A former contestant from “Bachelor in Paradise” and “The Bachelor” is newly engaged. Carly Waddell thought she found love on season 3 of “Paradise,” and she married Evan Bass in 2017, shared Us Weekly (via Yahoo! Entertainment).
However, Waddell and Bass split in December 2020. They share two children, Isabella, born in 2018, and Charlie, born in 2019.
In March, Waddell debuted her new romance with Todd Allen Tressler via Instagram. During a vacation in Costa Rica, he popped the question.
“Here’s to a new chapter with my dream man,” Waddell swooned.
Carly Waddell Has Been Keeping Secrets
On October 17, Waddell shared her engagement news in an Instagram post. “A little thing happened in Costa Rica,” she teased.
Waddell revealed she actually had asked Tressler to marry her a year ago on Halloween. “He said yes, even though to be honest he was so shocked,” she noted.
The Halloween proposal was why some Bachelor Nation fans had noticed Tressler wearing a ring on his left-handed ring finger, Waddell explained. She also promised to share more about that story “soon.”
She continued, “Then, also SPOILER ALERT he asked me THIS October and I also said YES!!!!!”
Bachelor Nation Is Excited for Waddell
Waddell also shared, “We had been looking at the traditional ring shops for a while and I knew what direction I wanted to go with.”
They ultimately had a custom ring designed by James Allen Rings, and Waddell didn’t see the finished ring until the proposal.
“It’s more beautiful [than] I could have ever imagined it to be,” she gushed.
Before revealing her engagement, Waddell had shared some posts about the family’s trip to Costa Rica. In an Instagram post from October 10, Waddell documented highlights from the vacation that included Bella, Charlie, and Tressler.
Quite a few of Waddell’s Instagram followers commented on the Costa Rica highlights post noting how happy she looked.
One fan wrote, “Hottie Lawyer puts an amazing smile on all of your faces!!”
Another fan shared, “Happy looks good on you and your kiddos!”
Fans were equally overjoyed by the engagement reveal.
“Oh my gosh so happy for you! I LOVE the way he loves you and your kids,” one supporter commented.
Someone else added, “Awe!! So sweet!! You are so worthy of this love!”
A different Instagram user wrote, “Omgosh, so beautiful and awesome!!! You SO deserve ALL of this happiness!! ❤️😍 so grateful that you found yourself a wonderful man, who loves you and your kids so much!! Gorgeous ring!!!!!!! 💍 💎I cannot wait to see pics of the wedding!! Yay!!!”
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When Waddell went “Instagram Official” with Tressler in March, she noted they had already been dating for a while.
She explained, “I have left him out of my social media presence while I made sure my kids loved him and while I made sure I did too.”
Now, Waddell reveals, the relationship was already quite serious at that point, given she had proposed to him almost five months earlier.
After their first date, Waddell recalled telling her mother, “I don’t know what is going to happen in the future, but I will forever measure every other date to what that just was because it was magic.”
Waddell added, “It continues to be magic.”
Stacy Carey has been a freelance writer focusing on reality television and celebrity news for more than a decade. She is a Heavy contributor for The Bachelor, Hallmark and Dancing With the Stars. More about Stacy Carey
