Colorado Governor Jared Polis, a
Democrat, and long-term partner Marlon Reis are engaged.
The couple has been together for 17
years and is raising two children.
According to The Colorado Sun,
the couple got engaged on December 6.
Polis popped the question as Reis was
preparing to go to the hospital as he battled a coronavirus
infection.
“I was getting my things ready,” he
said. “My daughter was crying in the corner – she didn't want
me to go. My son was asking me a lot of technical questions: 'When
are you coming back? Do they know exactly what's wrong?' It was a
very tense moment.”
Polis, the nation's first openly gay
elected governor, assured him he was going to be okay, then got down
on one knee and proposed.
“It was the absolute perfect time,”
Reis said. “I said to him, 'I couldn't breathe before. Now I really
can't breathe.'”
Reis said that the proposal, in the
works for 7 months, gave him hope.
“It put such a spring in my step,”
he said. “When I got to the hospital I wasn't scared anymore. I
said, 'I have a great relationship, a great family that I'm going to
be coming home to after this.'”
After two days in the hospital, Reis
returned home to recover.
The couple has yet to set a wedding
date.