Bozoma Saint John-Watson does not do “small.” Since joining The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills in 2024, the 5-foot-11 marketing exec lovingly known as Boz has enthralled fans and castmates with her big, beautiful world. So when it came to her wedding to Keely Watson in Accra, Ghana, on Friday, August 21, every detail was destined to be as lavish and spectacular as she is, even by Housewife standards.
“I’m a very expensive bride,” Boz, 49, jokes to Us about her dowry.
Nearly 1,000 guests, including around 250 people who flew in from the U.S. and U.K., where Boz has family, celebrated the couple’s union at the home of former Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo. Celebrity attendees included Ashley Graham and Justin Ervin, Emmanuel Acho, Elaine Welteroth, Married to Medicine’s Quad Webb, Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta’s Yandy Smith and actor Yaya Decosta. And of course, Boz’s Real Housewives costars, including Kyle Richards, Kathy Hilton, Dorit Kemsley, Sutton Stracke and Jennifer Tilly — all dressed in bright, traditional Ghanaian patterns and headdresses — were there to celebrate their friend. They even helped the couple cut their towering five-tier Sweetintins Couture Cakes confection.
The bride and groom, 50, wore traditional Kente cloth by Goba Kente and Naana Adobea for the ceremony — which 250 of the couple’s nearest and dearest got to witness — along with stacks of showstopping gold jewelry. (Even their wedding invitations, created by Minted, incorporated Kente.) When it was time to party, they changed into couture: Ghanaian designer Mimmy Yeboah for her, Fedu by New Yorker Ilbert J. Sanchez for him. Both rocked Christian Louboutin footwear for the party — and hers were custom-made by the designer himself in his atelier.
“Seeing the sheer scale of everything we had planned actually come to life surprised me,” Boz tells Us. “You can spend months imagining every detail, but nothing prepares you for standing in the middle of it and realizing, ‘Oh, my God, we actually did this.’ And somehow, despite the grandeur of it all, it still felt incredibly intimate and personal.”
Of course, life hasn’t always been so sublime for Boz. She raised daughter Lael, 17, whose dad — Boz’s first husband, Peter Saint John — died of cancer in 2013. (The two were separated at the time.) She lost her Malibu home in the 2025 Palisades Fire. And viewers have watched — sometimes cynically — as she and Keely have gone through multiple rounds of IVF. Boz — whose résumé includes serving as the CMO of Netflix and Uber, cohosting On Brand With Jimmy Fallon and founding the hair-extension company Eve by Boz — is a tough cookie, but she says it’s Keely’s willingness to let her be vulnerable that made her realize he was her person.
“There have been several moments over the course of our relationship — and very early on — when I knew that this is someone I could be soft around,” she says about the entrepreneur and business development executive. “I am a strong woman. I’m a successful woman. I’m ambitious, and those things can be tough when you have to be so hard in the world. The kind of boardrooms I’ve been in … sometimes the disrespect I’ve had to deal with has meant that I’m always very confident and can be tough. You want a soft place to be, especially with your partner. Keely allows me to not have to fight. I don’t have to be the big, tough girl all the time.”
Now she’s got a ring on her finger — one Keely had custom-made in Mumbai — that makes it official. Scroll below for all the details as the ecstatic newlyweds — who will celebrate their love story once again with a Beverly Hills ceremony in November — spoke exclusively to Us from Ghana:
Congratulations! Your wedding photos are stunning. How did you feel during the ceremony?
Bozoma Saint John-Watson: It felt sacred. This is how our people have joined families in marriage for generations. It’s nothing like a Western wedding ceremony. To marry Keely in Ghana, in the Akan tradition, surrounded by our families, our culture and our ancestors felt like we were stepping into something that existed long before us and will continue long after us. And the party that followed was spectacular and full of color and joy!
How did you decide on Ghana for your big day?
Boz: We’d been introduced by his nephew, Recce Smith — his nephew’s wife is an artist, and I collect art. We go on two dates, and then for the third date, we were trying to figure out plans, but I was on my way to Ghana, and I was going be here for, like, a month. So I was like, “Well … if you want to come, come to Ghana.” And it was so funny because he really said yes and then showed up! So for me, our love story began here. You know how they say, “If a man wanted to, he would”? This man really wanted to, and he did. Fast-forward a year later, when he became a citizen of Ghana, before he even proposed. Now we’re both dual citizens. It wasn’t even really a discussion that we wanted to have both a Ghanaian ceremony and an American ceremony, and make sure that the Ghanaian ceremony is truly traditional — no Western influences whatsoever. We’re taking it back, like, 300 years’ worth of tradition.
