Plenty of married couples met in college, on a dating app, or through mutual friends. But meeting as competitors in an international beauty pageant? That's a much more unique story, and one that recently played out in real life. On Oct. 29, Fabiola Valentín and Mariana Varela announced in a joint post on Instagram that they had gotten married. The two pageant queens shared that they had decided to keep their relationship private until this point, but "opened the doors" after tying the knot on Oct. 28.
Both Valentín and Varela competed against each other in an international pageant last year. Read on to find out more about the happy couple.
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Varela and Valentín went from competitors to girlfriends.
© Fabiola Valentín, Mariana Varela / InstagramAt the Miss Grand International competition, Varela competed as Miss Grand Argentina 2020 and Valentín as Miss Grand Puerto Rico 2020. The final competition for their pageant year took place in March 2021, and the winner was Abena Akuaba, who was Miss Grand USA.
Valentín, 22, had previously placed in the top 3 for Miss Universe Puerto Rico for 2019, while Varela, 26, had been named Miss Universe Argentina 2019.
They just announced their marriage.
Varela and Valentín shared the same Instagram post announcing that they had gotten married. They wrote in the caption (originally in Spanish), "After deciding to keep our relationship private, we opened the doors on a special day. 28/10/22."
The video post shows moments from their relationship, including traveling together, a photo on which they wrote "Will you be my girlfriend?", and their engagement. They got engaged in a room decorated with rose petals, sparkly lights, and balloons that spell out "Marry Me?"
The video ends with footage of the two standing in front of a courthouse in their wedding outfits—a white blazer dress for Valentín and a white blazer and black pants for Varela. There are also photos of them wearing matching rings and posing with friends and family near their wedding cake.
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They received support from the pageant world.
Varela and Valentín's post revealing their love currently has over 275K likes and countless comments congratulating them, including from other pageant queens.
Valentina Figuera, Miss Grand International 2019, wrote, "Congratulations beautiful 💘 God bless your union and long live love!!!!" Akuaba wrote, "Omg congratulations MGI brought together a beautiful union 😍." Angela Leon Yuriar, Miss Grand Mexico 2020, posted, "WOOOW! 😍 Many congratulations, I hope you have all the happiness you deserve. Long live love ❤️."
The Miss Grand International organization made its own Instagram post, featuring photos of the women. The caption reads, "Congratulations to both of you. MGIO always support 'LOVE' without boundaries ❤️."
In response to all the well wishes, Varela wrote in the comments of their post, "Thanks for all the love! We are very happy and blessed 🙏🏼❤️ I wish you that the love you are giving us is multiplied! Endless thanks."
Their social media shows other glimpses of their romance.
While Varela and Valentín consider the doors now fully open on their relationship, they had posted about each other in the past. Not long after the March 2021 competition, Varela posted photos of herself and Valentín together and wrote, "I miss u @fabiolavalentinpr 🇵🇷👑❤️." She also posted about traveling to visit Valentín in December 2021.
As for Valentín, in April 2021, she shared photos of them together and wrote, "One of the great gifts in this experience was your friendship, walking this process with you was a special and real one. Miss you, my girl @marianajvarela ❤️." In January 2022, she posted about a visit they had and shared, "Life brought us together again! 🇦🇷🇵🇷 It was a long wait, but the great moments we get to create will always be greater. How sad it is to have a see you later again, but how blessed I am to have a being in my life like you @marianajvarela I LOVE YOU ❤️."
More recently, in a joint post from August 2022, they posed together next to the caption, "A summer with you."
