'Today' Show Favorite Engaged to Ex After Reconciliation

12/26/2021 05:05 pm EST

Jill Martin, a fan-favorite on Today, is getting hitched! Back in November, the NBC show contributor revealed that she and Erik Brooks are engaged, per Page Six. If this news sounds familiar, it might be because this is the pair's second engagement. Martin and Brooks were previously engaged, but they split earlier in the pandemic after trying to make their long-distance relationship work. 

Martin penned an essay for Today.com in which she opened up about her journey with Brooks. She first took readers back to when they decided to call off their engagement initially. The contributor said that their decision to end their engagement was "heart-wrenching." Still, they knew that they needed a "long pause" as their relationship simply wasn't working at that time. She went on to say about their split, "After almost three years of a near fairy tale, the lows became more overwhelming than the highs. It wasn't working. We were arguing more than we were getting along. Energetically, the timing wasn't right. We both still needed to grow. It took falling apart to build ourselves back together."

Martin explained that she was the one who first got back in contact with Brooks nearly 18 months after they called things off. Of course, they're back together and "better" than ever when it comes to their relationship. She wrote, "I am the best version of myself when we are together. I feel confident, smart and happy. We laugh all the time. While we still fight sometimes, we limit the drama. Misunderstandings that used to last for a weekend now last minutes."

As for their second engagement, it was less "extravagant" than the first. Martin shared about the moment that Brooks popped the question (for the second time), "We were on a small fishing boat in the Bahamas. It was just the two of us and, lucky for us, a couple on another nearby boat told us afterward that they took a picture of us while Erik was proposing." She added, "Thank goodness they happened to be in that spot in the middle of the ocean – the snapshot later took my breath away. Erik simply said, 'I can't wait to spend the rest of forever with you.' And we were engaged. Again."

Martin ended her essay by highlighting how everyone's journey is "different." While her route to love wasn't exactly linear, she still got her happy ending nonetheless. She wrote, "It took me 45 years to find my fairy tale. When I realized I was confident on my own, that's when I knew Erik and I were ready to get back together. The realistic version of my fairy tale was ready to be written."

Disclosure: PopCulture. is owned by Paramount. Sign up for Paramount+ by clicking here.