FARGO – Actor and North Dakota native Josh Duhamel announced his engagement to model and contest winner Audra Mari from Fargo.
In a post on his Instagram account on Saturday, January 8, Duhamel shared a photo of the two standing on a sandy beach.
Duhamel holds up a worn-looking piece of paper that says: Audra Diane Mari, will you marry me?
In a message accompanying the post, Duhamel wrote:
Its on !! He found a message in a bottle that washed ashore and said YES !!
The announcement came on the same day that Mari celebrated her 28th birthday in Florida.
She posted on Instagram days before that she and Duhamel had arrived in Miami Beach on vacation.
Duhamel’s ex-wife and singer / performer Fergie, with whom he has an 8-year-old son, added a congratulatory message to the couple.
Duhamel, 49, and Mari were introduced in Los Angeles by a mutual friend and have been a couple since 2019, Mari told The Forum last July. Duhamel is a spokesperson for North Dakota Tourism.
Mari graduated from Fargo Davies High School and pursued a modeling career in Los Angeles for several years. He was an online student at North Dakota State University in July 2021.
She finished first runner-up in the 2014 Miss USA pageant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and won the 2016 Miss World America pageant in National Harbor, Maryland.
It also features a video series called “Backroads with Audra Mari” produced by Click Content Studios, owned by Forum Communications.