Mellissa Rivers is getting married!
The actress and television host, 55, who is daughter of the late comedy legend Joan Rivers, got engaged to attorney Steve Mitchel last month.
“It’s a big step for both for us and I’m still in complete and total shock, even a month later, but beyond happy,” Rivers tells PEOPLE exclusively. “And more importantly, my mom would have approved of the ring. Oh yeah, and of Steve too!”
The pair first met a Didi Hirsch Mental Health and Suicide Prevention event. “I’m the Co-Chairman of the board. He was there as a friend’s plus one,” she says. “It’s not often that a total stranger comes up to me and just starts talking. We’ve been together now for about a year and a half.”
After years of swearing she’d never walk down the aisle again, Rivers — who was previously married to John Endicott for five years until their 2003 split — had a change of heart.
“All of my friends are joking that I had a pretty good run and almost got to the finish line of staying single for the rest of my life. It’s something that I never believed in my heart of hearts that I would ever do. But, apparently hell freezes over and pigs do fly,” she says, jokingly adding, “I didn’t see it coming and it’s really not easy to pull a fast one on me. Once Steve shoved some smelling salt under my nose from passing out, I said yes.”
While Rivers is enjoying the fiancée stage, she says that the couple isn’t rushing into a wedding anytime soon.
“We’re taking baby steps. We haven’t planned anything yet. If we do a ceremony and party I can’t imagine it being any time before 2025. I can guarantee it will be nothing like my first wedding or anything on that level.”
Mitchel popped the question to his bride-to-be while the couple was vacationing at the One & Only Mandarina Resort in Mexico.
“The whole day was a comedy of errors," she says. "Starting with that it was Friday the 13th. In hindsight, Steve was a wreck all day. I guess as soon as he woke up he realized the date and asked me if I had any negative feelings towards Friday the 13th."
“We were having dinner on the beach and there was a boat out in the water that kept turning on and off its lights. I was totally absorbed in trying to figure out why the boat was doing this and not paying attention to my surroundings. Steve told me he loved me and wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. I told him the same, but I wasn’t even looking at him. I was so concentrated on this boat. He finally said, annoyed, ‘I got you something.’ I turned around and the ring was on the table and that’s when I went into full shock. I was totally speechless when he prompted me with 'well?' I’m wearing the ring so obviously I said yes!”
She continues: “Steve had been so nervous all day that when we got back to the hotel room, he literally passed out. I hadn’t even taken my make up off yet and he was fast asleep.”
Mitchel secretly tapped one of Rivers’ dearest friends Peter McNeal at McNeal and Grunberg to custom design the stunning sparkler.
“It makes the ring so much more meaningful knowing that all of the people I love were involved,” she says.
Rivers’ fiancé even got approval from her son 22-year-old Cooper Endicott before he popped the question.
“Steve called my son, Cooper, before he proposed. Cooper said ‘Great, but let’s not rush to the alter too fast, we don’t want to freak her out!”