‘RHOBH’ Star Bozoma Saint John Is Engaged to Keely Watson (Exclusive)

Bozoma “Boz” Saint John is now a bride-to-be!

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, 48, got engaged to Keely Watson in a surprise proposal surrounded by about 35 close friends and family members, plus a few Bravo cameras, at BOA Steakhouse in West Hollywood, California, on Friday, Aug. 29.

“This engagement is my testimony: you can rise from grief, reclaim your joy, and still find a love worthy of your ‘yes,’ ” says Saint John, who was previously married to Peter Saint John for 10 years until his death in December 2013 from cancer. “Keely is proof that God’s timing is perfect — and so is His plan. I’m saying yes to life, to love and to the miracle of second chances.”

Since the beginning of summer, Watson knew he wanted to pop the question, but because Saint John was heading to New York soon to promote her new NBC reality competition series, On Brand with Jimmy Fallon, he “had a very small window of time” to work with, and had to “execute all the details” himself since it was too late to hire an event planner.

“I really wanted that element of surprise and so it was a lot of planning and coordinating on my part with the help of her daughter, Lael, and also her assistant, Nico,” Watson explains, noting that the pair helped with drafting the guest list while his nieces helped unpack everything needed for the “special” night.

The goal of the proposal space was to “embody beauty.”

“I ordered over 14 dozen roses and had a mega bouquet of 100 roses that I presented to her,” Watson says. “I lined the walkway with a red carpet and candles, and I built a canopy draped in red to propose under. Around the canopy, there were more roses and candles.”

Watson admits he was “a little anxious” beforehand because he “wanted everything to go perfectly,” and only had one shot to get it right. Once Saint John entered the room, “it was game time.”

“It was kind of like being in a boxing match, once you step into the ring it’s showtime. You have to be ready,” Watson says, adding that everyone was instructed to be silent when the door opened so that Saint John had a moment to take everything in.

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Saint John was “very surprised” when Watson proposed. He spoke from the heart instead of rehearsing, and presented her with a stunning diamond ring that he partnered with 3 Soul Diamond Jewelers in Mumbai, India, to custom design.

“Even though I knew we wanted to get married, I wasn’t sure where or when Keely would ask,” Saint John shares. “I am still in shock and disbelief. I was nervous because I thought about how it would be when he asked and I wanted to be able to be composed through it but that was hard to do because my emotions were at an all-time high.”

Nico had obtained Saint John’s engagement ring preferences and size, the information of which Watson merged with his own creativity to create a one-of-a-kind ring. The center stone is a 4.2 carat oval-cut colorless diamond, and the additional diamonds on the 18 carat gold band are an additional 4.23 carats all in the colorless range, making the total diamond weight 8.43 carats. 

“The ring needed to embody her elegance, her prestige and be a display of my love for her and really highlight how much she means to me,” Watson says.

The groom-to-be “felt at peace” with his choice after the reality TV star accepted his proposal.

“After waiting so long to find the one, the right decision had been made and I felt like our love for one another would multiply,” he says. “I knew our families would integrate well. I was immediately relieved that all the planning went over so well and the pre-build in my garage led to such a perfectly executed proposal. I was immediately looking toward our future.”

Saint John met Watson through her relationship with artist Harmonia Rosales, who is married to Watson’s nephew. The bride-to-be wanted to become an art collector and purchased her “Eve and the Orishas” piece, which is now on display at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut.

After Watson’s nephew and his wife, whose latest collection is entitled “Transformations: The Rise and Fall of the Orishas,” went to an art exhibit in Atlanta, they posted a few photos that Saint John happened to be in. Her striking beauty and red dress immediately caught Watson’s eye.

“I reached out to my nephew and mentioned that I found her attractive and asked who she was,” Watson remembers.

A few months later, Watson’s nephew and Rosales were having a preview for her next art collection. The artist’s husband asked Saint John what her relationship status was, and she responded by asking if he had someone in mind for her.

“He told her that he had an uncle for her and she said, ‘Do I look like I date uncles?’ ” Watson explains. “His wife, Harmonia, came in and said she’d want to meet this uncle. They did a bit of research on social and Bozoma decided to let them set it up.”

He continues: “My nephew put us on a group text and from there, the rest is history.”

By the couple’s third date, where Watson met Saint John in Ghana, they knew they had each found “the one.”

“I love her consistency in her communication with me, her personal ambition and drive, her love for her daughter, family and friends, her love and affection towards me and towards the people who meant the most to me, her consistency in her thoughtfulness, her approach to life and the way it aligns with mine, her optimism and positive outlook on the future and her ability to find the silver lining when things or outcomes were less desirable,” Watson says of his new fiancée. “All this is in addition to her beauty inside and out.”