MrBeast is getting married.
The YouTuber, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, popped the question to girlfriend Thea Booysen on Christmas Day. He announced the big news via his Instagram account on Wednesday, January 1.
“Ya boy did a thing 🥰🥰🥰,” he captioned a carousel of pics from the big day.
In the photos, MrBeast, 26, and Booysen are wearing matching MrBeast-branded Christmas sweaters as they celebrate with family in front of the Christmas tree. Booysen also shared a video via her Instagram account, in which she admires her new ring while sitting on MrBeast’s lap as their dog celebrates with them.
“My family flew out from South Africa for Christmas and we were going to do Christmas in our house so both families were here,” Booysen told People. “We were opening presents, and then for the very last present he asked me to close my eyes because it was a surprise.”
MrBeast added that he even tried to throw his girlfriend off the scent in the moments before.
“I intentionally dropped a large box to make noise before presenting the real gift — with the ring inside — to her. And then I went down on a knee and proposed,” he said.
“I was trying to think of the best way to catch her off guard so it would be a surprise,” MrBeast continued. “Thea is really close to her family, so I wanted to make sure that they were included in this momentous occasion. Christmas worked out great because they were in town from the other side of the world.”
The couple met in 2022 when MrBeast was visiting South Africa, where Booysen is from. The two shared a dinner together and bonded over conversations about science and YouTube. Though MrBeast soon had to return home, the relationship continued to grow when he sent Booysen a direct message via X, asking if he could read the book she was writing at the time.
Booysen, who said she didn’t realize MrBeast was flirting, waited more than a month to respond. When she finally did, they got on a call together and talked for three hours.
“Then I knew [he was The One],” she said. “I fell in love with his brain. To me [that’s] everything — your brain, your drive, your discipline, your character, that’s everything to me. So after that, he immediately planned to come back to South Africa to meet up with me this time, and we started dating the moment he arrived.”
Though MrBeast has more than 340 million YouTube subscribers and 64 million Instagram followers, he hopes his wedding day is “more private.”
“I don’t take much vacation because of how hard I work, so I definitely want to make sure that the wedding will be a time to celebrate with her and spend time with friends and family who we really enjoy being with,” he explained. “It will be the ultimate way to take some time away and enjoy things.”
