Sophie Monk knows a thing or two about searching for love. She was The Bachelorette, after all! While the relationship she formed with contestant Stu Laundy was unfortunately short-lived, the down-to-earth television presenter is now happily engaged to Joshua Gross — who proposed to Monk on Christmas Day in 2020.
As the host of Channel 9’s Beauty and the Geek, Monk is now in charge of helping 10 geeks find their glow-up by pairing them up with 10 beauties to compete in challenges with. The winning couple will receive $100,000 prize money, and perhaps even fall in love in the process.
During the first episode of the heartwarming show, Monk revealed that she knows a thing or two about falling in love with a “geek” revealing that Gross is a neurosurgical robotics consultant — before joking (we think) that she doesn’t even know what that is!
When is the wedding?
Speaking to POPSUGAR Australia ahead of the premiere of Beauty and the Geek, Monk explained that her wedding will likely be a low-key, casual affair.
“COVID has thrown a bit of a spanner in the works but I’m also just generally disorganised,” she said. “I’m very much last minute — like, the engagement party, I think we organised about a week and a half before and I actually got the art department from Beauty and the Geek, because I love their parties so much, to do it. So, I’m a bit of an eleventh-hour person anyway.”
How did they celebrate their engagement?
Monk and Gross celebrated their engagement with, as Monk explained, a last-minute shindig because that is just how they roll.
The couple hosted the event at their home in Helensvale on the Gold Coast with Monk donning a gorgeous floor-length silver gown and Gross wearing a black suit and tie.
The couple had a photo wall to match their styling covered in silver and white balloons as well as fairy lights that adorned the entrance of their home, sharing snapshots of their evening with friends and family on Instagram stories.
How did they meet?
In a very rare “IRL” love story, Gross and Monk met during a flight back in 2018.
“I had just finished filming Love Island in Mallorca and was on my way to San Francisco for a random TV gig with Channel Nine when I made a last-minute decision to go back to Australia,” told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“I sat next to Josh in business class and we started chatting. About two hours into the flight, I asked him if he was single. He responded yes. I then asked if I could kiss him. I was clearly out of practice and a bit of a nerd so I went to brush my teeth and thought, ‘Let’s do this.’ We had 16 hours to go.”
What does he do?
According to his LinkedIn page, Gross is the Regional Sales Manager at Globus Medical — a company that develops, manufactures and distributes musculoskeletal device solutions.
Gross is obviously one very smart cookie, and boasts a Bachelor of Applied Science, a Masters of Business Administration AND a Masters degree in Medical Law!
What makes him “The One”?
Monk told Who what makes her man so special saying, “We have so much in common. I knew as soon as I met him that he was a good one. He’s just so intelligent and he has a great sense of humour. He’s also not fazed by what I do for work and all the attention that comes with it.”
Meanwhile, Gross gushed about his bride-to-be saying, “I don’t know a lot about her world. But when I came onto the set while she was filming Beauty and the Geek, I was blown away by her talent. She’s incredible. I’m a very lucky guy.”
