New Orleans Rose delighted with proposal despite 11 ‘no’s

After 24 hours of the nation holding its breath, we can finally all breathe a sigh of relief. New Orleans rose Molly Molloy Gambel is delighted to be getting married — and she can see the funny side of her initial live response to the proposal.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner the morning after the night before, the southern belle and her husband-to-be, Kyle Catlett, said they can’t wait to walk down the aisle.

And despite the 23-year-old initially saying “no” 11 times in Monday night’s broadcast, the couple wanted to assure the public they both knew what she really meant.

“I said yes! I said yes, I said yes! It was not a ‘no’ to the initial question. When I said ‘no, no, no, no’, I did not mean no,” Molly joked, before admitting in hindsight a different initial response may have been more appropriate.

“Would I change anything?” she pondered. “Me saying ‘oh my gosh’ instead of ‘no’! So probably saying ‘yes, yes, yes’ would have helped, although I would have jumped to the answer before the question.

“I saw Dáithí today and I was like ‘Dáithí, we did not practise that before [in rehearsals]! That is not what we practised’. My first reaction was ‘why are we bringing my boyfriend on stage?’ I was just so overwhelmed,” added the Rose, who said she is “still on cloud nine”.

Kyle said he is amazed by the online reaction to the proposal, and is still trying to come to terms with his new-found title of world’s bravest man.

“I don’t think I expected it to be this big news,” he said. “If you knew her, that’s her reaction, it was just utter shock I think she was in. I’ve been told people keep saying I was brave, but I was surprised no other guy has done it before in the 50-plus years of the contest.”

Footage of the proposal involving the happy couple, who have dated for 18 months since meeting at the University of Alabama, has gone viral in the past 24 hours, with more than 100,000 people “liking” it on the Rose of Tralee’s official Facebook profile.

According to RTÉ, the live TV event nearly broke the site’s Twitter hash-tag, with the 100 tweets a minute surging to 430 a minute as the question was popped, with “proposal” rivalling “beard” as the most talked-about Rose of Tralee issue online.

Proposals

Some of the more memorable marriage proposal disasters come, of course, from the US.

1. The food court proposal:

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2. The big match proposal:

It’s half time at a Washington Wizards basketball game and a woman is led out blindfolded to the court to try and win a cash prize. Next thing she knows, she sees her would-be husband on one knee proposing to her with a microphone in hand so the thousands in attendance can share the moment. She turns on her heel and runs off to a chorus of boos.

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3. The half-time proposal:

Basketball again. This time at a Houston Rockets game. At the halfway line, a man is on one knee mouthing the ultimate question to the love of his life. The fact you can’t hear it matters not a bit. Her face says it all. She simply walks off court to a chorus of boos, while the poor guy gets a pat on the back off the oversized team mascot. The commentators’ comments are worth a listen alone.

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4. The baseball proposal:

If a trend goes through all of these proposals, it is this: Don’t ask your girlfriend to marry you at a major sporting occasion. This time, all looks to be going well until the poor guy’s soon-to-be-ex unloads a left hook straight to the chin. On live television.

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5. The Jesus Jam proposal:

This particularly cringeworthy proposal comes straight from an event called the Jesus Jam. The title alone is enough to make you watch. After a three-minute monologue on stage to the rather sizeable crowd about how much he loves his girlfriend, the wannabe husband does the honourable thing and asks the question. The response is a simple “sorry” into the mic before exiting stage left. Cruel? sure. Hilarious? Absolutely.