Here's Why Dylan Sprouse and Barbara Palvin Kept Their Engagement Secret for Months

Yes, the rumors that Barbara Palvin and Dylan Sprouse initially shot down are true: The couple, who has been dating for the last five years, really are getting married. The couple announced their engagement to V Magazine, in a feature published today. In the interview, they revealed they actually got engaged back in September.

They did it this way on purpose, Sprouse explained while talking to his twin brother Cole Sprouse, who interviewed them for the magazine. “There’s a lot of demand from the general public for full transparency,” the groom-to-be said. “Which is funny to me because no relationship is fully transparent. This article, particularly, is timed up to the release of our engagement announcement, right? But we got engaged now, how many months ago?”

“We got engaged in September,” Palvin responded.

“Holy cow. Yeah,” Sprouse said. “We didn’t necessarily feel the need to be fully transparent with the public about that aspect of our engagement. What we wanted to do with Stephen [Gan, V‘s editor-in-chief] and the V team is make something that was kind of tongue-in-cheek about the nature of private versus public. We’re playing with the idea of perception.”

“Also, we just want to do it on our time,” Palvin added. “When some people leaked the information that we got engaged, our PR team was like, ‘Hey, so you guys should do maybe a post about it or talk to this magazine or talk to that magazine…’ That really annoyed me because I knew we were building this story up. So, I’m very happy that we ended up doing it our way.”

Palvin also addressed how she felt more nervous for Sprouse’s proposal than their wedding: “I’m really not nervous about getting married. I think the engagement stressed me more than the wedding,” she said. “I mean, a man has time to prepare for the proposal—Dylan kept the ring for seven months before he asked the question—but for me, it was right then and there. I knew since we started dating that I want to marry him, but it’s a big decision.”

Senior News and Strategy Editor

Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she’s not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.