The Valley star and Vanderpump Rules alum Kristen Doute just got engaged to co-star Luke Broderick.
Kristen, 41, broke the news via Instagram, a couple of days after Luke popped the question.
The Valley fans have been following the tumultuous breakup of another former VPR couple in recent weeks, after Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright’s separation officially became a divorce.
Jax and Brittany’s marital breakdown has been in the news a lot, making Kristen’s engagement a bit of a palate cleanser.
Kristen and Luke met at a June 2022 wedding, where both were in the wedding party, and they quickly hit it off despite the fact that Kristen was fresh out of a relationship with ex, Alex Menache.
Luke And Kristen Got Engaged In Maui
In addition to Jax and Brittany’s in-progress divorce, Hawaii was the site of another reality TV heartbreak this week — The Bachelorette’s finale ended with Jenn Tran getting her heart and hopes shattered after a Hawaiian proposal.
Luke and Kristen got engaged on September 4, but waited until September 6 to share their news on Instagram:
Alongside a carousel of beautiful sunset engagement snaps, Kristen wrote the cutest, most romantic caption:
i’m wrapped around your finger like this ring i’m wearing 💍 🤟🏽 out of the all the fish in the sea, you chose me 🥹
Kristen and Luke seemed to keep their engagement under wraps in part because The Valley is still filming, and in part because the newly engaged couple gave an exclusive interview to US Weekly.
According to the outlet, Luke was coy, and he intentionally distracted Kristen as he prepared to pop the question:
“Broderick popped the question on a boat in Maui, Hawaii, earlier this week. He told Doute, 41, to keep an eye out for dolphins while he got down on one knee at sunset.”
Romance and reality television can be an extremely volatile mix, putting a strain on even the strongest of couples.
But Luke and Kristen have already endured some heartbreaks as a couple, and came out the other side seemingly stronger.
Late last year, Kristen suffered a miscarriage, and she and Luke later opened up about it on their podcast.
Not only did they weather the grief of that loss, the way Kristen talked about it suggested that their relationship has a strong foundation:
“The only silver lining, the fact that we’ve now been digesting this for the last four or five days, is that I know once Luke and I are past this, we can try again.
“And we were very lucky and very fortunate that we got pregnant so quickly. We were so, so lucky because it could have gone a different way for me at my age. I haven’t gone through IVF, I haven’t frozen my eggs. I haven’t done anything. I just think there’s something in God’s plan.”
Later, Kristen affirmed she and Luke were still trying for a baby, and that they were hopeful it would happen naturally; Kardashians star Kourtney Kardashian expressed similar concerns, but conceived baby Rocky at 44.
The couple didn’t disclose whether they’ve yet set a date for the wedding yet, but Kristen told US that a psychic predicted she’d have a baby at 41 or 42, and that there was “a [baby] boy waiting on the other side” for her, though she was “not going to get pregnant when [she] was 40.”
