Justin Long, Kate Bosworth are engaged. How did he propose?

Justin Long and Kate Bosworth are officially engaged. How therapy prompted a proposal

A smiling man and woman stand with arms around each other on arrival at an Oscars after-party.

April 4, 2023 12 PM PT

Justin Long and Kate Bosworth just announced that they’re heading down the aisle, a month after sparking engagement rumors on Oscar night.

The actors made their engagement official on Tuesday’s episode of Long’s “Life Is Short” podcast. In the episode, Long and his now-fiancée spoke about “embarking on a new chapter” — and about the ring Bosworth debuted at the Vanity Fair Oscars party in March.

“I like to create clarity, and so I thought, well, rather than of being called out in some weird interview where someone’s asking me questions or you questions,” Bosworth said, “maybe it would be nice to sit down with one another and have a loving conversation and hopefully people will like it.”

The “Barbarian” actors reportedly began their romance in 2021, after Bosworth announced her split from “Big Sur” director Michael Polish following eight years of marriage. In June 2022, the “Remember the Titans” star made her relationship with Long Instagram official with a romantic post celebrating her new beau’s birthday.

Later in the podcast, Long, 44, recalled how he initially planned to propose to Bosworth around her 40th birthday in January. That didn’t pan out.

Instead, Long popped the question after a “difficult” period for the couple. Neither he nor Bosworth shared specifics about that rough patch, saying only, “One day we’ll talk about it.”

“We had just gone through this really hard thing and we had spoken to a therapist and we were trying to move through things at the time and she gave us a really great piece of advice which was: Make sure that you’re pretty consistently asking the other what you need or asking the other what they need,” Bosworth recalled.

She continued: “I remember waking up not so many mornings after that therapy session and I looked at Justin and I said … I remember, I smiled at you, and I said, ‘What do you need?’ He really looked at me and he said, ‘To spend my life with you.’”

Long said earlier in the episode that the proposal “just felt so organic.”

The engagement to Bosworth will be the first for Long. The “He’s Just Not That Into You” star was previously connected to Amanda Seyfried and Drew Barrymore. Long told Bosworth during the podcast that he is “so convicted” on their romance.

“I know with absolute certainty, and I knew early on, that certainly, I will always love you. In whatever form that might take,” he said.

“Me too,” Bosworth replied.