Keely Watson: It was a no-brainer for me to get on the plane and travel to Ghana for our third date. She offered, and I thought to myself, “Wow, she must really think enough of me so quickly to even invite me around her loved ones.” If you can travel together, that is a great way to find out whether or not you get along. We hit it off in Ghana. That’s when we really got a chance to see our chemistry, and it allowed me to just watch her in action, to see how much people love her.
Nothing says “I’m serious about this” like getting dual citizenship!
Boz: Exactly! That’s what was so funny. On Housewives, when people were reacting to the fact that we were already talking about having kids, I was like, “I don’t think you understand — we’re in; we’re committed to this.” We look young, but we ain’t young young, you know what I’m saying? We’ve lived full lives. We have separate full lives that we have decided to blend together, and that was long before he got down on the knee. We knew pretty quickly that this was a forever type of thing. Even though I was so honored that Keely would go as far as to become a citizen, it wasn’t truly a surprise because we knew this was it pretty early.
Your wedding weekend was packed with events. Tell Us everything!
Boz: [Accra] is such a social city; it’s very cosmopolitan. The welcome reception was at my Eve by Boz headquarters, which is where we are now. We had a very raucous night out, hitting up our favorite bars and clubs, like Adez Local Bar. Thursday, we had a night-before party — like a rehearsal dinner, except we didn’t rehearse — at Sandbox Beach Club, with fireworks, fire dancers and horseback riding on the beach. Friday, the wedding started at 2 p.m. and was the full day, nonstop. Saturday, we closed it out with a goodbye party.
Keely: When you come to Ghana, you don’t sleep.
How did you come to have the former president host your ceremony?
Boz: President Nana Akufo-Addo and I have been great friends for a decade or so. Unfortunately, my father’s not doing well in his health, so he’s unable to travel to Ghana. But the Ghanaian marriage ceremony is very dependent on family, and the father of the bride is the one who hosts the event in their home. Since my father was unable to participate, the former president stepped in to be my father during the ceremony. The marriage ceremony itself, the dinner and the reception all took place at his presidential house.
Wow, that’s incredible.
Boz: It’s actually outrageous. I can’t even believe it happened.
How did you pick August 21 for your wedding date?
Keely: We wanted to do it before Lael started her senior year of high school. It was really important for us to get it done, and then get her back in time to start her first day of school. So we literally flew back Sunday, and she starts school on Monday. Her last first day of high school.
Was there an epiphany moment when you each knew the other was The One?
Keely: There was for me. Boz was on a plane, and we were on the phone. It was about six or seven months in, on my mom’s birthday. Boz was like, “I’ve got to get off the phone so I can order your mom flowers.” And she had a beautiful bouquet of roses sent to my mother 10 minutes before she took off. At that moment, I’m like, “OK, her love extends beyond me — it also extends to my family.” With that, I was like, “Yeah, she’s definitely gonna get proposed to.”
Boz: There have been several inflection points for me. I think when you’re in a relationship, especially at this age, you can recognize the people who are thoughtful and kind and committed, and all of those adjectives were something I was looking for … Sometimes I just want to lay down and be comfortable in somebody else who cares for me and loves me and also loves and cares for my child. I live in Los Angeles and Keely lives in San Diego. I try my best to get down to San Diego, but he definitely carries most of that because Lael’s in school and I can’t get away that often. One time he had come over and stayed the weekend, and as he was leaving, he called out into Lael’s bedroom like, “OK, love you, Lael.” Then he just kept going. It just so caught me off-guard. It was such a big thing for me. The fact that he would stop, acknowledge her in a way that also makes her feel seen and then just kept going like it was just a normal thing. It was such a big, big thing.
Will you guys move in together now that you’re married?
Keely: The plan is for me to move up to L.A. near the top of 2027, but I’ll be up there a lot more until then.
You got married within a year of getting engaged. Was that intentional?
Keely: I don’t believe in long engagements. Once you pop the question, it should be a 12-month countdown, because at that point you’ve made the decision that you want to marry this person.
Boz: I didn’t know why we should wait either. There’s too much life to live. And also for us, we’d already started talking about expanding our family, and for us, it’s very important that we be in a marriage when we decide to expand our family.
