Captain Sandy Yawn, Leah Shafer. Getty Images (2)
Below Deck Mediterranean star Captain Sandy Yawn and girlfriend Leah Shafer are engaged after five years of dating.
“Leah wanted the fairytale, and to me, Leah represents elegance. I planned a boat ride to a beautiful cove,” Sandy, 58, told E! News on Monday, September 18, about the proposal. “I had it decorated with flowers with a path to a small table accompanied by three violinists where we could sit and have a small date.”
Sandy added that while she was nervous for the big moment, she “truly could not wait” to propose after “thinking about marrying” Shafer, 49, “for years.”
“I shared my vision list of love I had written and wanted, then got on one knee. Then, she said ‘Yes!’ The look on her face was priceless, and my heart exploded!” she recalled. “It was filled beyond capacity of anything I could ever imagine. Somehow I feel closer than I did before, and I can’t explain it. There is an energy that I have never experienced in my life. I love her beyond; as Leah says Yawn beyond.”
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The couple met in 2018 when Shafer reached out to Sandy via social media about her hit Bravo series.
“She sent me a nice message that said, ‘I came across your show, congratulations, many blessings,’” the captain recalled in an interview with The Cheat Sheet in 2019, noting that the term “many blessings” caught her attention.
Leah — who was previously married to Ross Shafer for 20 years — told the outlet that her connection with Sandy was “definitely unexpected.”
“It just happened, when you meet another soul that you connect with at such a deep level, it is unexplainable and so beautiful,” the opera singer gushed at the time.
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Two years into their relationship, Sandy moved to Colorado to be closer to Leah. However, the pair still maintained a long distance relationship due to her work on Below Deck. In February, Sandy opened up to Us Weekly exclusively about how she and Leah were determined to make their romance work while not always being in the same place.
“We’re figuring it out. We’re madly in love,” Sandy told Us. “Leah and I just were in Miami together and I’m like, ‘We need to go once a month. We need that time.’ We’re three-day people. So three days is perfect and that’s our goal. In those three days, it’s all about us and the phones are off, which is great.”