“Real Housewives of New Jersey” star Dolores Catania and her fiancé, Paulie Connell, recently got engaged after nearly five years of dating. The couple sat down to give a behind-the-scenes look at how the proposal came to be.
Dolores & Paul Get Engaged in an Apple Store
On November 10, Paul popped the question with an impressive 11-carat diamond ring. Much to the surprise of their fans, the proposal happened a Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey Apple Store. But this retail location is special to them, as it’s where the newly engaged couple first met.
“I could have proposed on a yacht in Greece,” Paul explained to E! News. “I could have rented a grand hall, invited 400 people and asked her to marry me with fireworks in the background. But that’s not who we are. I didn’t want anything over-the-top and staged because we’re a humble couple. I wanted it to feel grounded and natural and organic. Plus, I wanted the element of surprise. And believe me, I had the element of surprise.”
“I’ve never been so sure of something ever,” Dolores continued in their interview. “You know, patience is a big thing for us. When we first met, Paul wasn’t used to being in the public eye; he wasn’t used to the pressure the audience can put on relationships. There were things in his life that he needed to sort through, and that took time.”
“But even when things came up on the show, I never pushed Paul, because I wanted him to do the right thing on his own. And our bond is stronger now because of that. As a couple, we were able to naturally progress. so this engagement means more to us than it would if it was just something we were doing just for the sake of doing it,” Dolores said.
Some of Dolores’ fellow “Real Housewives” and “Bravo” friends flooded the comments of their engagement annoucement to show their support for the couple.
Heather Dubrow commented, “Congratulations!!! How exciting!!!!❤️❤️❤️”
“So happy for both of you. Love you guys Congratulations ❤️❤️” wrote Teresa Giudice.
Dorinda Medley said, “Fairytales do come true ❤️❤️💍”
Paul Calls in the Help of ChatGPT
Dolores and Paul recently sat down with RHOC‘s Tamra Judge and RHOBH‘s Teddi Mellencamp for the November 13 episode of the “Two Ts in a Pod” podcast to chat about the details of the proposal.
“You were sweating, you were saying things — like, I’ve been around people that are like that, and you were saying things that didn’t make sense to me,” Dolores recalled. “So, I was more worried about your health in the moment, and I knew what you were saying was everything I wanted to hear.”
According to Paul, the reason he was so stressed was because he had asked ChatGPT how to pull off a successful proposal, and he was focused on remembering all the instructions he was given.
“ChatGPT was a disaster for me that day,” Paul admitted. “What I was looking up was like, ‘how to get your speech across meaningfully.’ [It said] like, ‘make eye contact, don’t hold her hands straight away, don’t kneel down, stand up.'”
He compared it to taking a golf swing. “Six thousand things go through your head. As I’m standing in front of you, I’m like, ‘get down, stay up, talk, don’t talk, like, go grab her hand, make eye contact as I’m trying to talk to you.’ That’s probably why you thought I was having a stroke.”
Dolores asked Paul to repeat what he had said now that he was calmer.
“I basically told you how important you were to me, how you’ve made me elevate as a person and how much of a better person you’ve made me, and how my life has become so much better from meeting you,” Paul said. “I also told you about my children, how they feel towards you, how I feel towards your kids, how you’ve made me one part of your family. And when I spoke to your family even before this went down, like, just the stuff they said to me just reassured me — like, you are a part of this family, like, this is real.”
POOOOOOR Delores!
Paulie=LOSER WANNABE