Keeping it real! Newly engaged Adrienne Bailon couldn't be more excited to be marrying her fiance Lenny Santiago, especially after year of laying the groundwork.
"We were friends before [dating], and we were friends for a really long time," she told Us Weekly at the 23rd Annual Movieguide Awards in Universal City, Calif. on Friday, Feb. 6. "I think the fact that he met me when I was recording a solo album for DefJam, and I was not interested in dating him at all so he got to know real me and I never had to put on any act for him all. He already knew me stripped down — he would see me every say in the studio with a bun in my hair and no make up."
Santiago, the Senior Vice President of Artist Management at Roc Nation, proposed to The Real co-host, 31, this week, and the former Cheetah Girl announced the news on her talk show.
"I was shocked, but at the same time, it was so great being able to share it with my girls," Bailon said of the surprise announcement. "As much as I can keep a secret, I don’t like to keep secrets. I think when you work with somebody as closely as we work they might as well consider themselves my wedding planners!"
Bailon revealed that their chemistry has been there from the start.
"The day I met him I thought he was cute, and there was something about his smile that I absolutely loved," she said. "For me it was instant. He obviously knew of me before he met me, and he says he always thought I was beautiful. Like, 'I always thought you were beautiful, if I ever had a chance,’ you know what I mean?"
The 3LW singer previously dated Rob Kardashian from 2007 to 2009 and their romance was documented on Keeping Up With the Kardashians. They split after the sole male Kardashian sibling allegedly cheated on her.