Congratulations are in order for Ryan Tubridy and his fiancée Dr Clare Kambamettu after the radio star plucked up the courage to pop the question.
That's right, Ryan is now an engaged man, and he shared the exciting news with his listeners bright and early on his radio show on Tuesday morning.
'I have a little bit of news that I was kind of keeping a little bit to myself - to ourselves - [because] even though I'm a public person doing the job I do, I also have quite a lot of privacy that I like to keep to myself,' he began.
Pic: Lia Toby/Getty Images
'However, the cat has been removed from the bag for a number of reasons and I'm very, very, very happy to confirm that I did indeed get engaged to my partner Clare on Thursday evening in the West of Ireland.
'It is a very beautiful feeling,' Ryan continued. 'We were surrounded by gorgeous people who we didn't know, strangers in the hotel, and people who were working around the place. I got a beautiful ring organised and the weather was gorgeous.'
'It was just an accumulation of a lot of lovely things happening, and I just decided "Now is the time, here we go".'
Pic: Getty Images for The Irish Post
'It's a very exciting time to be alive, I'm a very, very lucky man. I think it's one of those beautiful moments where the world feels lighter and there's a beautiful new adventure ahead,' Ryan continued, adding that he'd share more details of his proposal after soaking up some more time with Clare in their engagement bubble.
It's unclear when Ryan and Clare first entered each other's lives, but just days before he announced his departure from the Late Late Show, the former Rose of Tralee joined him as a guest on his RTÉ Radio 1 programme.
In commemoration of the interview, the pair were snapped together smiling from ear to ear. Perhaps Ryan's made a habit out of meeting his partners this way, as it's known he asked his ex Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin out on a date after she appeared on his old show Tubridy Tonight.
Since this radio appearance in 2023, Clare and Ryan have been spotted running close to his home and socialising at popular spots around the RTÉ campus in Dublin 4.
The couple made their red carpet at the Irish Post Awards in London in 2023 with snaps later emerging of Ryan and Clare living it up with Una Healy and Imelda May after he presented an award to Nadine Coyle.
Clare was then seen at a Rose Of Tralee event with Ryan's ex Aoibhinn and the couple shook it off at one of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour concerts in Dublin in 2024.
Speculation began to mount that an engagement announcement was imminent after he was spotted picking out a diamond ring from a jewellers in Galway.
In a now-deleted post, O'Dalaigh Jewellers in Clifden announced that Ryan had come to them 'discreetly' to find a ring for 'a very special lady'.
He is said to have requested lab diamonds over the conventional mined options because they are environmentally friendly and conflict-free.
Following press inquiries, a spokesperson for O'Dalaighs confirmed to the Irish Independent that Ryan had asked them to remove the post while his representative stated that they could 'neither confirm nor deny' the engagement.
Well, we guess the cat's out of the bag now!
