Houston Texans Star JJ Watt Engaged To Soccer Player Kealia Ohai

For quite some time, Houston Texans defensive end JJ Watt maintained that he was just too busy for a relationship. Despite countless rumors about potential love interests in the celebrity world, he never confirmed anything to do with his personal life — until soccer player Kealia Ohai came into the picture. Now, as People reports, the two are officially engaged. Watt has been gushing about his partner on social media for about two years now, and decided to get down on one knee over the Memorial Day long weekend.

Their relationship started back in 2016 when Watt was spotted at a few Houston Dash games donning Ohai’s jersey number. The soccer star may not be as much of a household name as Watt, but she’s a superstar herself, and captains the National Women’s Soccer League team. There was speculation for nearly a year before Watt finally confirmed the relationship in 2017.

“There’s a little bit of that cat and mouse game where everyone wants a photo of us and wants us to confirm it. And I was like, all right, I’ll do it so now we can enjoy ourselves and live happily. And it’s been great.”

While Watt has always been private about his personal life, he wanted to show off the fact that she said yes — and shout his love from the rooftops. So, in an uncharacteristic move, he shared a carousel of 10 shots on his Instagram account that showed everything from the proposal itself to the scenic setting.

He captioned his post with a simple and sweet statement. Kealia Ohai took to Twitter, sharing several of the shots that Watt posted to his Instagram with the equally simple “I love you @JJWatt.”

The two initially met through a former teammate of Watt’s, Brian Cushing. Cushing is married to Ohai’s older sister Megan, so Watt won’t be the first football spouse in the Ohai family. According to Watt and Ohai, their common athletic background and love of staying active plays a huge role in their relationship. “We’re very competitive,” Watt told People. “Very, very competitive and we like to workout together.”

With the engagement just having been announced, Watt hasn’t revealed much about what the wedding will look like yet. Though both Watt and Ohai keep as low a profile as they can, they have their fair share of famous teammates and friends who weighed in on the engagement already. As Huffington Post reported, baseball star Justin Verlander sent his congratulations and bodybuilder and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger offered to officiate. Singer Justin Timberlake even sent Watt a cheeky message, saying “we texting and you don’t even bring this up?!?!?! WOW! Congrats, brother!!!”