“The Real Housewives of Orange County” star Vicki Gunvalson is getting ready to walk down the aisle for the third time!
On Friday, Vicki announced that she’s engaged to boyfriend Steve Lodge after nearly three years of dating.
Along with showing off her ring, Vicki wrote, “I said “YES”. ♥️💍 #engaged #happy #mylove.”
The engagement comes just two months after Gunvalson shut down engagement rumors. While spending time in Las Vegas in late February, she said, “We’re not getting married,” adding, “Steve Lodge surprised me with ‘La Reve’ tickets.”
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Last year, Vicki revealed that she was already looking at engagement rings. She told People Now, “I’ve got on Pinterest and I’ve picked out about five of them. It’s just going to be something really unique.”
As for the wedding, she wants it to be small. She shared with the outlet, “Our circle’s getting super small. Maybe on a ranch in the country, just something really easy. I don’t want the big ballgown. We’ll see. We might just go to Vegas one day. When it’s right it’s going to be right. But right now I’m just happy with him. We have a great time together.”
The 57-year-old also stressed the importance of taking things slow before they get married. She explained, “We never want to be divorced again. We both have some divorces behind our belt. We don’t have to rush. We want it to be on our time. I want to be his wife, he knows that and he wants to be my husband. We’ll see what happens.” She was previously married to Donn Gunvalson and Michael J Wolfsmith.
Vicki met Steve — who describes himself as a veteran, a retired homicide detective, a public policy advisor, a former police commissioner, and more on his Instagram page — at a Boys & Girls Club charity event in Anaheim.
In 2017, Gunvalson gushed about her man, telling “Extra’s” Mario Lopez at Universal Studios Hollywood, “I have a man that is solid. And he’s good and he loves me. So that’s what we all want, right? I took a year, no dating, only a couple of platonic dates, but I was ready to be in another relationship, so, God has a plan.”
Lodge helped her move on from her relationship with cancer con man Brooks Ayers, who she dated for five years. Last month, she filed a lawsuit against Ayers, who she claims never repaid a $266,000 loan. The papers, obtained by Page Six, reveal she is also suing him for fraud: “[Ayers] intentionally represented to [her] that he would promptly repay the funds borrowed from [her], when in fact, [he] had no intention of ever repaying either of the loans.”
Ayers, who is now married to Christy Groves Lindeman, had no comment on the matter.
Last year, Vicki opened up about her legal moves against Ayers on the “RHOC” reunion. She said, “I’m going after him… for money he owes me. He owes me a lot. I have an Excel spreadsheet on him. I don’t [want to] relive the emotion, I want my money back. The man lied to me and he’s not going to get away with it.”