Two of the stars of Fox’s Empire appear all set to begin a little empire of their own off the screen. Grace Gealey (Anika Calhoun on the show) and Trai Byers (Andre Lyon on the show) are engaged to be wed!
Byers, 33, popped the question when he held a surprise birthday bash for his one and only, Gealey, who turned 31. The party was at Chicago restaurant Kinmont, and Gealey was spotted there wearing a diamond ring.
“She thought it would just be the two of them going to dinner, but when they got there, he had arranged a party for about 20 of her friends and family members to surprise her,” a source told E Online.
Among the 20-ish guests in attendance were some fellow Empire stars. Kaitlin Doubleday, GaboureySidibe and Jussie Smolletewere among them.
“They are definitely going strong,” a source said of the future spouses. “They make a really cute couple.”
The engagement didn’t come completely out of left field for fans of Byers and Gealey and/or the show. Rumors began hitting the net that the two were romantically connected back in the spring, but neither star was willing to talk about the relationship in interviews at the time.
Certainly the engagement was as surprising as intended for Grace Gealey.
“He surprised her on her birthday,” a source told Us Weekly. “He popped the question and she was totally surprised and elated. She can’t stop looking at the ring! They celebrated all night.”
The couple didn’t immediately make an official announcement. They talked about the party on Instagram, but they didn’t mention the engagement.
“Had so much fun celebrating @gracegealey’s life!!” Byers posted alongside photos of the party.“Happy Birthday to an exquisite human being!Thank you @kinmontchicago for hosting us.Amazing spot, wonderful food, UNFORGETTABLE night.”
His fiancé was seemingly equally elated, as she took to her own Instagram account to toss up a pile of pictures from the surprise birthday/engagement party.
So how did their relationship start? Well, it sounds like it was just about love at first sight! The two were quickly drawn to each other when filming for Empire’s first season began. Their fellow stars and production crew on the show saw what was going on right from the start, but they mostly kept quiet publicly.
“They started seeing each other during the shooting of the show. There was an instant attraction, people working on the show are aware [of] it,” a source close to the couple told Us back in March. “When they all hang out together they’ll cuddle and give a kiss, but it’s nothing obscene.”
“Trai and Grace are super serious,” a third and equally anonymous source tipped off Us. “They started dating in the middle of the season and are completely in love.”
Though other anonymous sources supposedly close to Gealey and Byers dropped a few mentions about the couple being very happy together here and there over the past few months, the couple themselves did everything they could to keep the details of their budding romance out of the tabloids until Gealey was spotted on a red carpet wearing her ring.
As fans of the show are already aware, the duo – or, more accurately, the two characters they portray – would likely never work out as an on-camera couple. On Empire, Byers plays Andre Lyon, who is son of record label head honcho Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) and Cookie Lyon (Taraj P. Henson), his estranged wife who re-enters Lyon’s life after 17 years in prison. Gealey, meanwhile, plays Anika Calhoun who is (SPOILER WARNING) Lucious’ ex and the number one object of Cookie’s ire.
In any case, Gealey and Byers should get plenty of opportunities to spend time together at work. The show’s first season finale grabbed the attention of 16.7 million pairs of eyeballs after it was renewed for a second season just two episodes into the first one in January.
“I think that if two people are mature and they’re able to understand that if this doesn’t work out – cause first, I’m not a fan of flings when you work, cause that’s where it gets a little dangerous,” Gealey recently told People when confirming her engagement and showing off her sparkling ring. “I think that if you do get involved – I keep wanting to say on set – I think that if you do get involved at your workplace you have to know that this is something that you want to be invested in, and this is just not just something that is frivolous and fleeting.
Of her relationship with Byers she said it was, “”For real, for real. Not a fling,”
Of course, just because your love is real doesn’t mean your diamonds have to be. High-quality cubic zirconia looks every bit as beautiful as real rings but costs just a fraction of the price. In fact, BirkatElyon’s Russian Formula CZ looks so authentic that not even seasoned gemologists are able to tell it apart from the “real” thing with the naked eye.
Image Source: Access Hollywood