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Gov. Jared Polis And Marlon Reis Are Engaged, Proposal Happened While First Gentleman Battled COVID

DENVER (CBS4) - Gov. Jared Polis and his longtime partner First Gentleman Marlon Reis have gotten engaged. The engagement happened in early December and has been kept mostly private since then but the governor's office confirmed it to CBS4 after a report on Thursday morning in The Colorado Sun.

Jared Polis and Marlon Reis
(credit: CBS)

Reis told The Colorado Sun that Polis proposed while he was in the midst of battling COVID-19. Both men got confirmed cases of COVID earlier this winter.

Jared Polis and Marlon Reis
Gov. Jared Polis and his partner, Marlon Reis (right), look at student art on display after his inauguration at the Colorado State Capitol on Jan. 8, 2019. (credit: AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

Reis's coronavirus case got bad enough that he had to go to the hospital, and before he went he said Polis got on one knee and asked to marry him. Reis said yes, and despite the dreadful feeling of having to go to the hospital, he felt a "spring in my step."

Reis was released from the hospital a few days after being admitted and has fully recovered from COVID-19. Polis has, too.

Jared Polis, right, and his partner Marlon Reis
Jared Polis, right, and his partner Marlon Reis at their home in Boulder with their 9-week-old son CJ in 2011. (credit: Kathryn Scott Osler/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

The couple hasn't set a date for their wedding yet but their two children are eager for it to happen soon.

Polis is the first openly gay governor in the United States.

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