The couple who reduced several celebrities to tears when they got engaged on-stage at Adele’s comeback concert have spoken out about the ‘dream’ experience for the first time – revealing how the surprise proposal came to be, while sharing their hopes that their new A-list ‘best friends’ will be guests at their wedding.
Vegan chef Ashleigh Mann, 33, and TV and film producer Quentin Brunson, 31, became overnight stars in their own right after the world watched them get engaged in front of Adele and her star-studded audience at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.
The surprise proposal, which was engineered by Quentin for his girlfriend of more than seven years, took place during 33-year-old Adele’s intimate concert last month, which was broadcast as part of a two-hour CBS special on Sunday night.
Mid-way through the performance, the singer announced that she was going to bring out the couple, revealing that Ashleigh had no idea what was set to take place, before Quentin brought her out – blindfolded – to the stage, where he got down on one knee to pop the question, while Adele and her A-list guests were concealed in darkness.
Now, the couple has revealed what was going through their heads as they stepped out in front of celebrities like Melissa McCarthy, Lizzo, Kerry Washington, and Leonardo DiCaprio – with newly-engaged Ashleigh sharing her feelings of utter shock and disbelief when she realized what was happening.
‘I honestly thought that we were going to go on a hayride – I’d been talking about going to the pumpkin patch,’ Ashleigh admitted during an appearance on CBS Mornings on Monday.
‘So I just assumed we were doing something cool like that. [But then] I saw him down on one knee, and then Adele was there. Then I was like, “Am I alive? This could be a dream.”
‘Seriously, I was like, “Am I alive?” Then I saw Lizzo, Melissa McCarthy, Kerry Washington, and I’m like this is a dream for sure, this is definitely a dream.’
On cloud nine! The couple who got engaged on-stage at Adele’s One Night Only comeback concert have opened up about the ‘dream’ experience, revealing what it was really like to share such an intimate moment in front of so many celebrities
Emotional: Vegan chef Ashleigh Mann, 33, was reduced to tears during an appearance on CBS Mornings on Monday, when she recalled the surprise proposal, which was engineered by her partner of seven years, Quentin Brunson, 31
Surprise! During the concert, which aired as part of a two-hour special on CBS on Sunday night, Quentin brought his partner out onto the stage, before getting down on one knee and popping the question in front of a star-studded audience
Congrats! Following the proposal, the couple joined a host of celebrities in the audience while Adele serenaded them with her hit song Make You Feel My Love
Speaking about how he arranged the surprise proposal, Quentin explained that he had been thinking about the best way to pop the question for a while when he spotted a casting call from a TV company looking for an Adele-obsessed couple who wanted to get engaged on-screen.
‘I felt like… this opportunity was from God for sure because it was made for us,’ he shared. ‘Once it came across my table and I saw it, I just knew that if I submit to this, they’re going to pick us because… I don’t know, we have so much to offer.’
Quentin had to submit a one-minute-long video explaining why he thought he and Ashleigh were the perfect pair for the surprise proposal, while also detailing their love for Adele and her music. But despite knowing that the singer was somehow involved in the opportunity, newly-engaged Quentin says he only learned that the proposal would take place at her concert a few days before it took place.
‘They didn’t give me a lot of information [which was] good because it would have made me a lot more nervous,’ he shared. ‘So I found out about Adele, about it being Adele, maybe a couple of days before it happened.’
Even after he learned that Adele would be witness to his proposal, Quentin was completely clueless about the other stars who were going to be watching on as he popped the question – revealing that he had to try his hardest to avoid eye contact with the audience when he stepped out on-stage out of fear that seeing the celebrity guests would make him even more nervous.
‘I did not know who was going to be there in the audience. So you know, when I was out there, as we were walking to the front, I was trying to not look into the audience and make any eye contact because I just knew I was so nervous,’ he recalled.
Emotional: After Quentin popped the question, he and Ashleigh took a front-row seat at the concert alongside actress Melissa McCarthy, who was left in tears by the heart-rending proposal – and handed over several tissues to a weeping Ashleigh
Quentin, who secured the ‘dream’ opportunity by submitting a one-minute video after seeing a casting call for an Adele-obsessed couple who wanted to get engaged on TV, was reduced to tears during the proposal
A-list pals: Ashleigh joked that she is now ‘best friends’ with Melissa, Lizzo and Kerry Washington, and ‘hopes’ that they will attend her wedding when she and Quentin tie the knot
‘I had practiced what I was going to say before, and I started tearing up. And I’m like, I can’t be out there crying. I tried to get out there and get it done. It was a lot. It was very overwhelming for sure.’
As it turned out, Quentin and Ashleigh were not the only ones to break down during the emotional proposal – which left several celebrity audience members in tears, including an emotional Melissa McCarthy, who sat beside the couple while Adele serenaded them with a touching rendition of her hit song Make You Feel My Love.
Actress Melissa was seen passing over several tissues to a tearful Ashleigh, who joked during her CBS Mornings appearance that she is now ‘best friends’ with the comedian and several of the other A-list guests who witnessed her engagement.
‘I’m pretty sure we’re all best friends now,’ she said when anchor Gayle King asked if she had spoken with any of the stars, like Melissa, Lizzo, or Kerry Washington. ‘Hopefully they’re coming to the wedding!’
The chef then offered special thanks to Melissa, 51, for providing her with tissues, joking that she was grateful someone was there to provide them while she was ‘crying like a five year old’.
