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Dancer Ashley Everett has been dancing alongside Beyoncé for over a decade, but in 2016, a surprise proposal suddenly made the athlete the main attraction of the show.
During a Formation tour stop in St. Louis, Beyoncé handed Everett’s soon-to-be fiance the mic so he could get down on one knee in front of the entire world and ask Everett to be his wife. In the rush of the moment, Everett said yes. The romantic proposal quickly went viral, with fans, family and friends in awe of the engagement. But three years later, the dance captain has decided to part ways with her ex.
Looking back at the proposal, Everett told Essence that she isn’t the type of girl who needs a lot of PDA.
‘I’m pretty low key, so I don’t need big gestures all the time,’ she told the mag in a recent interview. ‘I’m happy with one little rose on Valentine’s Day not a house filled with flowers. The big grand gesture, I felt, wasn’t necessarily for me. It was sweet and a nice way to show the love in front of the world.”
With all eyes on there relationship, Everett felt a lot of pressure to keep up appearances that their relationship was headed towards “happily ever after.” But after awhile, the star made the decision to take the veil off the mirage.
‘Eventually I had to look in the mirror and ask myself why,’ she told Essence.
‘”Do I really want to be married or do I even want to marry him? Am I really happy? Do I need to work on me before I take this leap?”… then of course with work and travel comes distance which means you have to work harder for communication… we could go a day or two without talking and I just felt like we weren’t on the same page anymore,’ she explained.
‘We had different goals and dreams workwise and our friendship was fading away.’
The two called it quits, and within the space, Everett has made more room to focus on herself and her goals, and encourages other women to do the same.
“What’s important about [my story] is showing that we’re all human. Just because you’re on stage with a superstar or have X amount of followers doesn’t mean we don’t go through things. I know a lot of women can relate. I think it’s important for women to care and love on ourselves like we would somebody else. Our mental and physical health plays a role in our overall happiness. The breakup has been one of the best decisions I’ve made in years. It was time. Just because things don’t work out doesn’t mean we’ve failed ourselves or anyone else. This is a new door that’s leading to a new pathway. I’m happy about where my life is going.”
