YouTuber MrBeast is engaged.
The YouTuber, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, announced his engagement to girlfriend Thea Booysen in an Instagram post revealing that he’d proposed on Christmas Day.
“Ya boy did a thing,” the caption reads.
“I intentionally dropped a large box to make noise before presenting the real gift — with the ring inside — to her. And then I went down on a knee and proposed,” Donaldson said in an interview with People.
He said he popped the question while Booysen’s family was visiting.
“My family flew out from South Africa for Christmas and we were going to do Christmas in our house so both families were here. We were opening presents, and then for the very last present he asked me to close my eyes because it was a surprise,” Booysen told People.
Donaldson is the world’s most popular YouTuber, with 340 million subscribers. Booysen also has her own channel, TheaBeasty, with almost 40,000 subscribers.
Donaldson met Booysen in 2022 when he was visiting her home country of South Africa. During the trip, Donaldson went to dinner with a mutual friend who invited Booysen to join them.
Engagement comes amid controversies
Donaldson has faced a myriad of controversies in recent months.
Ontario’s labour ministry is currently investigating an industrial accident on the Toronto set of Beast Games, the YouTuber’s newly released Prime Video competition.
The ministry says a worker was injured by falling wood on Sept. 11 on the set, a miniature village constructed for the show on the grounds of the former Downsview Airport.
An earlier production of the game show in Las Vegas also led to safety complaints from contestants who described a chaotic set where they lacked regular access to food, water and medication.
In July of 2024, a colleague of Donaldson’s, fellow creator Ava Tyson, left his company after online accusations that she shared inappropriate sexual messages with a minor.
Tyson was accused by other YouTubers of sending inappropriate messages to the minor when she was 20. The now 28-year-old, who’d worked on MrBeast’s channel since 2012, has denied the allegations of grooming, but Tyson and Donaldson had “mutually agreed” she should quit.
MrBeast is now the most subbed creator on YouTube with more than 285 million subscribers. KN explains his formula for success.
In August, Donaldson ordered a full assessment of the internal culture in his YouTube empire as well as an investigation into “allegations of inappropriate behaviour by people in the company,” according to a confidential memo obtained by The Associated Press.
Amid the various allegations, Booysen spoke out in defence of Donaldson, writing on her YouTube channel in August that she “wouldn’t be with him” if the allegations were true.
In regards to what’s next, the pair told People that they’re planning on a “more private” ceremony.
“We’re thinking of doing it somewhere on an island where we’re far away from just about everybody,” Booysen added. “We’re not going to try and have a big, extravagant wedding. It’s going to be nice, but it’s certainly going to be intimate [with] close family and friends.”
