Ryan Lochte’s in it to win it. The Olympic swimmer, who’s currently engaged and expecting his first child with fiancee Kayla Rae Reid, spoke out about wedding planning and looking ahead to parenthood in a new interview with CBS News.
“They always say like the wedding’s for the woman but you know, for me, I want to be a part of it,” Lochte, 32, said this week. “I want to help pick out the cake, pick out the flowers, settings, everything, so I want to be a big part of it.”
The two, however, are first prioritizing on expanding their family. “Our biggest focus is bringing this child into this world,” the athlete expressed. “We’re going to keep our focus on that and afterward we’ll set a date and time on getting married, but I think we’re looking at October.”
Lochte revealed the sex of the baby—it’s a boy!—in the same interview, and opened up about the moment he realized he was going to be a father. “Oh my God. At the moment, I was doing Dancing with the Stars,” he recalled. “I came home after rehearsal and I remember her telling me, ‘I have something to tell you,’ and I was like, ‘What?’ and she’s like, ‘I’m pregnant,’ and I was like, ‘Ha, what? No you’re not. Stop lying,’ and she said, ‘Yeah, I am,’ and I was like, ‘What?!’”
“And then it hit me,” he continued. “And I was like, ‘Holy crap!’ and I immediately jumped up and gave her a big hug and I was like crying and saying, ‘I can’t believe this is happening. I’ve been wanting a family of my own for so many years and now it’s finally coming true.’”
Lochte and the former Playboy model first met inside Hollywood hot spot Bootsy Bellows last January. At the time, the star told reporters that he wasn’t looking for anything serious; In fact, he was swiping right and left on dating apps. When he saw Reid inside the VIP room of the club, he instinctively extended his hand to hers.
“I think it was just something me and Kayla had, even with the whole Tinder thing and all that,” he concluded. “I mean, at the same time, I found something in Kayla that I couldn’t find in anyone else. We had a special connection and I was like, ‘This is it. This is who I’m going to give my entire heart to, is Kayla.’ It’s been amazing.”
Lochte proposed in October 2016, during sunset at Malibu Canyon.