Boz, you’ve talked about the miracle of second chances. Tell Us about how you let yourself be open to that, especially after the devastating loss of your husband.
Boz: I was in no hurry to get remarried. It’s such a miracle to ever find someone you feel compatible enough with to marry, to have a child. Those are [like] lightning striking. I don’t know why people think it’s so easy. So I felt very blessed to have found that once. I wanted to be loved, I wanted to be in love, but I had resigned myself to working and taking care of my daughter and being a great auntie to lots of kids. But when I met Keely, he opened many chambers for me. I’ve had two very traumatic pregnancies, one which resulted in the loss of a daughter. Even the pregnancy with Lael was very difficult, and so even though I wanted to expand my family, I didn’t have a partner, and I didn’t want to go through those challenges again. But when I met Keely, I think one of the most important things about him is his optimism, and his confidence in that optimism. He’s always trying to find a solution. So when we talked about expanding our family — he doesn’t have children yet — I was a little concerned. Like, “Hey look, I’m not quite sure what my body will do.” But I was like, “You know what? I’m gonna borrow some of that optimism and confidence.” So that’s what drove me to go forward with meeting with doctors and us talking about IVF. To open your heart again is a very, very difficult thing, but I trust in this. I believe in this, and it has been a miracle.
Keely, did you understand that opening her heart again would be a process for Boz?
Keely: Once I enter into a relationship, I’m open, and I allow people to open their hearts to me. I knew she was taking a chance. My goal, of course, is to never, ever crush somebody or be a disappointment. It was really important that I safeguarded her heart and I understood how she needed to be loved. We really do have the same love language. We both love affection. We are the types that are half full. It might drop a little bit, but it’s right back to full.
Can we ask where you are on your IVF journey?
Boz: We’re both still very optimistic. Physically, not just emotionally, we know that the best way to go through an IVF process is with as little stress as possible. And I don’t think I have to reiterate how stressful planning two weddings is. We looked at it and felt like we gave it a good go. We went through two rounds. Now it’s like, “OK, let’s take a little break until after the weddings, when we can refocus.” So yeah, we’re still talking about it. We still want to expand our family, but we’ll do it after this period is done.
How have you changed each other since being together?
Boz: Gosh, that’s such a great question. Like I said, I haven’t had a chance to be soft in a long time. Even in parenting, I think one of the things that was so devastating to me, aside from the obvious, when we lost Lael’s father, was that I have to make decisions by myself, which has not been easy. Sometimes it’s just about the thought process, bouncing ideas off of somebody else, and there was no one to talk to. When Keely came into our lives, Lael was 14, a delicate age. People think it gets easier, and it doesn’t really get easier. The challenges are just different. So even my parenting has changed, because I can talk to Keely about challenges we’re facing or decisions. I can ask him, “Am I too hard? Should I be harder?” I’m now more open and dependent on his opinion. There’s somebody for me to share some of these challenges with.
Keely: She’s the one who actually got me across the finish line and was loving enough, and [who] I cared enough about to marry. She’s the one who actually made me pop the question.
Boz: I didn’t strangle him or anything like that. That’s not what he means. There were no threats involved.
Keely: She’s shown me the importance of being consistent and what consistency looks like once it shows up. She is the epitome of consistency. I’m a very disciplined person, but she is highly detailed. It’s helped me. It’s helped me become a better business owner as well.
Speaking of: Boz, fans obviously admire your business acumen. Can you talk a little bit about your prenup process? It’s not the sexy part, but it’s a very real, relatable thing for people.
Boz: You know what’s so funny about that? I think people have such a reaction to prenups because they go immediately to divorce.
Philosophically for me, and I believe for Keely as well, it’s not about that. It’s about how you’re going to live. As business people, it is really important to understand structure. Like, “How are we going to structure our lives so that we have a successful marriage?” Most marriages fail because of challenges with money and understanding of finances. We own a lot. We manage a lot. We have different decision making. It’s been a long time since I had to check in with anybody about how I spend anything. I do think it’s important for us to understand how we are structuring our lives, how we’re going to make financial decisions. This isn’t just about what happens should the terrible, inconceivable take place, but how are we going to live now? I wish more people understood that and felt like, “OK, prenups are how to structure your financial life so you can have a successful marriage.” It’s not just about what happens in case of divorce and who gets what.
Keely: One of my things is: If I didn’t earn it, I don’t want it.
