KPIX Meteorologist Mary Lee Gets Surprise Valentine's Day Marriage Proposal
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Love was in the air in the KPIX 5 studio Monday as meteorologist Mary Lee got a surprise Valentine's Day marriage proposal from her longtime boyfriend.
Mary was taping a segment on the Northern Lights when her boyfriend Ajit Ninan's two daughters Mirium and Madi arrived on set with roses for her. What Lee initially thought was a surprise family visit on Valentine's Day turned into something far more dramatic when Ajit stepped onto the set and dropped to a knee in front of Mary with the Northern Lights on the screen behind them.
"Mary, you are my Northern Lights. You are spectacular and beautiful," he said. "The girls adore you and I love you. I want you to be a part of my life. Will you be my forever girl and will you marry me?"
Smiling and in tears, she accepted his proposal as Ajit's girls and others in the studio who helped make the proposal happen applauded.
The staged proposal was carefully planned by Ajit, the KPIX Morning team and the CBS News Bay Area team to fulfill a dream of Mary's.
"I've always wanted to see the Northern Lights," Mary said later. "It's been a dream of mine! I've always wanted to be proposed to with the Northern Lights in the background. They called it 'Operation Marry Mary!'"
When anchors Len Kiese and Amanda Starrantino showed the emotional clip during the KPIX 5 Noon News and talked to Mary about it on air, she smiled as she cried more tears of joy.
"It was so unexpected and I honestly did not know if it would ever happen," she said laughing. "It is so crazy, because all of you were dropping hints and I totally didn't get it. I did not see it coming from a mile away."
"It was just incredible," she added. "I am still on a high and still in shock, for sure. Now we have a wedding to plan!"
