Darius Rucker announces engagement to influencer Emily Deahl

Darius Rucker is celebrating after taking his relationship to the next level.

On Wednesday, the Hootie & the Blowfish singer, 59, surprised fans by announcing his engagement o girlfriend Emily Deahl with a black and white photo of him proposing down on one knee. The snap sees Deahl, 33, grinning down at her partner as he holds up an off-camera ring. 

A second photo of the newly engaged couple shows off the large engagement ring as Rucker kisses Deahl on the cheek. “Thank you for showing me a level of happiness I have never known,” Rucker captioned the joint Instagram post. “The day I met you I knew I didn’t want to go another one without you. Now I don’t have to.”

The engagement news comes only a month after the couple went Instagram official. Over on her own page, Deahl reshared the post to her Instagram Stories with a few sentences addressing the secrecy.

“I never intended on keeping this part of my life from you guys for so long,” she told her followers. “But somewhere along the way of loving him I discovered how sacred love is to me. And all I wanted to do was protect it.”

She then quipped, “But damn, I’m glad I don’t have to spend the time photoshopping him out of every photo now.”

Deahl is an influencer and musician with nearly 500,000 followers on TikTok. Last month, Rucker revealed their relationship to the world by sharing a smiling selfie of the couple standing outside Sphere in Las Vegas. “Wizard of Oz at @spherevegas with my love & my boys,” he captioned the post.

It’s unclear how long the couple have been together, but fans have been speculating about the length of their relationship using clues from Deahl’s vlogs. In an April video shared to her YouTube channel, she revealed that she moved to London in January. That revelation came after Rucker, in a February interview, talked about relocating to the British city ​​while recording new material and prepping for new gigs.

Deahl also hinted at her relationship status in April, with a TikTok video that saw her joke, “Missing my man then remembering how many songs I wrote about hating men.”

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This will be Rucker’s second marriage, who was married to Beth Leonard for 20 years. The couple, who share daughter Daniela, 24, and son Jack, 20, wed in 2000. (Rucker is also dad to daughter Carolyn, 30, from a previous relationship). Upon announcing their split in 2020, Rucker and Leonard said they remain “close friends and parenting partners.”

Reflecting on the split in 2023, Rucker told PEOPLE, “That stuff hurts and you feel like a failure. But we’re still a family — a piece of paper is not going to change that. We’re still a family, and that’s all because Beth is awesome. She knows it’s the best for the kids, and she’s a great human being.”

At the time, he added that he wasn’t focused on dating as he was busy “trying to be the best dad I can be for those grown kids.”