From Dua To Dakota, Welcome To The Era Of The Quiet Engagement
If a celebrity gets engaged but nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound? That's the question that a stable of starry couples are facing as news of their quiet engagements — if frantic and frenzied internet discourse is to be believed — reach fever pitch. The latest cultural casualty of internet sleuths sleuthing? Zendaya and Tom Holland, who are, due to a loose-lipped load of 'sources close to the couple', believed to have become engaged during the holidays.
Theirs is just the latest in a string of 'quiet' celebrity engagements, which happen under-the-radar and away from the prying eyes of parasocially and hopelessly devoted fans. Love was clearly in the air for many of Tinsel Town's nearest and dearest during December; Dua Lipa and Callum Turner also quietly got engaged, if yet more 'sources' are to be believed. The perceived proof of the Londoners' love-in, was of course, unfurled by fans of the pair who spotted Lipa wearing a diamond engagement ring in an Instagram post. Dakota Johnson and Chris Martin's rumoured engagement was another that whispered, rather than shouted, while Anya Taylor-Joy admitted in April 2024 that she'd married her long-term boyfriend Malcom McRae a whole two years prior. A recent survey even found that 93% of Gen Z still hope to get hitched at some point – but when they do, it’ll be a more secretive affair than their predecessors. Make no mistake: it appears that it's never been cooler to be quieter.
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There was a time in the not-so-distant past where you couldn't move for loud and proud celebrity engagement announcements. Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco posted their engagement on Instagram in December 2024, while Gabbriette characteristically posted a picture of the black onyx engagement ring Matty Healy proposed with to Instagram with the caption, 'MARRYING THE 1975 IS VERY BRAT.' Lest we forget when Jennifer Lopez indulged our deepest, darkest 'Bennifer' desires by writing about her second proposal from Ben Affleck in her 'On the Jlo' newsletter. In the eyes of fans, what doesn't get outrightly shared — and therefore confirmed — with social media, the world's megaphone, is fodder to be picked apart and criticised.
Now, in the cacophonous age of internet noise, it seems that the coolest thing a couple can do is fly under the radar until you throw your fans enough of a bone to chomp on, while you proceed with the living of your life. This is a yardstick that can even be used to measure other celebrity couples who use their rare public appearances to speak volumes. Take Kylie Jenner and Timothee Chalamet, for example, who appear to have started a trend of having one annual date night in public at the Golden Globes, a trend they started on the awards' red carpet last year, and continued into this year. Despite TikTok being flooded with rumours of their break-up or Jenner's 'pregnancy' prior to the January 5 ceremony, all it took to quiet the audiences who so feverishly follow them was a few flashes of a cuddle here, several sneaky snogs there. Despite the fame that ensconces them, their relationship is one that happens behind closed doors, and they are choosing to reveal as little as possible about their love. Really, who can blame them?
If public discourse is as malleable as it appears to be (spoiler alert: it's even more so), then for celebrities to control the narrative of their lives in their own way on their own terms is more powerful than any other kind of PR. This is the era of celebrities quietly launching their engagements, and softly confirming their relationship statuses in their own way, their own time and on their own terms. Nothing needs to be explicit anymore. With fanbases like this, it's all in the unspoken.
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