Heavy/ABC Brayden Bowers is dating Christina Mandrell.
“The Golden Bachelor” live wedding event on January 4 was a who’s-who of Bachelor Nation as everybody was eager to participate in the nuptials of Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist. Ahead of the actual exchange of vows, another couple surprised everybody by taking their young romance to the next level. “Bachelor in Paradise” star Brayden Bowers proposed to his girlfriend, “The Bachelor” star Christina Mandrell and she accepted.
Here’s what you need to know:
Christina Mandrell & Brayden Bowers Are Engaged
As Bachelor Nation stars mixed and mingled ahead of Turner and Nist’s nuptials, host Jesse Palmer checked in with Bowers and Mandrell. Palmer asked them what was next for them, and they talked about how he was moving out to Tennessee over the upcoming weekend.
Mandrell and Bowers will be driving from California to Tennessee together, which they noted was a 29-hour journey. She teased there would be some surprises for him once they got there. It turned out, he had an even bigger surprise for her.
Bowers said he actually had something else planned for the evening, and he grabbed Mandrell’s hands and started his speech. He talked about falling in love with her, and admitted, “For the first time in my life, I feel like I found someone that I can be myself with unapologetically.”
“I have no doubts that I want to spend the rest of my life with you,” Bowers continued. He got down on one knee and everybody around them started cheering. The “Bachelor in Paradise” star opened a ring box and Mandrell yelled, “Yes! Yes!” as the crowd hollered.
As everybody congratulated them, she asked her new fiance if this was why they got their nails done earlier in the day. He joked about how she had made it all a bit tricky for him.
The Surprise Engagement Generated a Big Reaction
How Brayden Bowers Surprised Christina Mandrell with Engagement at ‘The Golden Bachelor’ Wedding (Exclusive)
Bachelor Nation immediately started buzzing about Bowers and Mandrell’s engagement.
“BRAYDEN AND CHRISTINA JUST GOT ENGAGED…THIS WAS NOT ON MY 2024 BINGO CARD,” tweeted one fan.
“AIN’T NO WAY Brayden just proposed to Christina Mandrell on the live #TheGoldenBachelor wedding. What could have been on Paradise,” tweeted another.
Someone else tweeted, “Brayden and Christina make sense and You could see the sincerity on his face! congrats to them on their engagement.”
There were, however, quite a few “The Golden Bachelor” viewers who were critical of Bowers proposing during the wedding event for Turner and Nist too.
“Ain’t no way brayden just proposed to christina at someone else’s wedding,” one tweet read.
Another post read, “Not Brayden proposing to Christina Mandrell on Gerry and Theresa’s night!”
A different viewer quipped, “Between Leslie showing up, Brayden proposing to Christina & Sandra bringing a Chippendale as her date, the pre-wedding has been lit. What else could happen?”
The fact Bowers and Mandrell were dating may have been news to “The Golden Bachelor” viewers. The last that everybody saw of Bowers on television, he left season 9 of “Bachelor in Paradise” alone.
Once the season finale of “Bachelor in Paradise” aired, Bowers and Mandrell went public with their romance. They fell for one another very hard, very quickly, and he recently opened up about believing she was “the one.”
As he began his proposal, Bowers said he was inspired by Turner and Nist. As viewers have seen, “The Golden Bachelor” pair decided there was no time to waste in terms of getting married soon after their engagement. Bowers seemed to feel similarly about proposing despite only meeting Mandrell a few months ago.