AM show’s Ryan Bridge announces engagement live on air

Ryan Bridge made his special announcement on AM this morning, alongside his co-host Laura Tupou.

The host of Three’s AM show, Ryan Bridge, has made a special announcement on television this morning.

Bridge, 35, has shared with viewers that he is now happily engaged to his long-term partner, who wants to remain unknown. Fans of Bridge will see as much as the back of his partner’s head in today’s Woman’s Weekly spread about the couple’s happy news.

“He doesn’t want his name out there. He doesn’t want his face out there. I’m like, ‘do you really love me?’ People will be thinking, ‘does he exist or is he a figment of Ryan’s imagination?’” the TV host jokes but says it’s fair enough that while he has a public profile his partner wants to keep himself anonymous.

Bridge reveals that “a couple of months ago I got down on one knee. Went for a little swim in the beach and actually did it in the water ... which was kind of risky I guess because I had the ring. I proposed to my partner and he said yes.”

A round of applause could be heard from crew members on the morning news show which Bridge joined in August 2021 after standing in for Duncan Garner.

Bridge went on to say he “just wanted to share that with everybody this morning so we can finally start talking about the wedding.”

Bridge on the cover of Woman's Weekly announcing his engagement. Photo / Woman's Weekly

Joined on the couch by his co-host Laura Tupou, currently covering for Melissa Chan Green, he said of his pending nuptials: “That’s the most important thing. The wedding planning is going well, we’re thinking winter, which is quite controversial but I’m sick of going to weddings and sweating like a pig in the summer. Everyone’s in a suit.”

He adds that an off-season wedding might also be “a little bit cheaper”.

However, he tells Tupou because he and his partner aren’t planning to have children they feel an obligation to put on a “damn good knees up”.

Tupou asked how Bridge kept the engagement and ring buying a surprise for his mystery husband-to-be.

The happy host explains the couple do have a joint bank account but he managed to funnel money to his mother. “That would have been a dead giveaway, you know, finding a Pascoes’ receipt.”

Of his partner’s decision to remain anonymous, Bridge says “that’s fair enough. We have these jobs but our partners don’t choose it”.

Bridge was famously outed as gay live on television by Mark Richardson in 2019 who accused the 35-year-old of “collecting ex-boyfriends”.

AM Show host Ryan Bridge was in tears after reliving the incident that saw his sexuality accidentally exposed on air by co-host Mark Richardson. Photo / AM Show

Bridge then laughed awkwardly, before saying: “Yes, it’s true, I’m gay. There we go, it’s out there. God that was awkward.”

He later told Woman’s Weekly that he burst into tears as soon as the show went to an ad break.

Richardson’s apology two years later also brought Bridge to tears on air.

He responded saying: “I get emotional when I look at that because I think, again it wasn’t your intention to do that but, I just look at that and I’m like man that guy [Bridge] was holding something back, you know?”

Bridge joined the AM show after a stint filling in for Duncan Garner. He had previously worked as a Newshub TV reporter and RadioLIVE political reporter.