Move over, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, there's another happy couple to congratulate — Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz are engaged to be married, the singer's rep confirmed to MTV News.
Just a month ago, Simpson was trying to laugh off rumors that she was engaged and/or pregnant, when she released a statement denying that she had been drunk during a radio interview, as had been speculated. "Questions and false rumors about my dad being a jerk, being pregnant, being engaged, etc., are not fun to answer every single day," she said at the time. "Eventually I try to just laugh them off."
But now the rumors have come true, and Simpson is more than happy to confirm the news. "We know there has been a lot of speculation recently about Pete and I," she wrote with Wentz in a joint statement, posted late Wednesday on FriendsorEnemies.com. "Yes, we are thrilled to share that we are happily engaged."
Simpson, 23, and Wentz, 28, said they wanted their fans to be the first to know. "We wanted to be the first to tell you and to hear it straight from us," they wrote.
Don't expect a lot of details, though, since they also wrote, "We consider this to be a very private matter." Though some reports have placed the site of the proposal in Colorado, a source close to the situation told MTV News that "Pete did not propose in Colorado," nor did he give her a ring there. Wentz previously gave Simpson a diamond promise ring at Christmas.
The couple have been together since late 2006, though they didn't go public until several months into their relationship. Prior to dating Wentz, Simpson told Teen People in May 2006: "Marriage is definitely not on my mind. There's a lot of growing up you do in your 20s, and I definitely want to wait until my late 20s or 30s or whenever the time is right." But more recently, she had started joking that between her and her sister Jessica, she would be the more likely one to get married.
"Thank you for all your support and well wishes," Simpson and Wentz said in the statement. "It means the world to us."
