Alexis Bellino and John Janssen are engaged after 9 months of dating (exclusive)

• Real Housewives of Orange County Stars Alexis Bellino and John Janssen got engaged on Tuesday, August 27, PEOPLE can exclusively confirm
• The couple first met in November 2023 and made their romance public in December of the same year.
• A spokesperson for the couple told PEOPLE: “John and Alexis are happily engaged and look forward to their long future together as husband and wife.”

Alexis Bellino received a big surprise for her nine-month anniversary with John Janssen: an engagement ring.

People can confirm that the Real Housewives of Orange County The couple is engaged. Janssen, 61, proposed to her on Tuesday, August 27, during a trip to the San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara, California.

Fans who follow Bellino, 47, on social media know she shared photos from the getaway on her Instagram Stories. “My darling surprised me,” she said in a video showing off her elegant room and private hot tub. “This is amazing… I’m very happy, darling. It’s beautiful.”

But it was a post on her main feed on Wednesday, August 28, that let fans know something bigger was afoot with the trip. The sweet photo of Bellino and Janssen together featured a brand new cushion-cut diamond ring. The Finger.

“On cloud 9 🎉❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️, celebrating 9 months full of love and laughter and looking forward to my forever with you,” Bellino wrote under the photo. “Every moment together was a gift. I am so in love with you and the beautiful life we ​​are building together. And the answer is 100000000% yes.”

“#9MonthsStrong #LoveOfMyLife,” she captioned the post, adding a verse from 1 Corinthians 13:13 of the Bible, which reads: “Now abide faith, hope, love, these three. But the greatest of these is love.”

A spokesperson for the couple confirmed the engagement news to PEOPLE. “John and Alexis are happily engaged and look forward to their long future together as husband and wife.”

News of Bellino and Janssen’s connection was first reported exclusively by PEOPLE in early December 2023. The duo had met weeks earlier on November 18 during an altercation with mutual friends at The Quiet Woman restaurant in Orange County.

“We tried to fight the feelings after the second week, John and I knew that was it,” she explained on RHOC earlier this season.

Both had recently separated from long-term relationships. Bellino and her former fiancé Andy Bohn called off their engagement in September 2023, three years after he proposed to her in December 2020. Janssen had since separated from Bellino’s now RHOC Co-star Shannon Storms Beador for the first time in late 2022 after three and a half years of dating and again in September 2023, not long after her arrest for suspected drunk driving and hit-and-run.

This shared experience has helped Bellino and Janssen develop a deeper bond. “The two have been supportive companions as they navigate life as newly singles,” an insider previously told PEOPLE. “This shared background coupled with mutual attraction has made it easy for Alexis and John to form a natural connection.”

Since their romance went public, Bellino and Janssen have made no secret of their feelings for each other, sharing glimpses of the time they’ve spent together: on dates, boat trips, vacations, romantic getaways, and blended family trips with their kids (both have three children from previous relationships).

Janssen even gave her an engagement ring for Christmas 2023. “Words can’t. Actions can,” Bellino wrote on Instagram under a photo of the gold and diamond ring. “I will no longer feel guilty. I will not apologize. Love will write its own story. I love you, Johnny J. 🎄♥️.”

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In March, the two made their red carpet debut as a couple at the DIRECTV Streaming with the Stars Oscar Party. They held hands and posed for photographers with their arms around each other all night at Spago in Beverly Hills, California.

“I always tell her that she is perfect and that she is perfect for me,” Janssen said of Bellino in an interview with Reality with the King Podcast released August 1. “She’s confident. She is, and that’s an overused phrase, but she’s as beautiful inside as she is out and she brings out the best in me.”

“I never really felt loved until Alexis came along, and I have never felt more loved,” he added, noting that Bellino has become his “true partner in life.”

But not everyone accepted their relationship.

The couple was hit by a flood of negativity. Housewives fans over the past nine months, fueled by what Bellino has called false narratives about Janssen from Storms Beador over the years. Bellino, who returned to the Bravo series after a 10-year absence, has spent season 18 defending Janssen, though her passionate remarks have sometimes made things worse online and left many of her former and current RHOC Stars shared.

As hard as it was, they remained an inseparable couple.

“I would say it was bad, but at some point you become numb and then you make the decision to just not see it anymore,” Janssen told PEOPLE in March. “You don’t have to see it anymore. We focus on each other.”

“One hundred percent, I couldn’t have said it better,” Bellino agreed. “We took it pretty slow because we wanted America to know exactly where we stand. And now we’re at the point where we’re focused on the future and looking forward. You either take us or you leave us; you either accept that we’re together or you hate it. But if you don’t want us to be together, swipe left on Instagram — don’t follow my page. Go the other way if you don’t like it, because here we are.”

The Real Housewives of Orange County airs Thursdays (9 p.m. ET) on Bravo.