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Maksim Chmerkovskiy: I Knew I Wanted to Marry Peta Murgatroyd “A Couple of Years Ago”

Maksim Chmerkovskiy Peta Murgatroyd
Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Peta Murgatroyd attend the Samsung celebration for Alec Monopoly's LEVEL Headphones Collaboration on December 2, 2015 in Miami Beach, Florida. Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Peta Murgatroyd attend the Samsung celebration for Alec Monopoly's LEVEL Headphones Collaboration at Soho Beach House on December 2, 2015 in Miami Beach, Florida. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for Samsung

When you know, you know. Maksim Chmerkovskiy may have popped the question on Saturday, Dec. 5, but the Dancing With the Stars pro tells Us Weekly that he knew he wanted to marry Peta Murgatroyd a long time ago.

“I kind of knew a couple of years ago,” he told Us exclusively at the Sway: A Dance Trilogy performance at the Olympia Theater in Miami, Fla., immediately following his proposal. “But it’s a process. With this family, the hardest part of the process was to keep it a secret. …this was definitely the best decision I ever made.”

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The Ukrainian hunk, 35, got down on one knee to ask Murgatroyd, 29, for her hand in marriage.

“I’m in love with you and I want to be in love with you for the rest of my life,” he said, according to an eyewitness. “Will you marry me?”

Asked whether he had gotten pressure from his family to move their relationship to the next step, however, Chmerkovskiy told Us he did, but only somewhat.

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“I mean, they were all giving me the stink eye here and there, but she was already family, and this is just a formality,” he explained.

His younger brother, Val, agreed — kind of.

“The thing is, Peta’s been part of the family for so long, it was a natural thing, but it was [also] an overdue thing,” the younger Chmerkovskiy brother told Us. “We were all waiting for it. But I think when it happens it’s fairly surreal and it’s beautiful.”

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Murgatroyd, meanwhile, could hardly contain her excitement.

“I can’t tell you how happy I am,” she told Us. “I was completely shocked. I’m just overwhelmed with it all right now.”

The pair reunited earlier this year after dating for 10 months between 2012 and 2013.

“They’re fully back together,” a source told Us in May.

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