Five's Ritchie Neville is engaged! Singer pops the question to 'nicest soul ever' during romantic trip to Italy
The singer, 45, appeared elated as he took to Instagram on Friday to announce he has asked his girlfriend, whose name is not known to the public, to marry him.
Sharing a sweet selfie of the pair in Italy, Ritchie beamed at the camera as his now fiancee flaunted her huge diamond ring.
Announcing his news to his 57,000 followers, he confessed that the brunette beauty had the 'nicest soul ever'.
Alongside his loved-up snap, he penned: 'So…….this happened. Met the nicest soul ever and she felt like my wife the minute I met her.' He also added a blue love heart emoji to the end of the message.'
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They appeared to enjoyed a romantic break in Florence for the big occasion and returned back to Britain on Friday after announcing the development.
Friends and fans of the star flocked to the comment section to add their congratulatory messages.
One penned: 'Congratulations Rich. That's great news, happy for you both x.'
'Congratulations mate, wishing you both all the love in the world and the most beautiful wedded life together….Big Love C&Jxx.'
'Aww congratulations both, finding your forever person is the BEST!!!'
Richie's big announcement comes just month after he reflected on his two-year romance with Billie Piper as he expressed his 'regret' at breaking her heart.
The couple met when they were teenagers, having just been thrust into the spotlight with their respective pop careers.
Reflecting on their romance, which ended in 2000 when Ritchie was unfaithful, he shared on BBC documentary, Boybands Forever: 'Billie and I, we met backstage.
'And it was really weird because we walked up backstage to say hello and we hugged. And it was really odd because we just stood hugging for 10 minutes.
'Ultimately we were kids that had been thrown into a lions' pit. We were each other's safe place. It was very much young love in a very strange environment, in a very strange life.'
For two years the couple were love's young dream, but it all came crashing down when Ritchie fell victim to a honey trap - being seduced by a Russian beauty while on tour in the country - who subsequently sold her story to the press.
Reflecting on when he met the temptress, Ritchie confessed it did cross his mind that it was 'slightly odd' but ultimately he ended up back in bed with her.
Cringing as he remembered The Sun newspaper's headline at the time - in which Ritchie was described as taking off the beauty's skirt with his teeth - he winced: 'It's almost like a porn story!'
Sharing his upset at the fallout, Ritchie, 45, continued: 'It massively hurt somebody that I loved.
'I regret any pain I caused but equally I was 19 you know? I made a mistake. It ended a relationship.'
Billie, 42, previously revealed how finding fame at an early age 'suffocated her' and that she and Ritchie would spend several days locked in her flat, turning her into a 'recluse'.
The singer became a superstar overnight at the age of 15, when she became the youngest female artist to have a number one hit in 1998.
She told Fault magazine: 'When you're a pop star you're always on duty. You're suddenly a role model even though you don't start out with ambitions of being a role model and also you're a fallible mess yourself.
'So trying to keep some resemblance of togetherness and good behavior was just shit as a teenager.
'Mostly that you couldn't walk anywhere without people wanting pictures and autographs and I found that so suffocating. We all did at that time.
'I went out with Rich from Five and we used to just sit in our flat for days, if we weren't working, and never leave. It made you really reclusive. That's the stuff I hated.'
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