Justin Long and Kate Bosworth confirm engagement as they open up about proposal

Justin Long and Kate Bosworth have announced their engagement and opened up about how the marriage proposal “organically” happened.

The pair, who confirmed their relationship in May 2022, shared the big news in Tuesday’s episode of the Life is Short with Justin Long podcast, which featured Bosworth as a guest. The reveal came weeks after they first sparked engagement rumours at Vanity Fair’s Oscar Party, when the actress was spotted with a ring on her finger.

During the podcast episode, Long recalled how he popped the question. He said that while he initially had a “special thing planned” around Bosworth’s birthday in January, it didn’t end up happening.

However, Long said he took a later opportunity to propose to his future-wife in a very natural and “personal” manner.

“It was a moment where it just felt so organic and it felt connected to something very, very deeply, profoundly personal that we were going through, like, a real life change, and so it came out in a very organic way,” the Barbarian star explained. “As all of these moments with you have…the asking of it was easy.”

Bosworth agreed with the sentiment, pointing out that she and Long had “just gone through this really hard thing” before getting engaged. Although she didn’t specify what this thing was, she did recall their work with a therapist and some of the advice they got from her.

“We had spoken to a therapist and we were trying to move through things at the time and she gave us a really great piece of advice which was: ‘Make sure that you’re pretty consistently asking the other what you need, or asking the other what they need,’” the Blue Crush star said.

Bosworth then recalled an instance where she asked the actor about what he needed, which ultimately sparked a conversation about their future.

“I remember waking up, not so many mornings after that therapy session, and I looked at Justin…I smiled at you, and I said, ‘What do you need?’” she explained. “And he, like, really looked at me and he said, ‘To spend my life with you.’ And I smiled and I said, ‘Well, yeah, you have that. Oh my gosh, you have that,’ and he said, ‘No, I mean I really want to spend my life with you.’”

Long agreed and said those words “came out so naturally,” before Bosworth called this conversation the “most romantic, and honest and loving proposal”.

The two actors were first connected in May 2021 while filming House of Darkness together in Arkansas. They sparked romance rumours in March 2022 when they were first spotted together in Los Angeles. Long confirmed that he was dating Bosworth in May of that year during an episode of the Dear Chelsea podcast.

Speaking to Chelsea Handler at the time, Long discussed why he previously kept his relationship private.

“There’s something about it, for me, that I feel like I need to protect and keep sacred because it feels sacred,” he explained. “I’ve never had anything like this before; I’ve never experienced this. So it’s something I want to protect and keep, you know?”

Since announcing their relationship, the pair have posted about each other on social media. Long shared a sweet tribute to Bosworth on Instagram in January for her 40th birthday.

“She is also the best part of my day, everyday - even when we’re not together,” he wrote in the caption. “She laughs with abandon. She makes me laugh the same - all the time.”

Before starting her relationship with Long, Bosworth was married to film director Michael Polish for eight years. The former couple officially divorced in August 2021.