What's that sound? It's everyone in the world collectively crying now that Idris Elba is engaged. At a London screening of his directorial debut, Yardie, Elba got down on one knee and popped the question to girlfriend Sabrina Dhowre in front of everyone. We don't know what he said when he asked her, but she definitely said, "Yes!"
"Another @Riocinemafirst! Still 5 days to Valentines Day but @idriselba went down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend live on stage this morning before a preview of his film #Yardie," the Rio Cinema tweeted after it all went down.
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A talent agent in the audience caught the tail end of Elba's proposal on video and posted it to Instagram. That's where you can see two adorable details: 1) Both of them are wearing matching Vans sneakers, and 2) he gives Dhowre a huge hug afterwards.
This would be Elba's third trip down the aisle after his 1999-2003 marriage to makeup artist Hanne Norgaard, the mother of his 16-year-old daughter Isan; and his six-month 2006 marriage to lawyer Sonya Hamlin. For two and a half years, he dated makeup artist Naiyana Garth, the mother of his 3-year-old son, Winston.
Dhowre is a model who won Miss Vancouver in 2014. Elba met her when he was in Canada shooting The Mountain Between Us. "Falling in love while making a movie about falling in love is pretty special," he told People.
The pair kept their relationship quiet until she walked the red carpet with him at the Toronto Film Festival last September. "I have a girlfriend," Elba told Refinery29 at the festival. "You saw me with Sabrina [Dhowre]."
That was right after his cover story in Essence in which he made this statement about marriage: "Am I ever gonna get remarried? I don't think so. Yeah, I don't think so. Marriage is an institution of sorts. And I've done it. It's not for everybody. It's not my life's calling."
Famous last words, sir.