Metallica star James Hetfield shared exciting news with fans on Sunday, revealing that he was officially engaged to his girlfriend of three years, Adriana Gillett. The frontman took to Instagram to announce their engagement, with a photo of the duo swimming underwater while dressed in scuba gear.
As James held up the ring box and a sign that said: “Adriana Gillett, will you marry me?”, his brand-new fiancé held her thumb up in a gesture of acceptance. “She said yes!” the caption read.
Adriana shared her own message on social media and shared further insight into the creative underwater proposal. “The BEST birthday trip surprise,” she began.
“Swimming with whale sharks on Friday the 13th with the most unique, special, and romantic proposal a Pisces could ever imagine. In a sea full of fish, we caught each other. Thank you, God, for putting us together.”
Photographer Lee Jeffries, who has worked with Metallica on several occasions, shared a touching message of congratulations to the pair in the comment section.
“Such amazing news! I’ve witnessed the beautiful connection you share, and it’s something truly real…built on depth, understanding, and the experiences of lives already richly lived,” he wrote.
© Getty Images“Perhaps even shaped by the chapters that came before, which make what you share now feel all the more meaningful. The way you connect with each other is genuinely special.”
James, 62, was previously married to Francesca Hetfield from 1997 until their divorce in 2022. The “Enter Sandman” singer, who shares kids Castor, Cali and Marcella with his ex-wife, has been open about his struggles with addiction and how the disease drove a wedge between himself and his family in the early ’00s.
© WireImage“Fear was a big motivator in that for me,” he said on The Joe Rogan Experience. “Losing my family, that was the thing that scared me so much, that was the bottom I hit, that my family is going to go away because of my behaviors that I brought home from the road.”
© FilmMagic“I got kicked out of my house by my wife, I was living on my own somewhere, I did not want that,” he continued.
© WireImage for The Recording Acad“Maybe as part of my upbringing, my family kind of disintegrated when I was a kid. Father left, mother passed away, had to live with my brother, and then, kind of just, where did my stuff go? It just kind of floated away, and I do not want that happening. No matter what’s going on, we’re going to talk this stuff out and make it work.”
James added that he went to rehab to curtail his behavior after Francesca had kicked him out. “My wife did the right thing, she kicked my [expletive] right out of the house and that scared the [expletive] out of me,” he recalled. “She said, ‘Hey, you’re not just going to the therapist now, and talking about this, you’ve got to go somewhere and sort this [expletive] out,’ so that’s what I did.”
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