Millie Bobby Brown and Jake Bongiovi may have met in the most Gen Z of ways, but their courtship quickly took a turn for the old-fashioned.
After connecting on Instagram in 2021, "we were friends for a bit," Millie shared in a November 2022 Wired interview. "And then, what can I say?"
Well, a lot more would've been welcome, especially since the Stranger Things star got engaged to Jon Bon Jovi's model son barely five months later, but that's where the British actress, who turns 20 on Feb. 19, left it at the time.
She and her 21-year-old fiancé have since filled in more blanks: DMing led to FaceTiming, and that led to finally meeting in person, with Jake extending the ancient chivalrous gesture of picking Millie up from the airport.
"bff <3," Jake captioned a June 3, 2021, photo of them, quite possibly having just left an arrival terminal.
The dating speculation intensified a few weeks later when they were photographed out about in New York.
"As soon as we spoke I knew he was going to be a huge part of my life," Millie recalled to The Times of London in an interview published Aug. 27. "I ran to my mum and said, 'I really, really like him!' After we met we knew we never wanted to leave each other's side."
Who says you can't just know?
"You can't pinpoint why," Millie said. "It's just the feeling of knowing that that's the person you want to spend the rest of your time with. I think so much of life is overthinking. The one thing that made clear sense to me was him."
Not that she showed up wearing her heart on her sleeve, mind you.
"You were playing it cool, like, 'whatever,'" Jake reminisced about their first meeting as he did Millie's makeup in a video for her beauty line Florence by Mills, the pair dissolving into giggles as he attempted various feats of application.
At the airport, he recalled being "taken aback" initially. Having only had screen time with her before, Jake explained, "You don't have a gauge for the physical person because you're only talking to this." He framed his face with his hands. "So, you were just a floating head for awhile."
But soon enough, she meant the world to him, their initial meet-up turning into a full-on rom-com's worth of sweet moments, from having coffee on a brisk November day in New York to checking out the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center to—it was only a matter of time—kicking off 2022 spending time in Millie's native England (despite being born in Spain, where her father was working at the time).
The couple made their red carpet debut at the 2022 BAFTA Film Awards in March. Two months later Jake accompanied Millie to the Stranger Things season four premiere, captioning a pic from the evening, "Congratulations babe u deserve the world love you."
Meanwhile, they were also busy combining their respective worlds, meeting each other's friends and families, not concerned that it was too much too soon—or, too early.
"My parents adore him," Millie told The Times this past summer. "[We] both come from parents that have stayed together for a really long time. My parents were young when they got together, so I always had amazing role models for relationships."
On Jake's end, dad Jon and mom Dorothea Hurley were high school sweethearts and will celebrate 35 years of marriage on April 29.
"Millie is wonderful," Jon said in May, telling Andy Cohen, "Her whole family is great, really great. Jake is very, very happy."
Asked if he thought the couple were a little young to get engaged, Jon said he didn't think age was what truly mattered.
"If you find the right partner and you grow together," the Bon Jovi frontman said, "I think that would be my advice, really: Growing together is wise. Growing together. I think that all of my kids have found the people that they think they can grow together with and we like 'em all."
At the 2024 MusiCares Person of the Year gala in early February, Jon reiterated that the couple were still on the right track.
"They're madly in love and we love them both for that," he told E! News' Keltie Knight. "It's an exciting adventure."
Both Jake and Millie are the third of four siblings—"His family are wonderful people who welcomed me with open arms," Millie told The Times—and Jake's brother Jesse, 28, went ahead and proposed to his girlfriend of four years, Jesse Light, in July 2022, so multiple celebrations are in the works.
But though her future father-in-law's band literally has a track called "Wedding Day," Millie said that she and Jake weren't going to make the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer be the entertainment.
"I feel like that's asking me to go and do a full-on play for everyone," Millie explained to Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb on TODAY in September. "He needs a break."
While that certainly doesn't preclude a heartfelt performance for the newlyweds, should Jon be so inclined, the bride-to-be isn't worried about that detail—or any detail.
"It has not been stressful at all for me," Millie said of wedding planning. "Jake is very involved, he's very helpful during the whole process. I've never felt alone in it, which I think is really nice...But ultimately it's just a very intimate day for the both of us and we're really both very excited."
And Millie's parents certainly approve, Jake having planned his proposal with a key assist: one of her mother's rings.
"I've always loved that ring," Millie told The Times of the gleaming diamond. "It's always stuck out to me, so she gave it to Jake. They were in cahoots about the whole proposal. I love that I can always keep a piece of my mum with me."
In their makeup tutorial last month, Jake quipped that there were "many different factors" that went into him popping the question "that were actually life-threatening, that if they went awry, it could have been detrimental to your life. But luckily for you, it was amazing." (They did seem to be on the beach, and nature can always have other plans.)
The couple haven't said exactly when they'll join hands and vow to make it, they swear, but they look more than halfway there.
"Another year around the sun together happy 19th to the girl of my dreams," Jake wrote to Millie last February. "I love you more than words can describe. Everything about you is golden down to the core."
This year they paid tribute to each other on Valentine's Day and were spotted strolling in Manhattan, their rom-com turning into an epic.
More life-affirming highlights from Millie Bobby Brown and Jake Bongiovi's romance are just ahead, so keep swooning, er, reading:
3rd Dating Anniversary
"Time flies when you've having fun," Jake wrote on his Instagram Stories in March 2024. "I love you so much. 3 years."
Best Friend
Millie shared this tribute to Jake on their third dating anniversary.
February 2024: Happy Birthday Millie
Jake shared a tribute to his partner for her 20th birthday, writing, "Happy birthday my beautiful fiancéI love you so much. Big year ahead."
November 2023: Glamour Women of the Year
The two appear at the event, where Millie was honored as one of two Global Women of the Year.
September 2023: Summer Nights
Jake shared this pic in the final days of summer 2023.
Millie and Jake enjoyed a day out with her sister Ava Brown, 11, and friends at the Six Flags Over Georgia theme park.
Millie announced the couple's engagement on Instagram, quoting Taylor Swift's song "Lover." The two would go on to celebrate with family and friends at an engagement party weeks later.
Jake marked Millie's 19th birthday on Feb. 19, 2023 with a sweet tribute, writing, "Another year around the sun together happy 19th to the girl of my dreams."
The sweet post included photos of the couple.
The pair's silly side is depicted in one image of Jake and Millie clowning around in the pool
Jake and Millie snuggle up in a romantic selfie.
Millie shared photos of the couple in celebration of the New Year, writing, "endlessly in love with the year I've had."
One snapshot showed a photo booth strip of the loved-up couple.
As Millie put it, "grateful for my friends, family, donkey (bernard), my doggies, my puppies teeth, and my partner for life."
Millie and Jake were twinning at the premiere of Stranger Things season four in New York City.
Millie and Jake make their first joint appearance at a celebrity event—the 2022 BAFTA Film Awards in London.
"We're starting a band," Jake wrote on Instagram, "send name ideas."
Jake posted this photo, with the caption, "bff <3"
(Originally published Oct. 15, 2023, at 8 a.m. PT)