Lily Collins' New Photoshoot Is Every Fiancée's Dream: "I’m So Excited to Be a Wife”

Lily Collins is opening up about her engagement to writer and film director Charlie McDowell!

In the fall/winter issue of Byrdie, the 31-year-old star of Emily in Paris talked about getting engaged, road trips, and when she knew her new fiancé was “the one.”

She and McDowell recently got engaged in September while on a road trip, one of their favorite hobbies as a couple. She accredited her sanity during this year in part to her and McDowell’s frequent road trips. “You're literally breathing in clean air,” she told Byrdie. “You're not feeling at a loss of creativity and you’re doing things with your hands and getting outside and building fires, and feeling really at peace in a time when there's just been so much darkness.” 

McDowell popped the question while the two were on the road in Sedona and Santa Fe, and she described the proposal as “a surreal moment that you just replay over and over in your head.” And although the engagement came after just one year together, the actress said she was not surprised by the proposal. “All my friends joked with me at first,” she said. “They're like, ‘How can you know’ I'm like, ‘I know. I just know.’”

Collins took to Instagram on Sept. 25 to share the exciting news.“I’ve been waiting my lifetime for you and I can’t wait to spend our lifetime together…” she wrote. The director presented Collins with a unique and beautiful ring with a morganite center stone. 

During her interview with Byrdie, Collins didn’t hold back her excitement about her newfound engagement. “Can I just say? Honestly, I’m so excited to be a wife,” she said. “I don't think of it in any way, shape, or form to do with whether or not I'm a feminist. To me, it's more like, I can't wait to be with this person, and now we get to plan something that we'll have for the rest of our lives.”

In July 2019, the two sparked romance rumors after being spotted together in Los Angeles. Collins made the relationship Instagram official the following month.