Everything Dean Unglert and Caelynn Miller-Keyes Have Said About Getting Engaged, Marriage

Credit: ABC/Craig Sjodin

Everything Dean Unglert and Caelynn Miller-Keyes Have Said About Getting Engaged, Marriage

If Bachelor Nation knows one thing about Dean Unglert, it’s that he’s never been afraid to express his hot takes on marriage. ABC viewers met Unglert on Rachel Lindsay’s season of The Bachelorette in 2017. After a messy stint on season 4 of Bachelor in Paradise, he returned for season 6 of the spinoff and met Caelynn Miller-Keyes. While he broke up with her on the show — on her birthday — he returned to win her back and they left the beach as a couple during summer 2019. “It’s funny, I don’t think a single person thought we were going to last and even we were like, ‘No, I don’t know what’s going to happen here.’ So, we definitely defied the odds,” she exclusively told Us Weekly on the “Here for the Right Reasons” podcast ahead of their two-year anniversary in June 2021. “I think that’s just our unique relationship and we really try not to listen to it. When you go on the show, so many people are going to have so many opinions about your relationship — good and bad. I think we just never really listened to those negative peopl, and we just lived our lives.” She continued: “My birthday was on [June 15] and Dean dumped me on my birthday two years ago. He came back five days later, so our anniversary is June 20. It’s kind of like a week of celebrating, my birthday into the anniversary.” While Unglert often makes headlines for his comments about their romance, Miller-Keyes told Us that it “really frustrates” her when people think he isn’t a good boyfriend. [jwplayer E1kn3LOV-l3ahXupL] “He is hilarious and he’s very sarcastic and he’s also the most romantic person I think I’ve ever met. He’s so thoughtful,” she said at the time. “So I think that’s a big misconception — that I’m, like, more invested in the relationship or he, like, doesn’t treat me right. I’m like, ‘No, he treats me exceptionally well and he’s always going out of his way to just surprise me and do romantic things.’” Unglert, meanwhile, has clarified speculation about their relationship on several occasions. In September 2021, he spoke to Us about his remarks that Miller-Keyes is the “most suffocating” girlfriend he’s ever had. “It’s a horrible word, don’t get me wrong. It’s the wrong adjective to use to describe anyone in a relationship. I was simply saying that in past experiences, I would hate to be suffocated, but with Caelynn, although my instinct is to say, ‘Don’t suffocate me,’ in reality, I’m like, ‘You can suffocate me because I enjoy spending time with you’ sort of thing,” he told Us. The Bachelor Winter Games alum also addressed his claims about not saying “I love you” to his girlfriend. “I do say ‘I love you’ to Caelynn,” he said. “I am in the camp of I’d rather show Caelynn that I love her rather than say that I love her. … Talk is cheap more or less, you know, anyone can say anything, but what it boils down to in my eyes is action over words.” When it comes to marriage, however, the jury is still out for the pair. Scroll through for everything they’ve said:

Credit: ABC/Craig Sjodin

Everything Dean Unglert and Caelynn Miller-Keyes Have Said About Getting Engaged, Marriage

