Jake Bongiovi's proposal to Millie Bobby Brown was so surprising that the moment almost resulted in it they lose her engagement ring. The 20-year-old actress opened up about the romantic, somewhat chaotic experience of getting engaged underwater while diving during a performance on Thursday's episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
“I haven't told anyone about this because there are moments, key moments, but I think, 'Fallon is the best' and I also think this is too good a story not to tell,” Brown told the host when asked about the story behind her engagement in April 2023.
Brown explained that she and Bongiovi “bonded over diving” and even got their diving certifications together. So when the 21 year old the Stranger things stared at an early morning swim at a familiar spot while on vacation, it wasn't that unusual.
The actress recalled Bongiovi telling her they needed to wake up at 8 a.m. for their swim the next day, which she initially pushed back on. “I thought, '8 o'clock, diving?' …And he says to me, 'We're going to the same place we usually go,'” Brown shared. “I'm like, 'It's boring, let's go to a new place.' He says, 'No, we have to go to this place.'”
As they began their dive the next morning, Brown talked about how things changed after Bongiovi handed her a grenade.
“It gives me like a shell, and I love it: turn it over, and it's a ring,” she recalled. Considering that they were “many yards away”, it was no surprise that neither Brown nor Bongiovi were able to properly convey the proposal or acceptance. So Brown explained that she had to be creative to convey her answer to the big question.
She gave her a thumbs up and said, “This means, 'I want to go up.' So that would technically mean, “No, I don't want to marry you, I want to go upstairs,” she told Fallon, adding that she resorted to accepting Bongiovi's proposal by giving him the “OK” hand symbol to give. “I think it was disappointing, but we panicked.”
Bongiovi slipped the ring onto her finger, but when she gestured to show off her new bling, it slipped off and “(plunged), so fast it looked like a cinematic movie,” she joked.
“Jake threw himself so deep, as if the diver was thinking, 'You can't do that, your ears… literally your brain is going to explode,'” she recalled. “He does a movie, like, grab it, open (his hand) and he saved the ring!”
The quick save felt like a “reflection of who he is,” Brown said, adding that the entire experience confirmed to her that they “will always have each other's backs and if anyone drops the ball, we have it.”
After the couple resurfaced, Bongiovi popped the question uninhibitedly, and Brown accepted. The son of Jon Bon Jovi explained that the ring was a placeholder for the ring Brown actually wears, which belonged to her mother. Bongiovi explained that he asked Lady Star's mother asked if he could take her ring to propose, which she adamantly refused.
“Absolutely not, Jake. You're not taking my ring there. I know you'll drop it.' And sure enough, I did,” Brown said, quoting her mother.
So Bongiovi completed the underwater proposal with another ring, leaving Brown with her mother's ring when they got back on the boat. “He said, 'This is your mother's ring and I got it from your parents,'” he said Enola Holmes star remembered. “And it was very magical and his parents were there and we looked so disheveled coming out of a dive.”
When it comes to wedding planning, Brown previously revealed that she and Bongiovi are moving forward as a team.
During a appearance on Today with Hoda and Jenna last year, Brown said the wedding planning has been anything but stressful, and said she has Bongiovi to thank for that.
“For me it hasn't been stressful at all,” she says. “Jake is very involved. He's very helpful throughout the whole process. I've never felt alone in it, which I really like. I always think, 'Is this a good idea? Is this a good idea?' At the end of the day, it's just a very intimate day for both of us, so we're both really excited about it.”
Although some of the star's fans are concerned about the couple tying the knot in their early 20s, Brown says dismissed in an interview with Glamour last October, when she opened up about trusting her instincts despite doubts about her engagement.
“It's like — I know I have to make this movie now. I know I have to write this book now. I know I have to do this now,” Brown said, trusting her own sense of timing.
“It's not because I can't do it in ten years; of course I can do it within ten years,” she continued. “But why, if I know it will work now? Just like Florence [by Mills, her beauty brand] will be there in 10 years. In ten years you will be able to see my film on TV. And I know Jake and I are going to be okay… It's like, why wait? Let's go for it.”
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