International superstar Ricky Martin just announced his engagement to Syrian artist Jwan Yosef.
The Puerto Rican singer made the announcement in an interview with American comedian Ellen Degeneres on her talk show, The Ellen Show. He explained that his love for art paved the way to his fiancé.
"He’s a conceptional artist and I’m a collector so I started looking for art and I saw his art and I went crazy because I really love what he does. Really original. And then I contacted him," Martin told Degeneres, explaining how he met Yosef.
He told Degeneres that he has now known Yosef for a little over a year. The couple announced their relationship in April during The Foundation for AIDS Research gala in Brazil.
“I proposed. I was really nervous, but I got on my knees and I took out the little metal box I just had it in a little velvet pouch and instead of saying ‘Will you marry me?’” Martin said in the interview.
“I said, ‘I got you something!’ Bad. And then he was like, ‘Yes.’ I said, ‘I want to spend my life with you’ and he was like, ‘What is the question?,’ ‘Would you marry me?’ That’s it.”
Yosef was born in Syria. His father is Kurdish and his mother is Armenian. The family immigrated to Sweden where he studied art at the Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. He graduated in 2009 and went on to complete an MA in Fine Arts at Central Saint Martins in London in 2011.
His work has been exhibited throughout Europe, but mainly in Stockholm and London, according to a CV posted on his website.
The couple visited Syrian refugees in Lebanon back in June with UNICEF. After spending time visiting camps in the Bekaa Valley, Martin, who serves as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, said that the international community needs to "open its heart."
"This [wedding] is going to be Middle Eastern and Latin crazy all at once. It’s going to be one loud wedding!" Martin said.
“It’s one of those things when you have very beautiful moments, magical moments, magical conversations and beautiful experiences and all this time, you’re thinking, maybe it’s here,” he said about his relationship with Yosef.
“Then you just go for it and allow yourself to feel… I’m very certain about what’s happening. I’m a hopeless romantic.”
Yosef will also become the step-father to Martin's two twin boys, Valentino and Matteo.