Norman Reedus Shares Daughter's Reaction When He Proposed to Diane Kruger: 'Everybody's Crying'
Roy Rochlin/Getty; Norman Reedus/Instagram
Norman Reedus didn't anticipate having his 3-year-old daughter on his lap when he proposed to Diane Kruger, but fate had other plans.
Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live Tuesday night, the Walking Dead actor explained that his plans for the proposal kept getting dashed, leading to the at-home proposal featuring their daughter, Nova Tennessee.
Reedus explained that he and Kruger were on a motorcycle trip to Savannah, Georgia, when he planned to propose, but his ideas were complicated because the trip was during the pandemic. He then decided to do it in an isolated, scenic spot on the way back, but the weather stopped him from doing so.
"I had the ring for quite a long time in my pocket, just, like, burning a hole in my pocket," he explained. "I was looking for some place really pretty to do it, but there was a huge thunderstorm that hit us."
Once they got home, he wasted no time and proposed to Kruger with their toddler witnessing the sweet moment.
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"I felt bad that I didn't do it and Nova, our daughter, was sitting on my lap, and I was like, 'Can you go get my boot? It's in the closet,' " he explained.
"[Diane]'s like, 'Why?' I'm like, 'I just want to look at the boot.' 'Cause I had it shoved in the boot."
"And then I proposed and she started crying, and then Nova started crying — everybody's crying. It was like water works city," he shared.
"And then Nova goes, 'Why are we crying?' Diane's going, 'It's happy tears!' And she's like, 'Yes! It's happy tears!' "
Reedus did say he suspected Kruger was onto his plan before they'd gotten back home. "I'm sure she knew that I was looking for somewhere to stop along the way."
RELATED: Diane Kruger Shares Rare Snap of Daughter Nova as She 'Finally' Figures Out How to Ride Scooter
Diane Kruger/Instagram
The two actors met on the set of 2015 film Sky and went public with their relationship in March 2017. In August 2021, they confirmed their engagement to PEOPLE.
Kruger and Reedus, 53, welcomed Nova in November 2018. In her new children's book, A Name From the Sky (out Oct. 25), Kruger, 45, opens up about discovering the meaning of her own name and reveals how she and Reedus decided on the perfect moniker for their daughter.
"I had her late in life at 42, and [Norman] had a child when he was much younger," she said. " 'Nova' in Latin means new beginning, and a nova star keeps changing and is reborn. And we love Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains; we do motorcycle trips there."
