Sam first announced her happy news on Instagram alongside several cute photos of herself and Richard at his rural property in the Southern Highlands, showing off her gorgeous new diamond rock.
“What a year …,” she captioned the photos.
Sam told WHO in an exclusive statement following the exciting announcement: “We’re very happy and very lucky to have found each other."
The TV journalist later revealed to her Sunrise co-hosts David Koch and Natalie Barr that Richard dropped down on one knee while the pair were enjoying a refreshingly low key day at home.
“We’d been picking weeds in the paddock and he said, ‘Darling, do you want to marry me?’” she said.
“It was very sweet, very romantic. He’s just a very charming, lovely fellow.
“We’re excited. He’s totally the opposite of the showbiz world and … he’s just a wonderful man ... And no, we’re not getting married on television.”
She added: “We’re all thrilled, our families are the happiest, they’re so excited. Mum burst into tears!”
The duo have previously opened up to WHO about how they first fell in love and what drew them to one another.
“His eyes were the first thing I saw,” Sam told us in November 2019, when the couple first went public with their romance.
“We both enjoy horses, skiing, architecture, art. That’s really important to have a lot in common.”
She gushed that she loves spending time with Richard, who “is really comfortable in his own skin”, away from “the media circus”.
“He doesn’t care what people think of him, which I admire greatly. He’s very decent, very honest. I love that he’s so modest.”
On his part, Richard said Sam “had a sparkle in her eye”.
Richard has two adult daughters, Sasha and Grace, from his previous marriage.
While Sam has been open about her desire to have children, she has previously said “it would be nice but if it doesn’t happen, then c’est la vie … and if it does, it would be lovely.”
The couple are yet to set a date for their wedding, but Sam has confirmed their nuptials will not be televised.
