A 90210 alumna is officially engaged to her former pro-athlete boyfriend, and she shared all the deets on how he scored the ultimate touchdown.
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Indeed, actress AnnaLynne McCord is engaged to British former rugby player Danny Cipriani.
Cipriani popped the question at McCord’s L.A. home on Christmas Day, surrounded by family and friends.
“I cried for 10 minutes straight,” AnnaLynne gushed to PEOPLE. “At some point, I realized I had to answer. I said, ‘Yes, but I can’t even speak,’ and he replied, ‘That’s okay, it’s actually a good sign that you are quiet for once.’ Then, we’re all laughing.”
Turns out, the couple was already on the same page. While celebrating Thanksgiving in Arizona, the couple, both 38, secretly bought each other promise rings.
At the time, McCord considered proposing herself. She changed her mind after telling her sisters, Rachel and Angel McCord, and Cipriani about her plan.
“It occurred to me that I should just propose to him, and I told my sisters. Both really questioned this choice, and they strongly discouraged it,” the 90210 actress recalled. “I decided to tell him that was my plan, but then the look on his face convinced me not to, and he fessed up and told me he had plans to propose to me on our upcoming trip to Cambodia.”
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Before their trip, McCord was cooking dinner when she noticed Cipriani and her sister Rachel whispering. They claimed they were taking her nephew to a movie and insisted she get dressed up to go with them. However, their clever ruse almost didn’t work.
“I said, ‘No, I’m not getting dolled up just to go to a movie,’ but my sisters insisted,” she told PEOPLE. “Suddenly, they are rushing me and announcing they are leaving. I come downstairs, and there are rose petals everywhere and a rose petal heart. Danny, down on one knee with a ring, waiting for me to step into the heart.”
It seems Cipriani, who announced his retirement from rugby in January 2024, knows a thing or two about rings. He proposed with a stunning 15-carat, emerald-cut diamond set in yellow gold.
Angel even arranged for Annalynne’s closest friends to witness the proposal over Zoom.
The couple continued their engagement celebration with their “chosen families” on a trip to Cambodia and India, which they describe as their favorite places in the world.
“When I look at Danny, he’s home to me,” the Nip/Tuck actress gushed. “I think he is a home that I never knew I needed and that I didn’t feel I deserved. The Cancer, sappy side of me is like, ‘Oh my God, I get to love him!’ Just like the song by Ruelle, ‘I Get to Love You’ — which I will walk down the aisle to!”
She added, “I get to love him! It’s the best thing that I’ll ever do. And there’s the other side of me, the overachiever, Type A personality that says, ‘I was right! I win! Yes!’ Because I called this 10 years ago. I knew we were soulmates, I knew we were meant to be together. I was so sure, and I was not wrong.”
“She’s my crazy girl!” Cipriani, ever the wordsmith, added.
Meanwhile, Annalynne and Cipriani first connected on the dating app Raya about a decade ago. After dating on and off for several years, they split in 2020 before reconnecting in 2024.