Kaley Cuoco is a bride-to-be! On Wednesday, the 38-year-old Flight Attendant actress took to her Instagram Story to show off her engagement ring, courtesy of her beau of two years, Tom Pelphrey.
After Cuoco’s rep confirmed to ET that the actress is, in fact, engaged to the 42-year-old Ozark actor, Cuoco shared a closer look at her new sparkler on her Instagram Story.
“What a wild, beautiful journey life can be. Grateful for every road that led me straight to you @tommypelphrey,” she wrote alongside the shot, before praising her ring as a “once in a lifetime slice of perfection.”
“My heart can’t take it,” she gushed. “Thank you!”
The update is a surprise to say the least, as Cuoco has previously stated that she’d never get married again.
While Pelphrey has never been married before, Cuoco has previously tied the knot twice. The actress was married to Ryan Sweeting from 2013 to 2016 and to Karl Cook from 2018 to 2021.
In February 2021, Cuoco told Variety that she and Sweeting “got married in, like, six seconds.” While that’s slightly exaggerated, the couple did meet, move in together, get engaged and get married within a six-month span. They announced their split less than two years after they exchanged vows.
When she covered Cosmopolitan‘s May 2018 issue, Cuoco revealed why she never thought she’d say “I do” again after her and Sweeting’s nuptials.
“I honestly thought I wouldn’t get married again. My ex ruined that word for me,” Cuoco said. “I married someone the first time who completely changed. The person I ended up with was not the person I originally met. And that wasn’t my fault — that was his. I knew how much I had to give and how much I wanted to receive.”
Cuoco did end up getting married again, this time to Cook. She didn’t rush things, though, as she and Cook didn’t even move in together until nearly two years into their marriage.
“Even when Karl and I met, and I knew I was totally in love with him and we wanted to get married, we both really like our own lives and we actually like our own couches,” Cuoco explained on Brad Goreski’s Brad Behavior podcast in November 2019. “… We’ve had separate locations and whether that’s helped us mentally or not, I’ve obviously never been in a better relationship and I want this to last the rest of my life so, in a way, we’re actually taking it slow.”
“We’ve been together for almost four years. We’ve not lived together. We are building our house, as you know. We will be under the same roof, eventually, but this has worked for us,” she added. “… We are so happy, but yes, we have separate lives and then our lives come together and he’s so supportive of me. He lets me be me, and I let him be him.”
The year after the pair moved in together, they announced their split. When Cuoco spoke to Glamour in April 2022, she reflected on her second divorce.
“Life is really short and you’ve got to make the move if you’re unhappy. You have to move forward. I do admit to being married to my career. I am. It’s always been my first love. I think that’s a tough one to overcome,” she said. “… It is a challenge for me, [because] things in my life and people sometimes don’t measure up to the feeling I have with my career. And I admit to that holding me back in a way.”
Cuoco also shut down the idea of another walk down the aisle.
“I will never get married again. I would love to have a long-lasting relationship or a partnership. But I will never get married again. Absolutely not,” she said. “You can literally put that on the cover.”
Her aversion to marriage didn’t mean she was against finding love, though.
“I want to have a relationship that I give my time to and that the person feels [like they’re] really part of my life. I get so distracted with work, and I want to have that in the future,” she said. “… I believe in love because I’ve had incredible relationships. I know that they’re out there. I like being someone’s partner and having that companionship.”
“I do believe there is someone out there. I love love. I’m not someone that wants to be by myself,” Cuoco added. “I just need to figure out my priorities a little bit and make sure now I know that I need to water that relationship.”
It was the month after that interview was published that Cuoco and Pelphrey went public with their relationship. When ET spoke with Cuoco in September 2022, she revealed how she met the Ozark actor.
“We have the same manager, so we met at the Ozark premiere,” she explained. “I went inside, I was so excited, and we met there — and it was love at first sight. He’s the cutest of all.”
The next month, the couple announced that they were expecting their first child.
“It’s a crazy time for them but they’re truly so excited,” a source told ET of the couple. “Kaley knows this is the right person. She can’t wait to become a mother. They’ve had so much love and support since the announcement.”
Engagement speculation between the pair swirled in November 2022, when Cuoco and Pelphrey were spotted sporting matching gold rings on that finger.
The couple didn’t comment on the ring pic, though, instead focusing on readying themselves for the arrival of their first child. Matilda Carmine Richie Pelphrey entered the picture on March 30, 2023.
Cuoco hinted that her relationship with Pelphrey was here to stay when she celebrated their first anniversary in April 2023, writing that she was “eternally grateful” for her then-boyfriend.
Two months later, Cuoco revealed on the Smartless podcast that she and Pelphrey were thinking ahead to the future, and planning for more kids in the years ahead.
“We did a lot in two years. We met, we fell madly in love, we had this beautiful baby. We’re very blessed and very lucky. It was a meant-to-be situation. The timing was right,” Cuoco told ET in October 2023 of the Hollywood strikes. “…Because of this downtime, which has been so hard for so many, we’ve been able to experience with Matilda, you know, from every moment, so him and I have been here for every moment pretty much since the day she was born and that’s special.”
Then, in May 2024, Pelphrey shared how his and Cuoco’s perspectives changed after welcoming their daughter.
There’s no way to understand what it’ll feel like until you get to feel it. It’s wild. It’s the greatest thing I’ve ever got to experience. I know Kaley feels the same way,” he said during an appearance on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show With Julia Cunningham. “It’s also hilarious. It can be exhausting at times. It’s all the good things.”
“The baby comes and suddenly without putting any conscious thought into it, you check back in with yourself and you realize your entire list of priorities has been completely rearranged and suddenly you’re thinking and concerned about things that maybe never really concerned you before,” he said. “And it’s all about them and it’s a really beautiful experience.”
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