Today I’m going to … get engaged: YouTube star MrBeast is engaged to fellow influencer Thea Booysen, a.k.a. the future MrsBeast.
The “Beast Games” host, 26, who is the most-subscribed-to YouTuber, proposed to his girlfriend of two years on Christmas Day and revealed on New Year’s Day that they were affianced.
“Ya boy did a thing,” he wrote Wednesday on Instagram, sharing a photo of himself down on one knee presenting an engagement ring to Booysen in their living room. The online content creator, whose YouTube channel boasts more than 341 million subscribers, shared additional photos of the proposal, which included the couple wearing matching MrBeast holiday sweaters and family members looking on.
Booysen, 27, also posted about the engagement, sharing a post-proposal video clip and showing off her new ring — a round-cut diamond on a rose gold band with additional diamonds on each side.
“Jimmy ❤️💍” she captioned the clip, referring to her fiancé’s birth name, James “Jimmy” Donaldson.
In an interview with People, the couple said Booysen’s family flew to North Carolina from South Africa to celebrate Christmas with them. Donaldson said he wanted to include Booysen’s family in the “momentous occasion” because she’s very close to them.
“We were opening presents, and then for the very last present he asked me to close my eyes because it was a surprise,” Booysen said.
Donaldson said that he intentionally dropped a large box to make noise before presenting Booysen with the real gift with the ring inside.
“And then I went down on a knee and proposed,” he said. After Booysen opened her eyes, she “of course said yes” and was “extremely excited,” she told People.
Donaldson, best known for his viral challenges, affinity for blowing things up and elaborate and exorbitantly priced stunts, flouted expectations with the intimate proposal.
“My friends thought I would want to propose in a very public way, like some sort of spectacle at the Super Bowl or somewhere else really big like that, but I knew that I wanted it to be the opposite, to be really private and intimate,” he said.
Likewise, the popular public figure is planning to make their wedding a private affair.
“I don’t take much vacation because of how hard I work, so I definitely want to make sure that the wedding will be a time to celebrate with her and spend time with friends and family who we really enjoy being with. It will be the ultimate way to take some time away and enjoy things,” he said.
Booysen, who said that getting married at this point is “just a formality,” suggested having their nuptials on an island “far away from just about everybody.”
“We’re not going to try and have a big, extravagant wedding. It’s going to be nice, but it’s certainly going to be intimate [with] close family and friends,” she said.
Donaldson and Booysen met in 2022 while MrBeast was visiting South Africa. The two had dinner with a mutual friend and she was disarmed by the YouTuber’s down-to-earth nature and intelligence. They “vibed instantly,” he told People.
They made their red-carpet debut at the Kids’ Choice Awards in April 2022. Although Donaldson planned to propose in 2023, the couple opted to wait until Booysen — who has a bachelor’s degree in law — completed her master’s program. Booysen posted in November about fulfilling her dream and graduating with a master’s degree in human cognitive neuropsychology from the University of Edinburgh.
The couple’s engagement, which comes weeks after the premiere of Donaldson’s much-maligned Prime Video reality series “Beast Games,” capped an eventful but controversial year for the high-earning content creator. Donaldson last year was blasted for using “inappropriate language” in his early videos and faced scrutiny over his channel’s philanthropic efforts, the Associated Press reported. The YouTuber also was criticized over the workplace culture on his show and hit with allegations of dangerous on-set conditions, which he has denied.
In September, “Beast Games” contestants sued his production company and Amazon for sexual harassment, failure to pay minimum wages and negligent infliction of emotional distress, among other allegations.
In late December, Rolling Stone reported that Donaldson, along with singers Kelly Clarkson and Jennifer Hudson and celebrity chef Guy Fieri, were among the celebrities with whom the Pentagon entered production deals to boost the military’s image with Gen Z.