If Bachelor Nation knows one thing about Dean Unglert, it’s that he’s never been afraid to express his hot takes on marriage. ABC viewers met Unglert on Rachel Lindsay’s season of The Bachelorette in 2017. After a messy stint on season 4 of Bachelor in Paradise, he returned for season 6 of the spinoff and met Caelynn Miller-Keyes. While he broke up with her on the show — on her birthday — he returned to win her back and they left the beach as a couple during summer 2019. “It’s funny, I don’t think a single person thought we were going to last and even we were like, ‘No, I don’t know what’s going to happen here.’ So, we definitely defied the odds,” she exclusively told Us Weekly on the “Here for the Right Reasons” podcast ahead of their two-year anniversary in June 2021. “I think that’s just our unique relationship and we really try not to listen to it. When you go on the show, so many people are going to have so many opinions about your relationship — good and bad. I think we just never really listened to those negative peopl, and we just lived our lives.” She continued: “My birthday was on [June 15] and Dean dumped me on my birthday two years ago. He came back five days later, so our anniversary is June 20. It’s kind of like a week of celebrating, my birthday into the anniversary.” While Unglert often makes headlines for his comments about their romance, Miller-Keyes told Us that it “really frustrates” her when people think he isn’t a good boyfriend. [jwplayer E1kn3LOV-l3ahXupL] “He is hilarious and he’s very sarcastic and he’s also the most romantic person I think I’ve ever met. He’s so thoughtful,” she said at the time. “So I think that’s a big misconception — that I’m, like, more invested in the relationship or he, like, doesn’t treat me right. I’m like, ‘No, he treats me exceptionally well and he’s always going out of his way to just surprise me and do romantic things.’” Unglert, meanwhile, has clarified speculation about their relationship on several occasions. In September 2021, he spoke to Us about his remarks that Miller-Keyes is the “most suffocating” girlfriend he’s ever had. “It’s a horrible word, don’t get me wrong. It’s the wrong adjective to use to describe anyone in a relationship. I was simply saying that in past experiences, I would hate to be suffocated, but with Caelynn, although my instinct is to say, ‘Don’t suffocate me,’ in reality, I’m like, ‘You can suffocate me because I enjoy spending time with you’ sort of thing,” he told Us. The Bachelor Winter Games alum also addressed his claims about not saying “I love you” to his girlfriend. “I do say ‘I love you’ to Caelynn,” he said. “I am in the camp of I’d rather show Caelynn that I love her rather than say that I love her. … Talk is cheap more or less, you know, anyone can say anything, but what it boils down to in my eyes is action over words.” When it comes to marriage, however, the jury is still out for the pair. Scroll through for everything they’ve said:

Credit: Broadimage/Shutterstock

December 2019

Unglert told Us in December 2019 that he will “never” propose to Miller-Keyes.

“She does joke around about us getting married all the time, and I always say, ‘Sorry, it’s not going to happen.’ I don’t know, I’m super unconventional and she obviously is a little more conventional. We joke around about it,” he said. “Just try to keep expectations to a minimum, you know? Like I said on the show, underpromise, overdeliver. … That being said, she wants kids, so I don’t know. I don’t know if I don’t want kids just because she wants kids, and I don’t want to get married just because she wants to get married.”

He later suggested that he was being sarcastic when he used the words “never” when it came to marriage.

Credit: Sara Jaye Weiss/Shutterstock

June 2020

The duo sparked speculation that they changed their tunes in early 2020 when they were spotted wearing wedding bands. They later confirmed they weren’t legally married, however.

“Here’s the thing, in my opinion, I don’t need to title of husband to show the world that I’m committed to one person, and so the fact that I’m wearing the ring is showing just that,” he said on The Bachelor: The Greatest Season — Ever! in June 2020. “I’m committed to Caelynn and only Caelynn. And that’s why I’ve been wearing it for the past six or so months. … It’s our way of telling the world or the people that we’re around that we’re committed to each other. I think it’s one of those comforting thing[s] where you can wake up in the morning and see your partner wearing that ring and be like, ‘OK, yes, they know that I’m committed to them and vice versa.’”

She added: “He started wearing a hair tie around his ring finger, just to fight women off. … And I liked the idea. And then we just talked about getting rings. It’s just nice to know that we’re in a strong, committed relationship without necessarily having to get the government involved, as Dean likes to say.”

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June 2021

”I can honestly see us getting engaged and not telling anyone … and same for a wedding,” the former pageant queen told HollywoodLife in June 2021. “We’ve talked about keeping things super private and intimate. Also, maybe we don’t need to get married. I don’t know. Our relationship works so well, we go back and forth.”

Credit: James Atoa/UPI/Shutterstock

September 2021

Unglert revealed that the twosome “talked about” getting married during a trip to Lake Como, Italy.

