‘Dancing With the Stars’ Champion Announces Engagement

Olympic athlete and Dancing With the Stars Mirrorball champion Adam Rippon started off 2021 by announcing his engagement to fiance Jussi-Pekka”JP” Kajaala.

Rippon was a contestant on the 2018 season of Dancing With the Stars during the all-athlete season where he competed alongside professional dancer Jenna Johnson.

Rippon is a retired competitive figure skater. According to Page Six, the couple has been together since 2018. The Olympian told the outlet that he and his now-fiance have a “secret language.”

Rippon Announced His Engagement

Rippon took to Instagram to announce his engagement.

“JP and I didn’t get to see each other for almost all of 2020 because of the pandemic,” Rippon wrote in his Instagram post. “When there was finally a chance for me to go and see him in Finland, I jumped at it. I was there for a little over two months. While I was there, I would tell him about five million jokes that I would want to pitch during my 5 hour zoom meetings for our NBC comedy.”

He continued, “And he would drive me into the Finnish forest where I would attempt to try and ‘help’ him shovel snow so he could keep working on the cottage he’s building. So, in between all that and binging the entire 4 seasons of The Crown, we bought ourselves some rings and said that magic word.. “duh!” We got ~*engaged*.”

He shared the comment alongside photos of he and his fiance celebrating their engagement and showing off their rings.

Rippon Says Kajaala Is ‘The Best’

Rippon opened up to People about the couple’s relationship and why he’s excited to marry his significant other.

“I’m excited to marry JP because he’s the best,” Rippon told the outlet. “He’s kind, he’s funny, and he’s just as beautiful on the inside as he is on the out (which is a lot). He’s my cheerleader and I’m his. I just love him a lot.”

According to people, both of the men got down on one knee to pop the question.

“We did everything together,” Rippon shared. “We bought the rings together and picked them up at the same time. I really wanted us to have rings from Finland. I thought it would be fun to have a little piece of Finland with us all the time as JP is getting ready to move to Los Angeles hopefully by the end of the year.”

The two plan to have a courthouse wedding and film everything so they can share it with both of their families, as they live far apart, and “it’ll be pretty hard to get both our families together in the same place,” Rippon told People.

“We want to try and film the day and be able to share it with our family so that everyone feels included,” he added.

Rippon and Kajaala met on Tinder in 2018. Kajaala shared the photos and announcement as well, writing, “No woman no cry.” Rippon’s mother commented on the photo sweetly, writing “Changing my bio to ‘mom of seven’ love you JP.”

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