The Insecure actor recently popped the question to longtime girlfriend Randall Bailey during an oceanside fireworks display in Mykonos, Greece, according to Essence.
“I said, this is beautiful. It can’t be anything better than this,” he recalled to the outlet of watching the fireworks by the water. “I said, ‘There’s a lot of things I want in life, and right now the only thing I want is you. Will you marry me?’ She said yes, and then she was like, ‘This is f—ing really happening!’ I said, ‘Yes, the f— it is!'”
Prior to getting down on one knee, Elie told Essence that he was “sweating bullets all day because I knew I wanted to propose on our way to Mykonos but I didn’t want to do it at the top because I felt like it was corny.”
“I didn’t want to do it out the shower because I thought that was corny, and I was like, ‘Do I want to do it at dinner?’ I was like, ‘I don’t want to do it at dinner either,'” he explained of his thought process on when and where to propose.
As for how Elie knew Bailey was the one, the actor — who played the role of Issa Rae’s brother, Ahmal Dee, on Insecure for four years — said, “We could just sit in a room and not talk to each other and just be and we still feel connected in that moment.”
“That’s how I know I found my person, and the fact that I’m willing to grow as an individual because of her,” he added.
The two first met in 2015 at a bonfire at Dockweiler Beach in Los Angeles. According to Essence, Bailey was dragged to the event by her cousin. As the two were talking about Bailey’s then-recent breakup, they didn’t realize that Elie had been walking behind them, eavesdropping.
“We get to the beach, I turn around and he walks by us. He’s like, ‘You should get rid of that guy, he sounds like a loser,'” Bailey recalled to the outlet of the moment they realized Elie had been listening to their conversation. “Then he walks to the same party I was going to.”
Though Elie was preoccupied for most of the night, Bailey did eventually have the Send Help producer walk her to her car, only to leave without exchanging their contact information. It wasn’t until later that Bailey had to slide into Elie’s DMs to go out for drinks. They then quickly hit it off.
While Elie did initially feel a spark, he told Essence he later “got cold feet” and called things off as he wanted to reap the benefits of living by himself for the first time.
“But when we broke up, I constantly kept thinking about her,” he explained. “Then after Insecure, and after a couple bad situations, someone was asking me, ‘Who would you talk to?’ There was only one girl I missed, and I ended up messaging her. I found my person.”
Added Bailey: “I knew the first time we dated, so I was really peeved when we didn’t work out at first because I was like, ‘I already know that this is it. I don’t want to date other people!’ We just are so polar opposites in every regard, and so for us to be able to find a middle ground on so many things and talk through things and just have as much fun as we do… We are constantly laughing, joking, pushing each other to reach for our dreams and being supportive in doing so.”
As the couple begin wedding planning, they told Essence they’ve had a difference in opinion as to how they should tie the knot, with Bailey claiming she’ll “go the courthouse. I don’t care. I don’t need any of the pomp and circumstance.”
Meanwhile, Elie wants to have a big celebration as several of his Hatian family members not only want to attend, but also expect a big spectacle to mark the momentous occasion.
“We’re going to have some griot, lambi, tassot. We’re going to have the whole gamut of Haitian food,” he told the outlet. “We’re going to have Haitian music playing… My family likes to party. So we’re definitely going to have a lot of that in our wedding.”
Though the engagement is official now, Elie had to set the record straight on his Instagram back in November 2021 after posting a photo with Bailey, featuring a ring on her left hand.
“WCW ? Note: That is not an engagement ring ?????” the actor captioned the post.
Congrats to them both!
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