Rafael ‘Rafa’ Nadal has revealed he’s engaged to his girlfriend of 14 years, Mery Perello, after secretly proposing to her eight months ago, according to Hello!
The tennis star, 32, appears on the upcoming front cover of the magazine’s sister publication HOLA! alongside his stunning other half, with the publication claiming he proposed to Mery, 30 – who is also known as Xisca – in May last year in Rome.
The couple, who have been together for 14 years, are reportedly now planning to exchange vows later this year in Mallorca after keeping their engagement private for the first eight months to celebrate privately.
Mery, whose full name Maria Francisca Perello, is an insurance worker who is only rarely seen at her fiance’s major matches and tournaments around the world, often choosing to support him from home. However, she made a surprise appearance at the Australian Open just weeks ago to see him finish in second place.
Nadal has previously told Hello! that he hopes to settle down and have children with Mery one day. He revealed at the time: “Obviously, I have the intention of forming a family. I love children and I would like my children to do what they like.”
Meanwhile, he told Essentially Sports at the end of last year: “I have a girlfriend too and I am not alone to take decisions.(sic)
“You have to suit situations you know. Having family? I don’t know, things are not easy to be predicted. At this age, I thought that I would have already been a former player and that I would have started a family.”
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And Mery herself has opened up about their long-term relationship in the past, revealing the importance of them having their independence and space from each other on some of his tours.
“Travelling together everywhere, even if I could, would not be good either for him or for me,” she told The Telegraph at the time. “He needs his space when he is competing, and just the idea of me hanging around waiting on his needs all day wears me out. It would asphyxiate me.
“And then he would have to be worrying about me… No. If I followed him everywhere, I think there’s a risk we might stop getting along.”
It comes after Nadal finished in second place in the Australian Open after losing out to Novak Djokovic in the final.
The Serbian tennis star, 31, crushed Nadal in straight sets in just two hours and four minutes at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena – with the final score sitting at 6-3 6-2 6-3.