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Once upon a time a Jonas Brother shocked the world by revealing he’d proposed to a well-known actress.
Nope, not that one.
With 2018 being the year Nick Jonas married Priyanka Chopra over and over again, it’s easy to lose track of the fact that his older brother put a ring on it first. In fact, Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner had been celebrating their engagement for 14 full months before Nick and Priyanka began collecting wedding receptions like some newlyweds acquire place settings.
The singer-actor’s romance with the former Miss World champ turned international actress and philanthropist certainly captivates, even earning the freshly minted bride, 36, and groom their own Vogue cover. And the 26-year-old’s decision to gift his wife of a handful of months with a $199,000 Mercedes Maybach just ’cause places them squarely in the oh-so-desirable “goals” category.
But dare we say it’s Joe and Sophie’s love story that’s most covetable.
For starters, their origin story is pretty darn relatable. In comparison to Nick and Priyanka’s dramatic first encounter at the Oscars’ most high-profile bash, the DNCE vocalist, 29, and the British actress (a.k.a. Game of Thrones‘ Sansa Stark) were pushed together by pals.
The 23-year-old had clearly taken notice of the former boy bander as he romanced a long list of young Hollywood “it” girls, moving from Taylor Swift to Camilla Belle to Demi Lovato to Ashley Greene and finally Gigi Hadid. So when pal Hailee Steinfeld teamed up with DNCE for their 2015 hit “Rock Bottom”, the actress reached out to get her take. “I mean, I will say, I did get that text from Sophie being like, ‘So tell me about Joe,'” Steinfeld revealed during a January 2018 sit-down with Nova 96.9’s Smallzy. (Perhaps there were some concerns about that 27-second breakup phone call with Swift or his kinda crude decision to spill that he’d lost his much-hyped virginity to Greene.) Summed up Steinfeld, “I was like, ‘Go for it.'”
So, she went.
The native of New Jersey by way of Arizona already possessed Sophie’s most-desired trait in a mate. As someone who’s been squarely in the spotlight since her 2011 GOT debut at age 16 it just seemed easier to date someone who got “it,” the fact that her time wasn’t always hers and sometimes they would need to make do with on-the-fly dates and Facetime catch-ups.
“I found it easier to date someone who understands the industry or is in that world,” she noted to In Style in 2017. “You realize that you’re not going to see each other all the time. And you don’t feel like a jerk when you’re like, ‘My publicist says I can’t do this…'”
As for Sophie, she had the requisite easy-going nature Joe was after (“I would say she’s gotta have a sense of humor and find my weird sense of humor funny,” he told People of his ideal gal) and the ability to pass his patented girlfriend barometer.
“The biggest test is bringing her around friends because I have friends who are really tough about new people—we have a really tight circle,” he explained to the mag months before they began dating in 2016. “You bring them around friends and see if they can handle themselves well—that’s usually a good test.”
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And so Joe, who just that summer had told Us Weekly, “I’m dating, but nothing serious. I’m really trying to just focus on myself and the music,” found himself falling hard. As he joined Sophie at a friend’s 2016 Halloween party (she clad as a bunny; he a Dalmatian) and a pre-MTV European Music Awards Kings of Leon concert in the Netherlands that November he realized this romance wasn’t destined to be like the others.
“They’re dating exclusively,” a source told People. “He was playing the field, but he really likes her and is willing to settle down for her.”
That meant integrating her into his famous fam (she joined him on a group ski trip to Mammoth; he met her teacher mom Sally and dad Andrew, an employee at a pallet distribution company at a North London pub near their home in Warwickshire) and even going Instagram official, Sophie posting a photo of her guy casually lounging on the back of a boat in Miami while smoking a cigar.
And by January 2017, they had advanced to the making out at a Golden Globes party level of devoted.
“Joe is taking this relationship very seriously,” an insider told People. “She’s different from the other girls he has dated.”
But while their union has all the earmarks of a Serious Relationship, the pair committing to a shared husky puppy Porky Basquait before Joe slipped an impressive pear-shaped diamond on her left hand in October 2017, it’s anything but stuffy.
Their matching tattoos—the hallmark of any important twentysomething relationship—came from their shared love of Toy Story and his 2018 Halloween costume was a take on his fiancée’s fame-making character. (Proving she possesses not one ounce of pretension, the actress opted for an elephant onesie when the duo turned out at Kate Hudson‘s annual bash.) The look, complete with a redheaded wig could be seen more as homage than sendup but Sophie has said she appreciates someone who can take the piss out of her, so to speak.
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“I have a lot of friends who were brought up in the UK like me [who] are working in L.A. as actors. When I go over, I’m giving them s–t and being sarcastic. They’re like, ‘Thank god,'” she shared with UK’s Marie Claire in 2017. “They’re stuck in this place where everyone is so far up your arse. It’s a business town, it’s understandable. But sometimes you just need someone to tell you that you’re not a f–king superstar.”
And while both she and Joe are thrilled to have identified their lifelong companion, neither subscribes to the notion that becoming a spouse is the pinnacle of their accomplishments.
“I’m still like, Holy s–t! I’m engaged,” she admitted to Marie Claire last year. “There’s this weird misconception that being married is the greatest thing that’ll ever happen to you. But I’ve always found that my career is something I work for, and when I achieve something, there’s a sense that this is the greatest thing I’ll do in my life. It’s lovely to be engaged. Not like I achieved anything, but I found my person, like I’d find a house that I love and want to stay in forever. There’s a sense of peace that comes with finding your person. But there’s a drive that comes with your career.”
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Not as though that makes them any less stoked about tying the knot this summer.
Having watched both Nick and older brother Kevin Jonas, 31, enter into matrimony (the eldest Jo Bro wed bride Danielle Jonas at New York’s Oheka Castle when he was just 22), he’s now an expert level groom. “They were both absolutely beautiful,” Joe said of their nuptials during an appearance earlier this month on The Late Late Show with James Corden. “All 18 of Nick’s were amazing. For Kevin, Kevin had a snowstorm during his wedding, which was fantastic. So maybe don’t get married in December. And for Nick, there were quite a few but I would say stick to one. One and done.”
And since he’s going that route, he intends to make it quite the affair. Thanks to life coach Mike Bayer‘s Instagram slip, word is out that the pair’s summer nuptials seem to be taking place in France, the calligraphy-adorned save the date appearing to include some type of favor (some French wine, perhaps?) and details about the fun ahead.
“We’re going to have a flag rugby game at the wedding, and a flag football game,” he shared of just one of the activities that await the likes of Priyanka and confirmed bridesmaid Maisie Williams, Sophie’s GOT ride or die. “So if all the groomsmen show up with black eyes and broken arms, I’ll be very proud.”
His guests, meanwhile, will be fully chuffed to watch the duo ink their permanent relationship status. “They truly are the best couple,” one source tells E! News, “and everyone is obsessed with them together.” Count us amongst good company, then.