Her happily ever after is happening! While Emily Maynard has yet to share her official wedding date, the former Bachelorette revealed on Good Morning America Tuesday, Jan. 14 that she will be marrying new fiance Tyler Johnson “soon.”
“We met at church,” she told Lara Spencer during her appearance Tuesday. “I think that’s why our relationship is so good now, because we started out as friends.” Maynard, who was previously engaged to late NASCAR driver Ricky Hendrick, Bachelor Brad Womack and Bachelorette winner Jef Holm, added Tuesday, “We were really just friends and we got to know each other.”
As the newly-engaged star exclusively confirmed to Us Weekly last week, Johnson popped the question on Jan. 4 with five diamond-studded bands. “He proposed to me at home and gave both Ricki and me rings,” she told Us. “It was so sweet! Ricki loves him more than she likes me!” she added of her 8-year-old daughter. The blonde Bachelorette alum also shared, “We definitely are looking to get married sooner rather than later. No point in waiting!”
The mother of one has maintained a low profile since she and Holm called off their engagement in October 2012. While the pretty blonde, 26, and her future hubby, 27, first met a few months before she started filming her season of The Bachelorette in spring 2012, Maynard said Johnson “never watched” her on ABC’s popular reality TV series. “I think that that’s just a true testament to God’s time and how perfect it is. I couldn’t have planned it better,” she shared.
Johnson, a management consultant, joined his future wife via Skype to further discuss their engagement with GMA. “I went over there one morning and woke the girls up, told them I was going to cook them breakfast and kind of put them back to sleep,” he recalled Tuesday. “Then [I] brought them downstairs and proposed to both her and Ricki. It was really special, really simple and a lot of fun.” She quipped, “He did a very good job. It was way more than I thought.”
Maynard discussed more about her engagement to Johnson and Ricki’s reaction in a fan Q&A Tuesday on GMA’s Facebook page. “She loves him and is so excited!” she gushed in response to how her daughter is “handling the idea” of Johnson as a stepdad. “My whole family loves him!”
Asked what attracted her to Johnson and how she knew he was “the one,” the North Carolina native said, “He’s confident in who he is in his faith and has the kindest heart of any person I’ve ever known!”
“Plus, he’s a babe,” she added with a winky face.
