A Proposal That Was Anything But Romantic
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, best known for his role in Modern Family, recently shared a story about a proposal that was meant to be romantic but ended up being anything but. The actor opened up about how he proposed to his husband, Justin Mikita, during a vacation in Mexico, and how things didn’t go as planned.
Ferguson recounted the events on his podcast Dinner’s on Me, where he spoke with Heather Graham. He went back to 2012, when he decided to propose during their trip to Mexico. Instead of a traditional ring, he chose a diamond Rolex watch. According to Ferguson, Mikita had always borrowed his watch, so he wanted to give him something meaningful. He even added a special message on the watch that read, “spend all your time with me.”
Hiding the watch proved to be a challenge. It was large and hard to conceal. “I could not hide it from him. So, I kept it in my pocket most of the time,” Ferguson said. At one point, he even tried hiding it inside the tube of toilet paper because he was running out of options.
After waiting for the right moment, Ferguson finally thought he found it. One night in Tulum, after dinner, they walked along the beach. The setting felt perfect. “I had the watch with me… and I was like, ‘Okay, this is the moment,’” he said. He added, “The moonlight was hitting the beach; it was so beautiful,” and he was ready to propose.
But just as he was about to ask, something unexpected happened. Small sand crabs were moving all around them in the moonlight. Before he could react, Mikita saw them too and panicked. Ferguson added, “He started screaming and, like, running away.”
After that, Ferguson felt the pressure building. It was already “like night three” of their five-day trip, and he didn’t want to leave without proposing. So the next day, he didn’t wait for another perfect moment. While Mikita was sitting on their balcony having coffee, Ferguson simply went for it. “I basically got down on one knee. I was like, ‘Here’s the watch,’” he said, even joking that he “threw it at him” before asking, “Will you marry me?”
He admitted the moment felt rushed and unplanned. “I was stressed out. It wasn’t like I had a speech or anything prepared,” he said. It wasn’t romantic, but it was real. A year later, the couple got married on July 20, 2013, in New York City, which was one of the few places where same-sex marriage was legal at the time.
Their story didn’t stop there. On July 7, 2020, they welcomed their first son, Beckett Mercer. Then, in May 2022, they announced they were expecting again, and on Nov. 15, 2022, they welcomed their second son, Sullivan Louis.
Today, Ferguson calls the proposal story “crazy” and admits there was “zero romance,” but it still became the start of everything they have built together.
