Michael Phelps finally took a dive — into plans to get married, that is. The gold medal swimmer is engaged to former beauty queen Nicole Johnson, and both tweeted their happiness about the news, reported MSN.
“She said yes,” summed up Michael on social media.
Nicole took to Instagram to share her own excitement at the engagement.
“I’m gonna be a Mrs.”
Neither Nicole nor Michael has been married before. Both are 29 but come from very different backgrounds. While Phelps earned 18 gold medals before retiring, Nicole won her fame as a Miss California USA winner.
On the infamy track sheet, however, it’s Phelps who has chalked up the scandal scores, according to LBS on YardBaker.
He was initially arrested for driving under the influence (DUI) in 2004. Then, when he was arrested 10 years later for a second DUI, he announced he was headed to rehab.
That 2014 arrest earned him an unwelcome splash in the media when Phelps failed a field sobriety test. When police measured his BAC, it was almost twice the legal limit.
After that second arrest, Phelps posted his plan for rehab on Twitter.
“The past few days have been extremely difficult. I recognize that this is not my first lapse in judgment, and I am extremely disappointed with myself. I’m going to take some time away to attend a program that will provide the help I need to better understand myself.
“Swimming is a major part of my life, but right now I need to focus my attention on me as an individual, and do the necessary work to learn from this experience and make better decisions in the future.”
Michael isn’t the only celebrity sports star to get bad press from drinking. As the Inquisitr reported, Lance Armstrong recently was in the news again after being cited for hitting parked cars following a night of partying and drinking.
Armstrong’s girlfriend, Anna Hansen, tried to take the blame.
“That was a joint decision and um, you know we’ve had our family name smeared over every paper in the world in the last couple of years and… I thought, ‘Gosh, Anna Hansen hit some cars, it’s not going to show up in the papers, but Lance Armstrong hit some cars, it’s going to be a national story.'”
But in addition to the DUI and rehab scandals,Phelps found himself the subject of sexual gossip when a woman who proclaimed that she was a girlfriend announced that she was born a boy, reported the Daily Mail.
Taylor Lianne Chandler announced on her Facebook page that she was named David Roy Fitch when she was born. Chandler posted that she then chose to go on testosterone blockers and change her name in her teens, then had surgery when she was in her 20s.
[Image Via Michael Phelps on Twitter]