BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — Sometimes the stars align in a perfect way. And that was the case for a Boynton Beach couple.
They got engaged last Friday with the help of music superstar Mark Anthony during his concert at Hertz Arena in Estero near Fort Myers.
Denis Leborgne, during a live interview on WPTV's 7 p.m. newscast Thursday, said his proposal to Lizzette De Jesus was during the pandemic when Anthony wasn't performing.
"I planned it for 14 months," Leborgne said. "It was really surreal. When we stood on that stage, it's like the 'Twilight Zone.' You don't hear anything. You don't hear the crowd."
Leborgne said he arranged the surprise with Michel Vega, the CEO of Magnus Media, which produces the shows for Anthony, who is her favorite singer.
Anthony started to sing the song "Y Cómo es El? ("And How is He?" in English.)." Toward the end of the song, he approached their location and sang to De Jesus, who was in tears. At the end of the song, Anthony called him to the stage where he made his proposal while dropping to one knee and holding a ring.
Leborgne said he prepared a few short things to say for the occasion but once on the stage, he said he drew a complete blank.
De Jesus even "forgot" her name when Anthony asked for it, and she replied "Boricua" (another name for Puerto Rican), thinking he was asking her where she was from.
But she quickly said yes. And he is even trying to get Pope Francis to marry them at the Vatican.
The couple has known each other for more than 16 years.
"Well, it is kind of some a love story you could see in a movie," Leborgne told WPTV. "At the time, she was married and I was as well. We could see something was in the air between us, but we both brushed it off as we were both married. Then we walked our paths in different directions and completely losing sight of each other for about 10 years. She went on with her life. I went on with mine."
Fast forward to 2019.
"Not knowing she was divorced, after I was being recently separated and a few months later divorced, in 2019, I looked for her on social media, and guess what? I found her," Leborgne said. "I reached out to her and invited her to brunch. After sharing with each other our stories, she quickly told me she had been divorced in 2015. We quickly shared our feelings and our past thoughts about each other. We both feel for each other pretty much at first sight. For the rest, well, you saw the video. So we had been together for almost three years."
"She is an amazing person, and feel I won the lottery. She is my Gem," he added.