A daughter of broadcaster Ronan Collins has revealed she is engaged to her boyfriend after the pair met on RTE's First Dates Ireland.
Jessica Collins and boyfriend Ger Lynch hit it off when they first met on the dating show three years ago - but after going on a second date they decided to remain as friends.
It wasn't until the Covid lockdown that their romance blossomed and they decided to move in together in early 2021.
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Spilling details of the romantic proposal, Jessica told how Ger got down on one knee and popped the question in The Gibson Hotel in Dublin - where they first met while filming First Dates Ireland.
Speaking to the Sunday World, Jessica said: “After the show was done then we went on another date and decided that we would stay in touch and remain friends."
Jessica, an events planner, moved back into her parents’ home in Navan during lockdown and Ger lived 20 minutes away in the village of Duleek. The pair began to get very close as friends at first.
She explained: “It became my go-to place, just two friends hanging out like when you didn’t want to hang out with your parents every day.
"I asked Ger if he wanted to have a lodger and he said ‘yeah, just me and the pups'
"So, we moved in together for 11 months and on November 11, 2021, we discovered when we were having a bottle of wine that we were crazy about each other and that this is more than what we think it is and everybody else thinks and neither of us wanted to mess it up.”
Jessica and Ger attended a comedy gig in the 3Arena recently and Ger had something very special planned as they returned to where they met on First Dates Ireland in The Gibson hotel beforehand.
She recalled: “Ger got down on one knee in front of the people and proposed to me, which was emotionally overwhelming, it was gorgeous.
"Everyone clapped. It wouldn’t be like Ger to put himself on show like that to be fair to him.
“As confident as he came across he told me he was terrified, but he nailed it. It was a dream proposal, I can’t lie.”
Ahead of the engagement, Ger contacted Jessica's famous dad, RTE legend Ronan Collins to get the green light.
"Unbeknownst to me, Ger had approached my dad the week before and asked for his blessing, and dad was thrilled," she said.
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