Professional dancer Britt Stewart and CODA actor Daniel Durant are engaged after falling in love during Dancing With the Stars season 31 last year.
“Ending 2023 engaged!” Stewart, 34, shared via Instagram, sharing photos from their proposal. “I’m still pinching myself.”
The couple was surrounded by family and friends when Durant, 34, got down on one knee on Christmas Day. He and Stewart were on a hike in Lake Arrowhead, California, when the actor popped the question.
“We were both emotional, overwhelmed with joy and at peace knowing that this would eventually be part of our story,” Stewart told People on Friday, December 29. “It felt like magic, but at the same time, it felt right and normal.”
The couple took their Christmas Day hike with Stewart’s mom and stepdad, Jasmin and Lonnie Speed, along with Durant’s moms, Lori Durant and Mary Engels. They all shared their hopes for the new year, and when went “last,” he proposed.
“I started talking about the year, about us meeting and everything that happens in life. I just feel like there’s balance,” he explained to People. “She sees me. She knows my culture, my language, and understands everything about me.”
The actor recalled “welling up” when sharing his love.
Stewart and Durant announced their relationship this past February when celebrating Valentine’s Day together. The couple met in 2022 when they were paired up together on DWTS. They placed fifth during season 31, which aired late last year.
After going public, Stewart told Us Weekly exclusively that she had “hope” that Durant would be her “forever dance partner.”
“We still like to dance together. We got very lucky because he was able to come on the Dancing With the Stars Tour this winter. And spent two weeks with us. So that helped the transition from dancing together all the time to not,” she told Us in August. “And then I … surprised him with a surprise tango date, which was so much fun. He absolutely loved it. And then every once in a while, his favorite dance is [the] cha cha so he’ll, like, grab me in the kitchen or I’ll grab him in the kitchen and we’ll do a [bit of the cha cha] together.”
Durant, who is deaf, previously told Us that Stewart started learning American Sign Language after being partnered up with him on DWTS.
“She knows how to sign, she’s learning how to sign,” he gushed in September 2022. “Before, my interpreter … he’d be there interpreting for us at practice, and now he fades away during practice and it’s nice. She understands me.”
