Heidi Klum to wed Seal after mountaintop proposal

NEW YORK - German supermodel Heidi Klum on Wednesday announced her engagement to Seal after the British pop singer proposed to her on a mountain top while the couple were skiing in Canada.

"We reached this beautiful place by helicopter one day before Christmas Eve," Klum said in a message on her website announcing her engagement. "It was a unique experience."

Klum's publicist said in a statement that the proposal took place at 4300m, in a secluded spot on a natural glacier in Whistler, British Columbia.

The 31-year-old, who became a household name as a Victoria's Secret model and a Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue cover girl in 1998, has been married once before, to celebrity hairdresser Ric Pipino. They separated in 2002.

She then dated Italian Formula One mogul Flavio Briatore, who is the father of her daughter Leni, born last year.

In a book published just last month titled Heidi Klum's Body of Knowledge, the supermodel suggested she was cautious about getting married again.

"I actually don't know that I'll ever get married again ... but we'll see," she wrote.

The man who changed her mind is a 41-year-old Londoner who became one of the biggest soul singers of the 1990s and was nominated for a 2004 Grammy Award for the song Love's Divine from his newly released greatest hits album.

Klum offered some tips on marriage in her book, noting that the most challenging aspect of marriage was living together.

"When we get comfortable with someone, we tend to stop making an effort, and find ourselves going to bed each night in sweat-pants and big old granny undies, with cold cream on our faces," she warned.

- REUTERS