Photo: Bruce Glikas/Getty
Matt DoyleandMax Claytonare putting a ring on it!
The actors and Broadway stars are officially engaged, Doyle, 35, and Clayton, 31, sharing their happy news in a joint Instagram post on Monday.
“After 8 years together, we think we like each other enough to make it official 😊,” he continued. “From meeting at a Starbucks in New York to Schoonhoven. We are so incredibly lucky.”
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Many of the pair’s famous friends sent words of congratulations, includingMatt Bomer,Maude Apatow,Rachel ZeglerandVanessa Hudgens, who wrote, ' Love you guyssss."
Although the pair have been an item for nearly a decade, Doyletold PEOPLE in 2022that things didn’t start out as picture-perfect as their engagement photo.
“We started dating, I broke up with him immediately, and then we got back together,” he explained, adding that Clayton — who at the time understudiedHugh Jackmanin the Broadway revival ofThe Music Man— “saw past” Doyle’s bouts of anxiety and depression, which he has struggled with since he was a child.
“Max just always saw me for who I was,” related Doyle.
“My father is in advertising, and he was working on Tiffany,” Doyle said. “I was backstage with a bunch of people [at the time, in 2015], and I wasn’t really talking to my dad that much those days. And somebody mentioned, ‘Have you seen the newTiffany engagement ad? It’s a gay engagement ad. And I asked, ‘Is it in the gay magazines?’ And they said, ‘No, it’s a national ad. It’s everywhere.’ And I said, ‘Well, my dad has Tiffany, but he wouldn’t have done that.’ "
Getting choked up, Doyle recalled, “I called him up, and I said, ‘Did you do this, Dad?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I did it.’ I said, ‘Why didn’t you tell me that?’ And he was like, ‘I just didn’t want you to feel like I was trying to prove something.’ And I just wept.”
Doyle, who won a Tony Award in 2022 for his performance inCompany, is currently playing Seymour in Off-Broadway’sLittle Shop of Horrors. He’s also appeared on Broadway inSpring Awakening,Bye Bye Birdie,War HorseandThe Book of Mormon, and had a notable role on the small screen inGossip Girl.
Clayton made his Broadway debut in 2015’sGigi, and has since performed inOn the Town,Something Rotten!,Bandstand, andHello, Dolly!In addition to his acting work, he also sells real estate.
source: people.com
