Call him the romantic Robertson! Duck Dynasty star John Luke Robertson opened up to Us Weekly about what he loves most about his fiancee Mary Kate McEacharn, whom he started dating this past March and proposed to on Saturday, Oct. 11.
“We actually met four years ago at a Christian summer camp,” Robertson, 19, told Us, adding that the two connected further in a high school chemistry class. “There was some chemistry!” he joked. In fact, Robertson spent a year trying to win over McEacharn. “I had tried to date her before, and she kept turning me down!” he told Us. “I just kept at it and she finally said yes!”
The two officially started dating on the Ides of March this past year, and Robertson said he had a feeling early on that she was the one. “I just knew,” Willie and Korie Robertson’s eldest son told Us.
He further reflected to Us about what he loves most about his future wife. “First of all, she would always listen to my stories and laugh at my jokes, so that was a plus,” he reflected, adding that their true connection was faith-based. “She never gave me the time of day until I started talking about Jesus,” Robertson told Us. “That was the only thing we could ever talk about. And I knew then that she was a good one, because she would help me grow in my faith… And she was pretty good looking!”
As for his lady McEacharn? “I had always prayed God would bring a Christian boy into my life,” the Louisiana Tech freshman, 18, told Us. “When John Luke came into the picture, I figured God had placed him there. He’s an awesome man of God. He’s really funny, you never know what’s going to happen with him. He’s full of surprises. Plus, he’s pretty cute.”
Equally adorable was Robertson’s thoughtful proposal. “I made a photo album of pictures from all the way from camp four years ago to now,” he told Us, adding that he used his 19th birthday as a decoy. “She thought she was just coming over to hang with me until the birthday [party],” he recalled.
His unknowing girlfriend, meanwhile, casually flipped through Robertson’s photo album. “We got to the last two pages, and I had a note written,” said Robertson, who happens to be a juvenile fiction writer whose first book, Willie’s Redneck Time Machine Be Your Own Duck Commander, was released last month. Inscribed in the note was his message: “Love you so much… we’ve had so many adventures with each other, and I can’t wait for the rest of our lives.”
As McEacharn flipped to the next page, a picture of a ring, Robertson got down on one knee. “She looked up at me, and when she looked up, I had the ring in my hand,” Robertson told Us of the round 1.1 carat diamond, which he designed with jeweler/goldsmith Brian Mikeska. “I said, ‘Mary Kate McEacharn, will you marry me?’ And she started crying.”
The future bride told Us the entire proposal was a huge surprise. “I honestly had no idea,” she said. “We were just going through the book and having a great time laughing and looking at the pictures… I think I went into a stage of shock. I was just like, ‘Is this for real?’ He was like, ‘Yeah.'”
For additional adorable details on the proposal, their engagement party, Korie and Willie’s reactions, and more, pick up the new issue of Us Weekly!
