‘We don’t care what people say’: Andy Lee proposes to long-time love

Andy Lee has popped the question to girlfriend of 10 years Rebecca Harding, revealing the sweet way he finally asked her to marry him.

Andy Lee has finally popped question.

The Melbourne comedian had all of Australia hanging before asking girlfriend of 10 years Rebecca Harding to marry him.

And turns out Lee is an old romantic, getting down on one knee and proposing in a surprise engagement inside their crumbling riverfront Hawthorn mansion last weekend.

“I asked Bec to marry me on Sunday,” Andy announced on his podcast this week with best mate Hamish Blake.

“Is it a bit quick? That’s all I wanna ask,” Blake joked.

Andy Lee and Rebecca Harding are finally engaged. Picture: Instagram

Lee’s apparent reluctance to get engaged has been a long-running gag on the show with the rumour mill long spinning with speculation and innuendos and clues about the pair getting engaged to having already secretly got hitched and eloped.

But in Lee’s own words, the pair have never cared what others think.

Harding told the Herald Sun on Thursday after the sharing the news: “We are so happy.”

She and Lee made their public debut as a couple at the 2015 Australian Open, and the following year they split up for six months.

Speaking to Stellar in a joint interview in 2022, Harding reflected that after so many years together, the couple had started to feel some pressure to get married and start a family.

“It is really unfair, and there is also pressure to have kids, as well,” she said.

“And unfortunately for women, we do have a little bit of a clock that’s ticking.

“We’ve bought a house. We’ve got a dog, and we have a few other projects, too.”

The couple posted the happy news to their social media accounts on Thursday saying “People keep saying we’ve rushed into this but we don’t care what people say!” along with an engagement ring emoji, sharing pictures of the happy couple beaming.

They were quickly flooded with celebrity well wishes from their close friends and a cavalcade of Australia’s shoebox who’s who including Melbourne skipper Max Gawn, radio host Jackie O and fashion founder Nadia Bartel.

How the sweet proposal unfolded

The gorgeous couple are currently undertaking a $5m renovation project after buying the historic mansion in Kew in 2021 for more than $8m.

Lee took Harding to their “new old house”, pretending they needed to film social media content to start the build.

Rebecca Harding shows off her rock in front of the Kew mansion the pair are renovating.

Looking like he had to get something out of the marble fireplace, Andy was on one knee when he produced a napkin, a romantic gesture to symbolise how they met.

The love story goes that Lee slipped Harding a napkin with his contact details, or email address, after meeting at a cafe where she worked as a waitress in 2014.

“When I was down there, I stayed on one knee and I gave her another napkin – because when I first met her at the cafe, I wrote on a napkin my details – and I gave her another napkin,” Lee told the Hamish and Andy podcast of the proposal.

The derelict home with Yarra River frontage had sat vacant for a decade before the couple snapped it up just 18 days after it was put on the market.

The couple have since embarked on a major redevelopment of the unkempt grounds of the 1950sq m block.

They plan to transform the run-down house into a luxurious mansion, complete with a pool, theatre, gym and golf simulator.

Despite some objections from neighbours, the planning application was approved by the local council last year.

What took Lee so long

In February Andy Lee spoke about how he and Harding were still deciding if they wanted kids.

He told Kate Langbroek’s No Filter podcast that he thinks Harding would be “an amazing mum”.

“There’s no rub between Bec and I on that front. Because she also doesn’t want them right now. This is the misconception. Like if we posted a picture of us somewhere, everyone’s like, ‘Why haven’t you proposed?’ or ‘Are you engaged?’ No,” Lee said.

When Lee posted pictures of him and Harding in New York nine years apart, the post was flooded with comments from people disappointed it wasn’t an engagement post.

“One time I did tease and I’m not allowed to play this joke anymore,’’ he told Langbroek.

“But anytime I saw paparazzi, I’d get down on one knee when I was out with Bec, she was in on it.”

Ultimately he said marriage isn’t “super important”.

“I’ve gone through times where I thought I would, and then I’ve definitely gone through patches of feeling ‘I don’t think I want this at all’. We’ll see.”

We’re glad he changed his mind.