Gina Rodriguez Announces Engagement to Joe LoCicero

Gina Rodriguez has confirmed that she and long-time boyfriend Joe LoCicero are engaged.

The Jane the Virgin star told reporters from Us Weekly about the engagement on Tuesday. She dropped the major news while speaking to the outlet about her activist causes — most recently, the fight to put feminine hygiene products in the hands of the under-privileged and impoverished.

“I have a very, very special man in my life. I am engaged. You’re the first people that I’ve told,” the 34-year-old actress said. “It’s wonderful blessings like that, that make me realize that if I have an opportunity to help someone else, I want to.”

Rodriguez said that the hashtag “End Period Poverty” is “the reason why I’m working days after my engagement.”

“This is important. I have been very, very blessed including being blessed with a very incredible man that understands that during my time of the month, I should be protected and cared for and loved and celebrated and he does that every single time, every single month,” she went on. “It’s really great to be apart the campaign that makes sure all women feel that way because I have a man in my house that makes me feel that way.”

“I am marrying a feminist,” she added. “I am marrying a man that is incredible and loving and understanding and kind and patient. I’m marrying a really incredible human being. That what it is. I met a human that like, knows he’s a human.”

Rodriguez first sparked engagement rumors just over a week ago, when she posted a video in which she was wearing a diamond ring. The hint was not so subtle, and news outlets took it as a heavy-handed sign that she and LoCicero were preparing to tie the knot.

“‘They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn’t,’” Rodriguez wrote alongside the post in a quote. “‘I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.’” The Frida Kahlo quote may have been a nod to her choice not to play the secretive celebrity game.

Clearly, she was not intent on keeping the secret, as she mentioned the engagement casually in speaking to the magazine. She met LoCicero in 2016 when he appeared alongside her on Jane the Virgin. The beloved CW series is coming back for a fifth season next year, and things have escalated to a level of unbelievable craziness.

Much like her real life counterpart, Jane was on the verge of engagement at the end of season 4. However, things got complicated when she learned that her late husband, Michael, was actually still alive. Fans will have to wait a long time for the conclusion to that cliffhanger, as the show has no return date set in stone just yet.