‘All I was thinking to myself is, “Thank goodness someone had a tissue,”‘ she recalled. ‘[Quentin] knew I was going to cry like a five year old. Yeah, I’m very thankful. Melissa, thank you so much for the tissues. I needed them. Still there was makeup all over my face, but yeah, it was pretty awesome.’
Quentin added: ‘I’m just happy that everything went the way it did. It was very nerve-wracking, you know. Keeping the secrets.’
It wasn’t just the lead-up to the proposal that saw Quentin forced to keep his plans under wraps.
After Ashleigh said yes, Adele serenaded the couple with ‘Make You Feel My Love’
‘Thank God she said yes, because I didn’t know who I was going to have to sing this song to, you or him. Oh my god. Look at her, she’s so in shock,’ Adele said
When Ashleigh removed her blindfold, she was shocked to see the audience in front of her and asked her soon-to-be fiancé ‘Who are these people?’
I love you, I love you, I love you and will continue to love you forever,’ Quentin said before finally asking ‘Will you marry me?’
Even after the couple got engaged, he revealed they had to keep the circumstances of the proposal – which took place last month during filming of the live concert – a closely-guarded secret until it was broadcast to the world during the two-hour special on Sunday night.
‘My phone is still blowing up right now,’ Quentin said of his friends and family’s reaction to seeing the couple on-screen. ‘We’re both from the East Coast, but we live on the West Coast.
‘So it aired on the East Coast, and our phones and everything started blowing up. And then we were able to watch it with some of our friends here at the house. And our parents and family were able to see us.’
Quentin and Ashleigh’s appearance on CBS Mornings came just hours after their proposal aired on the network as part of a two-hour special in which Adele sat down for an interview with Oprah, as well as performing several of her most-loved hits and a number of songs from her soon-to-be-released album, 30.
However she found time during her concert to share the stage with the happy couple, revealing to her audience of hand-picked friends – including Gordon Ramsay, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen DeGeneres, and Gabrielle Union – that Quentin was about to bring out an unsuspecting Ashleigh, while asking them all to remain completely quiet.
‘I need every person to be really quiet, alright? If you make a noise, I’m going to kill you,’ the 15th Grammy winner said cheekily before Quentin guided Ashleigh, who was blindfolded and had noise-canceling headphones on, to the the stage.
When Ashleigh removed her blindfold, she was shocked to see the audience in front of her and asked her soon-to-be fiancé: ‘Who are these people?’
‘Thank God you didn’t let me eat, I would’ve thrown up,’ she added, before even learning that Adele was hiding behind the deemed lights of the stage, making the celebrity crowd burst out laughing.
Having dropped down to his knee, Quentin addressed Ashleigh, making an emotional speech to his partner of more than seven years.
‘I’m extremely proud of you – and I mean – everyday, you blow my mind,’ he said, while Ashleigh continued to sob.
‘There is absolutely nothing that you cannot do and I just know you are going to be an amazing mother to our kids one day, and I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you and will continue to love you forever. Will you marry me?’
When Ashley said yes, the crowd stood up and cheered the lovely couple, as piano notes of Make You Feel My Love started playing and Adele emerged from the stage and casually greeted Ashley.
‘Hello Ashleigh, hi Quentin, you alright?’ she said, before instructing them to take the seats in the front row and enjoy the Make You Feel My Love performance.
‘Thank God she said yes, because I didn’t know who I was going to have to sing this song to, you or him. Oh my god. Look at her, she’s so in shock,’ Adele said as Melissa offered champagne to Ashleigh.
‘I just said it. I am really not happy. I’m not living, I’m just plugging along,’ Adele said she told a friend before filing for divorce in 2019
After Oprah touched on Adele’s ‘interesting relationship’ with alcohol, the singer said her father’s death had made an impact in her lifestyle
The hardest part, Adele said, was explaining the divorce to her son Angelo
In the special, Adele also opened up about the heartbreak her estranged alcoholic father caused her and the exact moment she knew she was not happy in her marriage during an interview with Oprah.
Adele confessed to Oprah that she felt embarrassed when it dawned on her that a divorce from entrepreneur Simon Konecki was inevitable, but added that Konecki was the person she respected the most and they were still great friends.
‘I take marriage very seriously and it seems like I don’t…That’s what it should be. When we have kids, we stay together, and I tried. I was so disappointed for my son, I was so disappointed for myself,’ she said.
The singer wiped away tears as she talked about her reconcilement with her estranged father, shortly before his death in May.
‘My dad’s absolute lack of presence and effort…But I finally understood that it was the alcohol,’ she said.
‘Nothing as scary as what I’ve been through in the past two years behind closed doors,’ she added.
The singer said she was in a shooting for a ‘boogie magazine,’ when, for the first time, she said out loud what she had been feeling for a long period of time.
‘I just said it. I am really not happy. I’m not living, I’m just plugging along,’ Adele said she told a friend before filing for divorce in 2019.
Adele sang her heartfelt lyrics including Hello, Easy on Me, Skyfall, When We Were Young
The mother-of-one defended her change in appearance and added that the way she looks does not determine whether she’s body positive or not
Adele also addressed her highly publicized change in appearance, and talked about her struggle with anxiety and how it affected her life
The special also showed Adele singing her heartfelt lyrics to a famous audience, with celebrities such as Gordon Ramsey, Melissa McCarthy, Gabrielle Union and Ellen DeGeneres in attendance at the performance in the Los Angeles Griffith Observatory