Kary Brittingham and Mark A. Anderson.Photo:Kary Brittingham/Instagram
Kary Brittingham/Instagram
Kary Brittinghamis engaged!
The formerReal Housewives of Dallasstar got “the surprise of a lifetime” on July 11, when herboyfriend Mark A. Andersonproposed to her during a trip to Tuscany.
“I still can’t believe it, I am over the moon,” Brittingham, 53, tells PEOPLE, calling from Switzerland, whereshe and Anderson are still celebrating their engagement. “Even now, all these days later, I’m sitting here, like, shocked that it happened. I feel like I’m in a dream!”
Anderson — a 57-year-old, noted injury lawyer — popped the question to Brittingham at a covered bridge at their Italian hotel.
“It was the most romantic setting,” she says. “He got down on one knee and started talking, and before he even had a chance to really ask me, I just said, ‘Yes, yes a million times yes!’ I was so happy.”
“This ring is really insane,” Brittingham says with a laugh. “And he picked it out himself, I really had no clue. It’s perfect.”
Kary Brittingham’s engagement ring.Kary Brittingham/Instagram
The happy pair met a year ago on Match.com. “I’m the one who actually saw him first,” Brittingham recalls. “I was in Aspen on a trip for my birthday — cause my birthday’s July 14 — and I was laying on my friend’s bed, trying to rest up, when I started scrolling Facebook and this ad for Match.com popped up. Next thing I knew, I had downloaded and joined Match and while scrolling, I liked his photo. These rest is history.”
“He was in Los Angeles at the time, where he has a second home,” Brittingham adds. “But we talked on the phone the next day, and then, for like a week straight — every day, non-stop, for four hours on the phone. It was crazy. We had this connection before even meeting in person.”
That connection only got stronger when they did link up in person. By March, Anderson, a Ft. Worth native, sold his home there to move to Dallas to be closer to his now bride-to-be.
“I can’t even describe to you how similar we are,” Brittingham says. “He’s literally my twin. I had always thought to myself, ‘I need to day someone. younger, because I’m so young at heart.’ But he’s almost 5 years older than me and he’ssoyoung. He has this amazing spirit. He’s just like, ‘Let’s go, go, go!’ And I’m like, ‘That’s me!’ I feel like I’m 22, and he’s like the same way. We’re both fiery! We even have the exact same personality type, out of those 16 personality types. It’s been a lot of fun.”
The two even have kids close in age from their previous relationships. Anderson is dad to daughter, Turner, 23, while Brittingham is mom to Sofia, 25. Olivia, 23, Alex, 21 and Isabella, 16.
“Olivia and Turner are exactly 1 month apart,” Brittingham tells PEOPLE. “They have mutual friends and everything. It’s wild!”
She and Anderson have both been married before. He was married for 20 years and divorced 8 years ago, Brittingham says, while sheannounced her divorce from second husband Eduardo after 12 years of marriage in May 2021. The divorce was finalized last month.
As for the wedding, Brittingham tells PEOPLE she and Anderson are thinking about next summer, possibly in Italy.
“We got engaged in Tuscany and then he brought me to Lake Como for an engagement honeymoon, which I didn’t even know was a thing. And it was just magical. So Italy has been, for sure, the No. 1 contender.”
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Until then, Brittingham will continue “floating on cloud 9.”
“I’m the happiest girl in the world,” she says. “You know, dating at this age is not easy. When I first separated from my ex-husband, I thought I wanted to be single and was excited to be but after dating for two years, I was like, ‘I really don’t like to be single!’ I missed having that person, someone to snuggle with and tell ‘I love you’ 100 times a day. And right after I realized that, I met Mark.”
“It really feels like I found a needle in a haystack. If I could have put on paper all the things I was looking for in somebody, it’s him,” gushes Brittingham. “I’m madly in love and just feel so grateful. He says to me all the time, ‘Oh my god, how did I get so lucky?’ And I’m like, ‘How didIget so lucky?’ We’re both very lucky. It’s very sweet.”
source: people.com
