Congratulations are in order for Dragons' Den star Steven Bartlett! The entrepreneur and investor reportedly popped the question to his longtime girlfriend Melanie Lopes over the holidays - and he had quite the budget to work with for his proposal plans.
Steven, 33, got down on one knee with a diamond ring on Christmas Day while the couple were holidaying in Morocco together according to the Daily Mail. Sources claim the newly-engaged lovebirds have never been happier. Steven and Melanie have apparently been living together in London and Los Angeles.
Since dropping out of university, Steven has racked up millions. Read on for how he went from a university dropout to a millionaire in his 20s.
© BBC Studios/Simon PantlingSteven's fortune
Steven sure has the budget for a lavish wedding. He was the founder and CEO of the social media marketing agency, The Social Chain, which he sold for £7.7million in 2023. His company Steven.com was estimated in October to be valued at a whopping £320million.
The millionaire joined Dragons' Den as the youngest Dragon ever on the show at the age of 28 in 2021. He joined Peter Jones, Deborah Meaden, Touker Suleyman and Sara Davies on the show's 19th series after Vitabiotics CEO Tej announced he would be leaving the series.
Who is Melanie Lopes?
Melanie is a wellness and yoga entrepreneur who hails from Bordeaux in France. Not too much is known about her personal life, but she's amassed an impressive following of over 136,000 followers on her personal Instagram account. Her relationship with Steven has also been kept largely out of the limelight despite his public profile and TV persona.
© Instagram/ @meloaiSteven and Melanie met a decade ago
The couple's love story is a decade in the making. Steven and Melanie first met back in 2016 in the most modern of ways: on social media. Steven first connected with Melanie on Instagram.
Their relationship wasn't all smooth sailing however. After a year of dating, they briefly broke up in 2017. After Melanie decided to relocate to Bali where she lived for a year, Steven decided upon a grand gesture to win her back in 2022.
"I think as time went on, I reflected on that, I learnt more about things and life, and sex and relationships, and because she was such a special person, I realised that she was the one," the Dragons' Den opened up during an appearance on the My Love is… podcast.
“So, I flew to Bali, and I went and said sorry to her.” She accepted his apology and the pair have stuck together since.
Steven wants kids
Steven already has an idea of how he wants to raise his hypothetical future children with a good understanding of finances. In 2021, the millionaire admitted he's all for the big family life and wants up to six children - but they won't have everything just handed to them.
“My kids definitely wouldn’t get the luxuries of life for free," he vowed in an interview with The Mirror that they will sit in economy.
“My kids also need to learn this very important relationship, which I learned when I was younger, which is that if you get things in life they come from your direct connections.
“I need to make sure that I teach them very early on, that things don’t just appear. They don’t just show up on the kitchen counter when you wake up in the morning, they are earned, so I’m very big on that."
