"The Great British Baking Show" Judge Paul Hollywood Is Engaged!

The Great British Baking Show judge Paul Hollywood is getting ready to say “I do.” The judge of the hit reality television series secretly proposed to girlfriend Melissa Spalding in April of 2022, The Sun reports. “Paul proposed some months ago, but they have been keeping it very quiet since then,” a source tells the outlet. “It’s only in the past month that she has began wearing her engagement ring out in public and sharing the news with friends. There are no wedding plans in place yet.”

The English celebrity chef started dating the pub bartender in 2019 after they met one another at The Chequers Inn, Edinburgh Evening News reports. They confirmed their relationship once they spent Christmas Day together at her pub, according to Metro. “They are very happily together,” a spokesperson for Hollywood announced at the time.

Once the pandemic took hold in 2020, the duo became even closer and have been living together at Hollywood’s farmhouse ever since. “Paul and Melissa spent a lot of time together in lockdown,” a source explains to Daily Mail. "They bubbled up together and stayed at his house. Now, she is there for good. They are delightfully happy.” The couple made their fist red carpet appearance in December of 2021 when they attended the premiere of The King’s Man at Cineworld in Leicester Square. 

This isn’t the first time the celebrity chef and television host has been engaged or married. Hollywood was previously married to Alexandra Hollywood, with whom he shares a son, for 19 years before beginning his relationship with Spalding. In 2013, the former couple split for the first time amid cheating allegations, which Hollywood has said was “the biggest mistake” of his life, Hello Magazine. The duo ultimately reconciled; reflecting on that decision, Alexandra said, “I don’t regret taking Paul back that first time. I thought things through, and it was the right thing to do for me and my son. I don’t feel angry with Paul. Though, of course, there’s a certain amount go hurt. Anger is emotive, and I’m not carrying that around with me. All it does is upset you.”

The couple ultimately split again in November of 2017, and they announced their separation with a joint statement. “It is with sadness that we have decided to separate,” their message read. “Our focus continues to be the happiness of our son. We ask the press and public to allow us privacy during this very difficult time.” Hollywood went on to date social media influencer Summer Monteys-Fullam, but they called it quits in 2019. 

Spalding is also not a stranger to a proposal. The pub worker was supposedly engaged twice before, but she never married, Yahoo News says.