April 16, 2008
Yul Kwon won $1 million by outlasting, outwitting and outplaying fellow castaways on Survivor: Cook Islands. Then he nabbed the title of one of PEOPLE’s Sexiest Men Alive in 2006. Now the 33-year-old Stanford grad is celebrating another victory: popping the question to girlfriend Sophie Tan on stage at a concert — and getting a yes.
“It feels wonderful!” an elated Kwon tells People.com. “I’ve always thought that the single most important decision in your life is who you decide to spend it with.”
Kwon proposed to Tan, 29, a product manager at a mortgage bank, April 12 at a benefit concert at his alma mater in Palo Alto, Calif. The band, Seriously, played the couple’s special song before Kwon took the stage and presented her with a platinum, 2.2-karat, cushion-cut diamond ring.
“It seems my strategy of proposing in a public forum, maximizing social pressure, and shocking her into silence … seems to have worked,” says Kwon. “Now I just need to plan the wedding before she comes to her senses.”
Kwon, a management consultant, met Tan in December 2006, just before his skills as a master strategist led him to victory in the 13th season of the CBS reality show, which initially divided castaways by race.
When Kwon realized he was smitten with Tan, “I gave her the hidden immunity idol as a token of my love,” he says, referring to a sought-after prize from the show. “And I knew she loved me back when she didn’t laugh in my face.”