Boz: Hallelujah to that.
Keely: That’s the other reason we get along so well. You see a lot of chatter out there on social media saying I only dated her because she was on the show, and thank God we met before she was asked to be on the show, so all of that stuff is eliminated. She’s always been Bozoma: gifted, divine connection, all that other stuff. But she just wasn’t on the show then, which is very helpful. I was attracted to her way before that.
Boz, are you keeping your last name?
Boz: That has been such a conversation. First of all, people don’t realize I already have, like, 100 other names, because I’m African. [Boz was born Bozoma Afiba Mamekyi Arthur.] The challenge for me is that I have been known as Bozoma Saint John since I was 26. It’s my entire career and brand. At the same time, I am a traditional woman. I don’t know if I want to call myself a trad wife necessarily, but I believe in taking my husband’s name. Privately for sure, I’m Mrs. Watson, not even a question about it. And then what happens in my professional life … maybe I just drop everything. We’ll figure it out.
What’s most exciting about being able to call Keely your husband?
Boz: I was so in awe of the opportunity to love someone as deeply as this again. For me, it was all butterflies. I was just looking forward to it. Keely, I don’t even know if you remember this, but we were on a date once, and I asked him what he saw for himself in the future. And he was like, “One day I hope I’m able to just sit on a beach with my wife and look out on the ocean and enjoy the day.” And I was like, “God, what a wonderful goal.” You expect people to be like, “I want to earn $17 million,” and he was like, “I just want to be with my wife.” And I was like, “Oh yeah, same. I want to be your wife.” So I am really looking forward to that: being able to sit on our honeymoon and be like, “That’s my husband over there.” Or, you know, go get my husband a drink.
Speaking of the honeymoon, do you have a plan yet?
Boz: We’re going to wait until the Beverly Hills wedding, and then we will take our time and go away and just chill after the raucous two weddings that we will have had.
Do you know where you’re going yet?
Boz: He’s in charge.
Keely: I’m looking at three different places: Seychelles, Mauritius or possibly Bali. It’s gonna really be based on the weather.
We need to talk more about the wedding looks, which were beyond.
Boz: Let’s start from the bottom up, OK? Christian Louboutin custom made my shoes for this Ghanian wedding in his atelier in Paris. And baby, let me tell you: The formal royal cloth in Ghana is called Kente cloth. It’s made in, like, one small town called Bonwire, which is about four hours away from the capital. It’s woven over months, so Christian asked for two yards of the fabric so he could make my shoes out of the same fabric I’d be wearing on my wedding day, and they are spectacular. He even used red Swarovski crystals on the sole of the shoe, so that you could see them sparkling from the back.
Wow! And what about your dress?
Boz: My dress was made by Mimmy Yeboah, who is a couture designer here in Accra. She’s made almost all of my couture pieces that I’ve worn on Real Housewives. In fact, the very first scene I was in, the first time people saw me on camera, I was wearing this off-white ivory gown with an enormous rose cape. It’s funny because once she made that, she was like, “Oh man, we should have saved this for your wedding.” At that point, Keely and I had been dating, like, three months. I was like, “What wedding are you talking about?”
In the morning, for the marriage ceremony itself, we were dressed in traditional Kente cloth as it’s been worn over centuries, which is basically like a draping or a wrapping of the cloth. Our Kente cloth was a mix of reds and oranges, green and blue and yellow, with gold thread interwoven in it, and we asked all the guests to wear kente cloth as well. We had lots of gold on because Ghana is known for its gold — it was called the Gold Coast before independence.
Keely: I was dressed in about 12 yards of the same Kente — that’s all part of the union and the tradition here. We also had a royal slipper called an ahenema.
Boz: Men wear 12 yards of the Kente cloth to be wrapped and worn traditionally. Women wear six yards. I wore 10 because I needed a little extra. For our dinner and reception outfits, Keely used strips of the Kente in a western-type suit, and I used pieces in my dress.
Keely: It was so, so fly. We surprised each other with our custom fits. I had the Christian Louboutin shoes as well, but mine were not custom designed by the man himself.
For my suit, I worked with Ilbert Sanchez, this custom suit designer out of New York. He’s dressed a number of celebrities, and his specific line is Fedu.
