DENVER (AP) - Colorado Gov. Jared Polis is engaged to his longtime partner and First Gentleman Marlon Reis, a newspaper reported.
The couple kept their engagement mostly private for the past three months, according to a report Thursday i n the Colorado Sun that broke the news of their engagement.
Polis, 45, a Democrat, is the first openly gay elected governor in the U.S.
Reis, 39, told The Sun in an interview the previous day that Polis proposed on Dec. 6 when Reis’ condition was deteriorating and he was told he had to go to the hospital after he tested positive for COVID-19.
“I was getting my things ready. My daughter was crying in the corner - she didn’t want me to go,” Reis said. “My son was asking me a lot of technical questions: ‘When are you coming back? Do they know exactly what’s wrong?’ It was a very tense moment.”
Reis said Polis then got down on one knee and asked Reis to marry him.
“It was the absolute perfect time,” Reis said. “I said to him, ‘I couldn’t breathe before. Now I really can’t breathe.’”
The ring Polis gave Reis is made of tungsten and is inscribed with a passage from the Bible’s Old Testament. Reis described the ring as “very plain, perfectly in keeping with both our personalities.”
Polis and Reis have not yet picked a date for the wedding.
Reis was released from the hospital after two days and has since recovered from COVID-19. Polis also caught the coronavirus but had only mild symptoms.
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