Sometimes you have to tune out the noise and do things in your own time.
Lisa Horne and Brian Okoye from Season 2 of the Netflix dating series The Ultimatum are officially engaged almost a year after the show premiered. The proposal took place in Charlotte after their son Mason’s first birthday party.
Okoye announced the engagement to his long-term girlfriend via an elaborate video on Instagram.
“My Fiancé, my Wife to be ✨
You’re a kiss from a rose 🌹💌,” his caption began.
“You are everything that I dreamed of ☁️
You are perfect as you are and as you will be.
We’ll remember and cherish this moment for the rest of our lives. I love you unconditionally ❤️ 5.19.24 💍🥂 #lovewins #engaged,” he concluded the caption.
The video began with Horne walking into a room full of people, many holding roses to usher her in. She wore her hair in blonde curly locks and had on a red strapless dress with a slit. Brian waited for her at a heart-shaped garland filled with roses that read, “Will you marry me” in the middle. The answer was of course a resounding “yes” from teary-eyed Lisa.
Horne commented on her husband-to be’s Instagram post and said, “The dreamiest proposal ever babe 😍 I love you so deep, my Fiancé 😭❤️❤️”
She also had some words to share about the timeline of their relationship.
“Everything happens at the right time,” she said. “It was truly serendipitous for us to leave the show because of our pregnancy, welcome our son, and then get engaged when the time was right for us.”
For people who haven’t watched the Netflix series, it’s about couples who have been dating for some time and are presented with ultimatums to get married or move on. In the social experiment, these couples also get the chance to get to know other people–sort of like an open relationship. At the time, the couple left the show abruptly and prematurely because Horne found out she was pregnant. Prior to that, their time on the show was a bit chaotic, as she struggled watching Okoye talk to other women, which created disputes between the pair. Both parties said they would never do a series like that again.
“It was intense,” Horne told ESSENCE in 2023. “There were challenges people didn’t get to see, which obviously didn’t sit well for someone that was already high stress coming in.”
She continued, “It was really stressful just hearing the comments and hearing things that weren’t true and things like that. But you just have to take it with a grain of salt because regardless, that is what’s filmed. That’s what’s out there. Those were the actions displayed.” “But after everything, having to go through it with the person that you love and having that support has been pretty amazing, because even that in itself made us even more stronger because you have someone who is like, ‘Look, it doesn’t matter what people say, it doesn’t matter whether good or bad, it doesn’t matter their opinion because this is our family. This is what we’re protecting. This is what we have prayed for.’”
The couple have a son named Mason who came into the world May 2023. This is Okoye’s first child, but Horne has a daughter from a previous relationship. While the couple didn’t make a decision about marriage on the show’s timeline, they did it on their own timeline and it looks like it has worked out perfectly for them.
“This has been a long-time coming,” said Okoye. “Not only is Lisa my person but being able to surprise her and celebrate this moment with our friends and family meant everything. It was the perfect timing for us, and that’s what makes it so special.”