Michelle Keegan: 'I thought Mark was joking when he proposed."

Coronation Street's Michelle Keegan has revealed that when fiance Mark Wright went down on one knee to propose she thought he was joking.

She received the romantic proposal on a beach in Dubai at sunset last month after the former The Only Way Is Essex star had checked with his dad which knee he was supposed to use.

Michelle told Hello! magazine, she had no idea what he was planning when he got in position and said: "I thought he was joking at first and then he said 'Come here'.

"I started crying, and said yes, and then he started welling up as well. Then as we walked further down the beach I saw a table set up with lanterns and petals, and with two glasses of champagne."

In a joint interview and photoshoot for the magazine, Mark said he had asked her father for permission and added: "I rang my dad and said, 'What knee do I drop on?'

"He said, 'You can choose, but I think it's right'. But left is my favourite side so I said I'm going to drop on my left. I'm superstitious, everything has to be done on the left.

"It didn't take me long to realise that Michelle is everything I wanted."

He hid the diamond engagement ring in the hotel safe before he sprang into action.

Mark added: "Michelle is the most beautiful girl I have ever seen."

The couple - both 26 - are now working out where they will live together. "We've started looking into it now. We've been looking at land, too. We are trying to make the decision whether to build or just move in to a house," said Michelle.

They're likely to tie the knot in 2015.

"I've started looking at dresses in magazines," said Michelle. "I am quite traditional, so I'll take Mark's surname and we'd like to get married in a church. We definitely want a family, too, but we want to do everything in order. We want to get married first."

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.