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Ryan Lochte Reveals All the Details of His ‘Nervous’ Proposal to Model Kayla Rae Reid, Says: ‘My Life Is Complete’

Ryan Lochte, Kayla Rae Reid
Ryan Lochte, Kayla Rae ReidCourtesy: Kayla Rae Reid Instagram

Ryan Lochte is headed to the chapel, and he can't wait to get married! The Olympic swimmer is on cloud nine after proposing to his Playboy model girlfriend, Kayla Rae Reid, and he couldn’t wait to share all the intimate details of the engagement and their wedding plans with Us Weekly.

Talking backstage at Dancing With the Stars on Monday, October 10, the 32-year-old contestant gushed about his new fiancée and revealed exactly how he was feeling in the run up to popping the question last Sunday.

Related: 10 Best, Biggest Moments From the 2016 Rio Olympics

“I couldn't really focus, I couldn't concentrate,” he told Us of trying to practice for the dance show hours before the proposal. “I’m just happy everything worked out.”

Lochte is used to being under pressure in the pool and now on the dance floor, but nothing could have prepared him for the nerves he felt asking for Reid’s hand in marriage.

Related: PHOTOS: Celebrity Engagement Rings of 2016

“We were in a helicopter, and we went down around West Hollywood and Hollywood, and then we flew over Santa Monica and the pier, and we went up the coast in the helicopter,” Lochte revealed to Us.

Memories forever!!! #thelochtes #LA

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“Then they landed us on top of a mountain in Malibu, and on the mountain there was a picnic that had roses and champagne, and she was like, 'What's going on?' And so we got out and that's when I got down on one knee. But I was messing up! I had practiced it so many times in my bathroom, I had my suit, my jacket on, and I was pulling the ring out, and everything was perfect. Then when it actually happened I couldn't get the ring out of my pocket and I was stumbling over all of my words! And I was just so clammy and nervous — but then I finally got the courage to ask, 'Will you marry me?' And she said yes! And I was like, 'Yeah! My life is complete!'" 

Related: PHOTOS: Quickest Celebrity Engagements Ever

The pair only began dating this past March, and he confirmed to Us in May that he was in a relationship with a woman who wasn’t a swimmer.

But things moved quickly for the couple, and after she stood by him during his controversy at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, when he claimed that he'd been robbed at gunpoint, he knew she was the one.

“She's stuck behind me this whole entire time when I was at my darkest point and she was my rock,” Lochte revealed to Us. “That's when I knew, I'm not letting this one go!”

Related: PHOTOS: Best Celebrity Engagement Rings of All Time

That’s why when he had the ring designed he decided size mattered.

“She liked a ring on her Instagram, and I saw it and I remembered it. So I wanted to get that same design, and I went to a jeweler that I know, and I was like, 'You have to make me this special ring.' But the ring she liked was only like two or three carats — and I said, 'No, I want to make it bigger, I want everyone to know that she's taken!'" 

As for their wedding plans?

“We're not going to hurry up and get married really quick,” he told Us. “We want to plan out everything, make sure it's perfect, and I want to be there for her with all the flowers and everything, all the planning, because I want to be a part of it!”

“We'll probably do it in the fall of next year. I just want my family and my closest friends there and she wants the same thing. So we might keep the wedding small, but the party afterward — that's going to be big.”

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