The ‘Real Housewives of New Jersey’ couple share every detail about their happy news with PEOPLE — including all the tea on that 11-carat engagement ring
Dolores Catania is winning in life and winning in love!
The reigning Traitors champ and Real Housewives of New Jersey star is engaged to Paulie Connell, after nearly 5 years of dating.
“I’m ecstatic!” Catania, 54, tells PEOPLE in an exclusive joint interview with Connell, 51, to announce their happy news. “You know when you feel that happiness down in your gut? That’s where this excitement stems from for me. I feel so blessed, I almost feel guilty! Like I don’t deserve to be loved this way.”
“I keep telling Dolores, she deserves that and so much more,” Connell adds. “She’s an incredible woman. And when I was proposing to her, I was able to articulate to her everything I see that she is, and everything I see that she does, and the impact she has on everybody around her. She’s one in a million.”
Their happy news is a long time coming for Bravo fans who had been anxious to see Catania and Connell walk down the aisle. But the reality star insists the timing is perfect.
“I’ve never been so sure of something ever,” she says. “You know, patience is a big thing for us. When we first met, Paul wasn’t used to being in the public eye; he wasn’t used to the pressure the audience can put on relationships. There were things in his life that he needed to sort through, and that took time. But even when things came up on the show, I never pushed Paul, because I wanted him to do the right thing on his own. And our bond is stronger now because of that. As a couple, we were able to naturally progress. so this engagement means more to us than it would if it was just something we were doing just for the sake of doing it.”
“Oh, it’s the best decision I’ve ever made,” Connell adds. “I really feel that everything that has happened has brought me to this moment. I’m proud of how far I’ve come, from the streets of Dublin, and feel lucky to have Dolores in my life. She’s made me a better version of myself.”
Connell popped the question on Monday, Nov. 10, at the place where he and Catania first met: the Apple Store in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.
“I could have proposed on a yacht in Greece. I could have rented a grand hall, invited 400 people and asked her to marry me with fireworks in the background. But that’s not who we are,” Connell says. “I didn’t want anything over-the-top and staged because we’re a humble couple. I wanted it to feel grounded and natural and organic. Plus, I wanted the element of surprise. And believe me, I had the element of surprise.”
In fact, Catania was completely clueless as to what was happening, as seen clearly in her expression captured by photographer Jennifer Sofia.
“Oh, I had not a clue at all. In fact, I thought I was going to have to call an ambulance for him!” Catania jokes. “He was sweating so bad, his T-shirt was soaked, his face was beet red. And you know how people say weird things when they’re having a stroke? He started saying these sweet, beautiful things to me out of nowhere and I was like, ‘Paul, are you okay?’ And then I realized he was proposing.”
She was thrown off the track because she never expected to even be in the Apple Store to begin with. “I was told I had a meeting in the morning — actually, to do a PEOPLE interview,” Catania says. “So I had hair and makeup here and then halfway through, I was told the meeting was cancelled. So Paul said, ‘Oh great, we have time to go get your new iPhone now.’ “
Of course, Connell had set everything up to throw her off the track, including the fake interview. He convinced Catania the visit to the Apple Store was necessary because of their trip to BravoCon 2025 this weekend.
That doesn’t mean Catania went willingly. “I kept saying, ‘Just go get it for me! Why do you need me?’ He says, ‘They need your phone there.’ I said, ‘Then take my phone! I have to record my podcast this afternoon.’ But he just kept pestering me.”
“I told her, ‘There’s only one iPhone Pro Max in the area right now, and they’re holding it for you so we have to go back to that f—— store!’ ” Connell recalls. “And she was like, ‘Ahh, f—, fine!’ “
At the store, Connell was remarking to employees about how he and Catania had first met there. “I was like, ‘Wow Paul, you’re really telling people a lot of information here!’ ” Catania says, not realizing that most of the store was in on what was about to happen. “But it was super sweet, because both our phones were broke with the same things at the same time. And that’s how we started talking to begin with.”
Then, Catania and Connell were escorted by the employee over to the spot of their first interaction, which prompted Catania to tell the staffer, “This is the table where we were standing! Wouldn’t it be funny if we got engaged here?”
“Fortunately for me, I was so nervous, my knees where knocking and I couldn’t hear her through the vibrations,” Connell laughs. “I was completely in my head. For some reason, I started thinking about my mom. I’m like, ‘What are you doing? Don’t start getting sad, you’re meant to be happy, this is a happy moment!’ “
He was also trying to convince himself not to drop down on his knee right away. “I had read up on it, and most guys make the mistake of going through the speech too quickly before going ‘Will you marry me?’ So wanted to stay upright for a few minutes to talk about our journey and just how much I love her. But while I’m doing that, I’m trying to tell myself ‘Okay, you gotta kneel down soon. Has it been enough time? How about now?’ And she’s looking at me like, ‘What the f— is going on?’ “
When Connell finally pulled a box out of his pocket, that’s when Catania realized what was happening.
“I immediately said yes,” Catania gushes, looking back on the happy moment. “The whole thing was so sincere and so thoughtful. And then when I came home, there was over 1,000 roses [by Premiere Events by Reema] waiting for me. I mean, he really hit it out of the park.”
He sure did. The show-stopper engagement ring from John Anthony Jewelers in Edgewater, New Jersey boasts an 11-carat centerpiece stone framed by four more carats of sparkle and a band lined with princess-cut diamonds — all set in sleek silver.
“Go big or go home,” Catania laughs.
The rock is different from one Connell previously purchased for her. “If you remember, there was an episode of RHONJ [that aired in 2023] where I said, ‘I have the ring,’ ” he explains. “Well, I didn’t have the ring, but I had bought a stone early on into dating Dolores, thinking, ‘If we get engaged, I’ll use this.’ But then over the years of getting to know Dolores better, she started talking to me about what she liked and I realized, it was opposite of what I got. So I went back to the drawing board.”
Connell got the new ring over a year and a half ago, but his proposal got delayed — first, when her ex-husband Frank got engaged and then when her son, Frankie, Jr., popped the question to his girlfriend. “I was like, ‘Get the f— out of here!’ ” Connell jokes. “I kept saying to myself, ‘Maybe no one wants me to marry Dolores!?!”
Nov. 10 wound up being the perfect timing. It’s the same day Catania moved in with Connell, four years ago. “I’m telling you, there’s not a thing this guy didn’t think of,” Catania says, added they then went to Rocco’s steakhouse on Madison Avenue to celebrate — the same place they had eaten on their first date.
When it comes to the wedding itself, neither have set any plans in motion yet.
“I’d love to get married the day we got engaged, because November has always been a sentimental month for me, but we’re both so excited right now that we really want to enjoy this moment and absorb this all in,” Connell says. “Plus we have Frankie’s wedding coming up, we’re talking about moving into a new house, and of course, Dolores and I will want the wedding to be a perfect experience. So we’ll get there when the time is right.”
“There’s no rush,” Catania adds. “The way we’ve set our life up, we can do things however and whenever we want to do them. and I don’t do things based on what people think I should do. I’ve never done that. Just ask my friends!”
Catania did, in fact, get that new iPhone, too — something she’ll surely be using a lot to snap pictures with the many people who will be looking to celebrate with her and Connell over the coming months.
“I’m just glad Dolores won’t have to answer a stupid question anymore about ‘When is this man going to propose to you?’ ” Connell laughs.
“Me too,” she teases.