“Obviously, super major hypothetical, she’s like, ‘Who would you invite? Like, who would you bring?’ Blah blah blah. It’s like, ‘I probably wouldn’t bring anyone. You know, like my family. Maybe that’s it,’” he said on his “Help! I Suck at Dating” podcast. “It definitely is a place where a wedding would be spectacular. It’s just, like, one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever visited. [I’m] a little biased just because that was, like, three days ago.”

Credit: ABC/Craig Sjodin

October 2021

During another episode of “Help! I Suck at Dating,” he claimed that producers suggested he propose to Miller-Keyes when they traveled to Mexico to give advice to the couples during the BiP season 7 finale.

“When we were down there, the producers — they, like, pulled me aside — and they’re like, ‘Hey, Dean, you should totally propose to Caelynn on the last day of the show.’ … I was like, ‘Are you serious? You’re telling me this literally the day before we were supposed to go down and film this episode,’” he explained. “The producers are not bashful when it comes to trying to encourage people to propose.”

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November 2021

“I don't know if she's speaking for me or if she's saying that she's going to propose to me," he said on his podcast. "I've made it pretty clear to her. I was like, 'If you really want to get married, you should be the one proposing to me,' so I think she's got something in the works for that."

Credit: Courtesy of Caelynn Miller-Keyes/Instagram

February 2022

Unglert hinted that he wasn’t ruling out marriage when he noted that he already knows how the pair would go about name changes.

If and when Caelynn and I put pen to paper, we are going to change our names. But we’re both going to change our last names,” the reality TV personality, who previously expressed interest in taking on his mother’s last name, said on his podcast.

Credit: Courtesy of Caelynn Miller-Keyes/Instagram

April 2022

Miller-Keyes addressed Unglert’s suggestion that she should propose to him.

“When Dean first said that, I thought, ‘OK, [it's] another thing Dean is saying to break the mold.' Sometimes he says things just for a reaction, and he'll admit that. I thought that's kind of what he was doing," she said via a YouTube Q&A. "But the more I thought about it, the more I loved it, because traditionally, he would propose to me. That's something I've dreamt of for so long, and that's something that he doesn't get — a day that's catered to him and this special moment where he's really thought of. That's when I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I love this.'"

She added that the duo are “a partnership, so we both should be proposed to,” explaining, “I love the idea of planning this extravagant — well, not extravagant, because he doesn't like to be the center of attention — but just this thing that's all about him. So after I really thought about it, I am really, really into it.”

Credit: Courtesy of Caelynn Miller-Keyes/Instagram

June 2022

Unglert confessed that he and Miller-Keyes had begun shopping for engagement rings — but it wasn't going well. After joking that he was trying to convince the former pageant queen to look for a smaller diamond than the one she wanted (which is around 4.5 karats), he revealed that he threw a "hissy fit" when they first started looking. "I was like, 'I don't even want to be in here right now. I don't really care what I wear on my finger, blah, blah, blah.' ... We had a bit of a scuffle," Unglert said on a June 2022 episode of his 'Help! I Suck At Dating" podcast. "It's such a touchy subject. ... Caelynn makes significantly more money than I do and here I am having to spend all this money on something I don't even want. Like, I want her to get what she wants, but she's the one who wants to get married."

However, he has come up with a compromise: "I made a deal with her. I was like, 'I'll buy you a ring if you buy me a truck.'"

Despite all of his stresses about finances, Unglert revealed that he and Miller-Keyes "basically are married" because they share a joint bank account. "We still have our separate accounts ... but we have a joint account we both put money in for house stuff."

Credit: Sara Jaye Weiss/Shutterstock

August 2022

During an August 2022 episode of his podcast, Unglert revealed that he already had a proposal plan. "I know when I'm doing it and where I'm doing it," he said. He and Miller-Keyes agreed that they're both going to propose, but the Bachelorette alum said, "My money's on me doing it first."

The California native also shared his vision for the wedding itself. "We're gonna elope, I hope. That's my dream," he said.