Sheryl Sandberg Is Engaged to Tom Bernthal After Being Set Up by Her Late Husband's Brother
Sheryl Sandberg is updating her relationship status — to engaged!
The Facebook COO, 50, is set to tie the knot with boyfriend Tom Bernthal, a rep for Sandberg tells PEOPLE.
The happy couple — who were set up by Sandberg’s former brother-in-law Rob Goldberg — were engaged after a mountain hike and picnic lunch at Vermejo Park Ranch on Feb. 1, according to a source close to the couple.
“They took a hike together on their very first date, so they recreated the moment and got engaged at the end of a long hike this past weekend,” the insider says.
Bernthal, 46, popped the question with a ring featuring five tiny hidden diamonds underneath the setting to represent each of their five children.
Sandberg and Bernthal — the founder and CEO of the Los Angeles-based strategic consulting agency Kelton Global — have been dating since last spring after they were introduced by Goldberg, who is both close friends with Bernthal and the brother of Sandberg’s late husband Dave, who died in 2015.
“They just clicked right away and have been completely committed to each other since they met,” a source familiar with the couple tells PEOPLE. “The Sandberg/Goldberg and Bernthal families have become very close and are thrilled that both of them have found happiness. Both Tom and Sheryl share a strong commitment to all the same things, especially family and philanthropy.”
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Engaged!!! @tom_bernthal, you are my everything. I could not love you more.
A post shared by Sheryl Sandberg (@sherylsandberg) on Feb 3, 2020 at 10:00am PST
Sandberg celebrated the happy news with a sweet Instagram post that featured a black-and-white shot of the couple smiling at one another.
“Engaged!!!! @tom_bernthal, you are my everything,” she captioned the post. “I could not love you more.”
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Goldberg tells PEOPLE that the couple formed an instant bond over being parents. Sandberg has a son and a daughter, while Bernthal has three kids — all of whom remain their top priority.
“They both see the world in the same way. Their kids are No. 1,” he says. “They are blending their families and their lives and that’s a testament to how in love they are. They’re building a future going forward together.”
With that in mind, the couple brought their children and both sets of parents on a summer trip to the Middle East, where they visited a refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece and spent time in Jerusalem, pledging a $2.5 million donation to IsraAID, which will be used to support the humanitarian agency’s programs around the world.
Goldberg says he knew Bernthal, a former NBC News producer, was looking for “someone to build a life with” following his divorce, and that their families are thrilled he and Sandberg have found happiness once again.
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“Both of them have gone through loss, and just because you have gone through loss doesn’t mean you aren’t entitled to happiness and joy again,” says Sandberg’s former brother in law. “They both came out of hard times of their lives still happy and motivated to make their lives better and their kids’ lives better.”
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Sandberg’s husband Dave Goldberg, 47, died in May 2015 of heart-related causes while the couple was on vacation with friends.
Though she previously told PEOPLE she “could barely get through the day” following his death, Sandberg was open about the need to move on, and encouraged women not to feel guilty about doing so following the death of a partner.
“Men date sooner, men date more, and women get judged more,” she told The Guardian in 2017. “And, you know, obviously that’s super unfair. I think I’m helping people remember that dating, for those who want to do it, is part of moving forward, and it is option B. If I could I would only date Dave. I made that choice. I made that choice. I just had that taken away from me.”
After splitting from Bobby Kotick after three years of dating, she and Bernthal — whose brother is The Punisher star Jon Bernthal — made their public debut as a couple in July at a Garth Brooks concert in Idaho.
