‘Big Brother’ Star Frankie Grande Engaged Weeks After Sister Ariana Grande Married
Big Brother star Frankie Grande began dating Hale Leon in 2019 after meeting at a bar. Almost a month after superstar and little sister Ariana privately tied the knot with Dalton Gomez, the YouTuber “virtually” proposed to his boyfriend.
Frankie Grande was a YouTuber and dancer
Born in New York City, Frank James Michael Grande Marchione, 38, moved to Boca Raton, Florida, with his mother at the age of 10, where he lived with his younger half-sister, singer and actor Ariana Grande.
He began performing in school musicals in fifth grade and fell in love with the art. Therefore, the New York native triple majored in biology, theatre, and dance.
Following his 2005 graduation, Grande chose to pursue his dreams of performing instead of attending medical school. In 2007, he made his theater debut in Dora the Explorer Live! as Boots and continued to land roles in multiple productions, including Rock of Ages and Mamma Mia! on Broadway, Hamlet, and his one-person show, Livin’ la Vida Grande.
In 2012, he launched a YouTube channel, which currently has over 458,000 subscribers, where he releases music videos, behind-the-scenes footage at movie premieres, and covers.
He later joined the cast of ‘Big Brother 16’
The Broadway dancer became a houseguest on the CBS reality television series Big Brother season 16 (2014), where he hid his fame and the identity of his sister, fearing it would put a target on his back.
After staying in the majority for several weeks, his allies turned on him, but Grande won Head of Household and the Power of Veto, ensuring his safety. However, after convincing everyone to push the BB Rewind Twist button, he ended up with no power and revealed his “social media mogul” status attempting to win his houseguests back.
It didn’t work, and the Broadway performer was evicted the following week, placing 5th. Following Grande’s time on the series, he served as a judge on the dancing competition series America’s Best Dance Crew (2015).
Additionally, he co-hosted Amazon shopping show Style Code Live (2016-17) before competing on Celebrity Big Brother 18 (2016), where he placed sixth.
Grande proposed to his boyfriend weeks after Ariana married
In 2019, the reality star met boyfriend, Hale Leon at a Los Angeles-based line dancing bar, where they, according to Grande, immediately hit it off.
After around six months of dating, the YouTuber noted in a People interview that he wanted to propose during an immersive VR adventure before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Therefore, the Big Brother star said he waited until they reopened to pop the question to his boyfriend of two years. Grande asked him to marry him while they were in a virtual cave.
The couple kissed and enjoyed the fireworks overhead after Leon empathetically said yes with his mother Joan as well as Ariana Grande and her husband Dalton Gomez, who she married last month in May, in attendance. The singer and Gomez privately tied the knot in a “tiny and intimate” ceremony after dating for over a year. Big Brother 23 airs Jul. 7, 2021 at 8/7 Central on CBS.
