" at her.
One Life to Live Gambling addict Max has been told by his mistress Blair that his wife and best friend are having an affair. He storms out to confront them, only to find them hugging in a classic example of Not What It Looks Like—he was comforting her over Max's infidelity. With this, he removes his ring and throws it in her face, declaring their marriage over.
Sherlock: In "A Study in Pink", Sherlock determines a victim to be an unfaithful married (unhappily) woman via Sherlock Scan. He notes that her wedding ring is shiny on the inside but covered in fingerprints on the outside, indicating that it is removed often.
Inverted on Seinfeld. George puts on a wedding ring to seem more attractive to women, under the logic that it signals that at least one woman saw something in him. It worked, but none of the women who were into him were willing to enter a relationship with a married man. Also, it gets stuck on his finger, and he can't prove his story to anyone.
The Twilight Zone (1959): In the episode "The Purple Testament", a soldier named Fitzgerald develops the ability to see a strange light on the faces of those who are about to die. His commanding officer, Captain Riker, doesn't believe it... but when Fitzgerald sees the light on his face, he removes his wedding ring and sets aside his family photos. Sure enough, he dies in the next attack.

Music

Kenny Rogers wrote "Lucille" about a wife and mother who'd given up on her marriage. Its first two lines are:
In a bar in Toledo across from the depot,
On a barstool, she took off her ring.
In Seeed's song "Ding", the singer hides his wedding ring while having a night on the town.
Arctic Monkeys' "The Bad Thing" (off Favourite Worst Nightmare), which seems to be directed at someone who's thinking about cheating, and opens with the following lyrics:
Do the bad thing
Take off your wedding ring
But it won't make it that much easier
It might make it worse
Reba McEntire:
- Implied to have happened in "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter": a man offers to buy the narrator a drink, and she "sees the pale white circle where he wears his ring".
- Another Reba classic along these lines is "Little Rock" in which a woman in a loveless marriage decides to "slip off this little rock" in order to pursue what she isn't getting back home.
Arthur Alexander's "Anna (Go To Him)" is more about a promissory or engagement ring than a wedding ring which he asks for back when he finds his girl is seeing someone else. (Of note, George Martin produced both the original Arthur Alexander version and the Beatles' 1962 cover of it.)
Anna, just one more thing, girl,
You give back your ring to me and I will set you free,
Go to him
Vince Gill: The opening line of "Pocket Full Of Gold" begins with a married man walking into a barroom and removing his wedding ring so he can sweet talk another woman. He is blissfully unaware that the woman might have a significant other and that he might one day find himself "on the wrong end of a gun."

Video Games

Final Fantasy XII: Ashe still mourns for her dead husband, and when Balthier threatens to stop aiding her without a compensation, she reluctantly parts ways with her wedding ring. At the end of the game, Balthier returns the ring, evidently because he found something that's more valuable, but more likely because of his Character Development, having genuinely become friends with Ashe. However, she does not put it back on, which signifies that she has finally moved on from Rasler.
Firewatch: Henry leaves his wedding ring behind in his cabin when he goes hiking. It's ambiguous whether this is because he doesn't want to see it lost or damaged, he's upset by his marriage's inevitable end due to his wife's early-onset Alzheimer's, or because of his new, ambiguously romantic relationship with fellow ranger Delilah. Interestingly, if the player chooses to have Henry put the ring back on, he never takes it off again.
Silent Hill 2 (Remake): Look closely at James' right hand, and you'll see that his ring finger has a fresh outline of a ring. It foreshadows the fact that Mary died not three years ago, but a week or a couple of days before the game begins. James presumably took it after killing her.
Yakuza 5: A character subplot involves Youtarou Nakajima when Mayumi tells Kiryu that she spotted a ring mark on his hand. It's revealed that his wife died in a traffic accident many years ago and his removal of the wedding ring is a sign for him to move on from her death and reform himself since he used to be a street racer when he was young.

Webcomics

Unsounded: In the side story "Orphans" Quigley uses a heated knife to burn and cut away his wedding brand before attempting to commit suicide, out of feelings of guilt and despair over his wife's murder.

Western Animation

American Dad!: In "Rapture's Delight", after becoming infuriated that Stan blames her for not being accepted for the rapture, Francine declares their marriage is over, taking her ring off and tossing it at Stan before leaving.
The Cleveland Show: In "Terry Unmarried", Cleveland doesn't have a wedding ring, so when he finds out that he and Donna aren't legally married, he takes off his socks and throws them at her.
An inadvertent example in The Simpsons. Homer takes off his wedding ring^note while working at a Habitat for Humanity-esque volunteer building event, and several women flirt with him upon noticing his ring tan, marking him as a recent divorcee.

Real Life

On the morning of November 22, 1963, before going off to kill John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald left behind for his wife almost his entire life savings ($170), and his wedding ring, which he dropped in a teacup.

Wedding Ring Removal
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Video Example(s):