Boz: We forgot very one very important part: As part of the dowry and the bride price, Keely had to present me with another ring — not my engagement ring, and not what you would consider the traditional marriage band that you have in the U.S., but a new a new ring to represent the Ghanian ceremony. And when he designed my engagement ring, he flew to India as a surprise to go and pick out the diamond himself and work with designers there to make my ring.
Keely: She wanted a ring that clearly distinguished the Ghanaian wedding from the U.S. wedding and said, “I want this one to be more colorful, and I want to match the colors in my kente.” So I went to work, and she sent me a little bit of mood board inspiration. And then what I found was, every store I went into, there was a variation of that same ring, and the last thing you want is to put something on somebody’s hand — especially one as beautiful and prominent as hers — out there, readily and commercially available. And so I went to work and designed a one-of-one ring for Bozoma. My sister and mom, if they had 10 thumbs they would have given me 10 thumbs up. So, so gorgeous the amount of love and detail that went into this. When it was done, I flew back to Mumbai and picked it up in one day.
And can you explain the dowry?
Keely: There’s what’s called the bride price, right? And the whole concept behind the dowry is thanking the family that they did such a wonderful job raising this flower, so it’s like I’m plucking a flower out of their garden, and the bride price is basically a way of thanking their dad, their mom, their family for doing such a great job tending to this one flower in their garden, the one flower that was worthy of a man. So there was a long list. There was luggage on the list, there were cloths, a necklace, cash, cash envelopes, lingerie, drinks. And they were very specific with the number of everything that I had to get.
Talk to Us about the bridal party and Lael’s role.
Boz: In the traditional Ghanaian ceremony, the bridal party isn’t what you think. There’s no aisle to walk down or people going one after the other. It’s more like your friends who have helped support you, who have made you who you are — sisters or brothers, people who are your peers who have helped shape you. So my bridal party is going to be the same for the U.S. wedding as the Ghanaian ceremony. There were 11 amazing women who are all besties to me. And although Lael will walk me down the aisle for our American wedding, in this wedding she was sitting next to my mother witnessing the ceremony, because she’s not a peer. In the Ghanaian ceremony, the bride is the very last part of the ceremony. I only participate after the bride has been presented, after my father — or the president, in this case — has agreed, after everybody is celebrating, then they call me in to approve of the man and of the gifts and all of that. So it was really important to me that Lael be sitting prominently when Keely came in and was presenting his price and what he was going to promise to me. After all was said and done and the drums started playing, and the women started screaming and cheering and chanting, and I walked toward the living room where everything happened to accept and join his family … I was very emotional about it. I felt the significance of it. The guests in the room, even the American ones who maybe never witnessed this before, still felt the weight.
We have to talk about Rihanna. She joked on social media about being very offended that she hadn’t received a wedding invitation.
Boz: Rihanna was all over us. It was so funny, because it started with a DM, and it was kind of friendly and funny. And I was like, “Yes, of course, you can come to the wedding!” And I didn’t follow up, so then she decided to comment publicly and say, like, “I’ve been looking for my invitation. It’s wild, I haven’t found it.” And I was like, “Oh, damn, we’ve actually got to send her one.” So all I can say is that she got an invitation.
What was the most emotional moment of the day?
Boz: Walking into the ceremony and seeing both of our families gathered. The marriage negotiations were complete, our families had come to an agreement, and all that was left was for me to give my consent and accept Keely as my husband. There was something incredibly powerful about knowing that my “yes” was the final word.
Tell Us about your first dance.
Boz: The Ghanaian artist KiDi performed his song “Odo,” which means “love.” It was awesome. And I’ll tell you what we didn’t have: Per Keely, no “Electric Slide,” no “Cupid Shuffle.”
Keely: No “Wobble, baby.” None of the traditional wedding songs. We’re not doing it.
What do you hope people take away from your wedding?
Boz: Ghana and Africa in general is such a gorgeous and diverse place, and I think we focus so much on Western traditions and use them as the ballast for all things that are fabulous in the world. I really want the broader world to see Africa and Ghana in particular for its beauty and its culture.
Does it feel different to be husband and wife today when you were fiancés just yesterday?
Boz: Absolutely! There’s a different weight to calling Keely my husband now … and quite literally, a little more weight on my left hand! My wedding band is this gorgeous mosaic of emeralds, rubies, sapphires, diamonds and other colored gemstones, each chosen to reflect the colors of my marriage Kente and symbolize things like protection, commitment and love. I keep looking at my hand and thinking, “Oh wow… I have a husband!!”
