The One Wheel of Fortune player may have won a sparkling engagement ring instead of cash!
Hosts Ryan Seacrest and Vanna White assisted a couple in commemorating their personal milestone as part of the show’s 50th anniversary celebration.
On October 9, 2023, previous participant Rhea Mathew made her final appearance on the renowned game show. When Mathew posted the news on Instagram, it was a dream come true for her, a longtime admirer of the show, to become one of its many candidates.
“LOL anyone who s ever talked to me on a day-to-day basis knows that my family congregates every single day at 7:30pm to watch Wheel of Fortune for as long as I can remember.”
Mathew assumed she was just participating in the anniversary celebrations until she was asked to return to the show. She had no idea that she would be solving the riddle of a lifetime.
The ultimate surprise had been planned behind the scenes by Mathew’s lover, Robin Kuriakose, in collaboration with the Wheel of Fortune staff. Seacrest and White discussed how the proposal came to be in an episode recap that was uploaded on YouTube on Thursday.
White recalled, “We came up with a little ruse with Jim [Thornton] to make Rhea believe she was back to celebrate Wheel’s 50th.” But see what happened by looking.
The truth moment has arrived: _I_ _ Y _ U _ _ _ R _ M _ Mathew stared at the puzzle board, gazing at the letters. As she solved the puzzle with assurance Are you going to wed me? She didn’t know what was going to happen.
She was shocked and delighted when Kuriakose came out of backstage, knelt down, and said, “Will you marry me, Rhea Susan Mathew?”
Amidst a flurry of audience applause, the couple seemed ecstatic after the touching moment.
Mathew captured the occasion with her now fiancé in an emotional Instagram post, calling it “the sweetest, most elaborate thing anyone has ever done for me.”