The Italian eyewear executive proposed to Serfaty with a stunning yellow diamond sparkler in Italy: “I was completely taken by surprise,” Serfaty tells PEOPLE
Jessica Serfaty is ready to walk down the aisle!
the Days of Our Lives star, 32, is engaged to Italian billionaire Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, the actress confirms to PEOPLE.
“The week before Leo asked for my hand, we had been laughing about one another’s past engagement stories,” Serfaty tells PEOPLE exclusively.
“Poking fun at all the do’s and don’ts that come along with proposals. I was completely taken by surprise when he dropped to one knee. I remember seeing the joy in Leo’s face when he couldn’t hold it in any longer. He teared up at the end. (Sorry Leo, but I had too!) It was spontaneous, exciting and beautiful.”
Del Vecchio, 28, who is the chief strategy officer for his family’s eyewear group Essilor Luxottica, (which owns Ray-Ban, Oakley, Sunglass Hut, and Persol and also makes eyewear for designer brands including Chanel and Prada), popped the question at the Conca del Songo restaurant on Italy’s Amalfi coast with a diamond sparker.
“Other than the fact that now I have to tread water a little harder,” Serfaty jokes, the ring is “flawless.”
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“I’ve never pictured a yellow diamond, then again, I’ve never been a traditional kinda-gal ring. Leo’s taste is timeless and now after having it, I’d never want anything different. It’s beautiful.”
The actress, who has starred as Sloan Petersen on Days since 2022, and has also appeared in The Ride, Wheels of Fortune and Roe v. Wade, first connected with her future husband six years ago.
“I remember the first time ever meeting Leo,” Serfaty recalls. “It was 2017 at Cannes Film Festival, we were on a boat, and he was dancing. He was such a good dancer by the way! We briefly met. It wasn’t until a couple years later that we saw each other again. We spent five days along with friends laughing and dancing until the sun came up.”
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“That was the moment I knew something more was happening. I didn’t want to leave! I saw him a few times in between the next couple of years. It was always warm, but it wasn’t our time. We were both in relationships. So cut to this year, Leo wrote me and said he had been thinking about me and asked if I was single. I was. And just like that… Everything else is history.”
This is the second marriage for Del Vecchio, while Serfaty was previously engaged to Firefly CEO Kaan Gunay.
“The territory of ‘Engagement Land’ is the one I’ve visited before,” she says. “This time, it’s right. It’s the right time, the right one. So the feeling is a feeling of being elated to find home. It’s joy, it’s wild energy, it’s calming and comforting.”
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Serfaty continues: “I think in life, we look to accomplish all these milestones. Graduating high school, college, first big job, first place, then comes the serious relationship and so on. Life isn’t as linear as I think so many hope for. Mine has been far from that. It’s been a complete adventure with many surprise detours. This milestone, this engagement, is one of my greatest treasures because Leo, is one of my greatest treasures.”
As the couple continues to celebrate their engagement in Europe, Serfaty says she’s never been happier and can’t wait to spend her life with Del Vecchio.
“We both want a family. We both love what we do. We both support each other’s dreams and ambitions, but understand family comes first,” she says. “This was very important for both Leo and I to have a life partner whose values were in alignment. Goals!”
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Read the original article on People.