Olympian Adam Rippon Got Married In The Sweetest Secret NYE Ceremony
The only guest? Their pitbull mix, Tony.
Ice-skating star Adam Rippon rang in the 2022 with more than just champagne this new year. Instead, he celebrated with wedding bells. Talk about a New Year's Eve dream come true!
On Jan. 19, Rippon shared the announcement with pictures of him and his now-husband Jussi-Pekka Kajaala on Instagram. In the caption, he wrote, ““SURPRISE 🥂 WE ARE MARRIED🥲❤️ One afternoon JP and I looked at each other and said the very classic *romantic* phrase of ‘let’s just go do it now’. So we did. It was just the three of us and it was perfect 12/31/21 🌟🐶🙆🏼♂️.”
Their pup, a pitbull mix named Tony, was their sole guest.
The couple began dating back in 2018 after meeting on Tinder, announcing it publicly with a join shirtless post atop Runyon Canyon in Los Angeles. They stayed strong through the pandemic despite being separated for much of the first COVID-cursed year, and got engaged in February 2021.
Although Rippon retired from Olympic skating back in 2018 — the same year the couple met — he’s remained heavily in the public eye, competing on Dancing With the Stars, doing a stint on RuPaul’s Drag Race, and publishing his 2019 memoir, Beautiful on the Outside.
He won't be competing in the 2022 Olympics, but there may be another way Rippon makes it to the Olympics this year: He’s the coach of Mariah Bell, a 25-year-old contender who, under his guidance, could make it to Beijing alongside several younger competitors.
As Rippon told PopSugar on Jan. 5, “When you're an older skater, you've not only had more life experience, but you've had more time to refine your craft. I feel like I enjoyed my career the most in my late 20s because I was making a lot of decisions with my choreographers and my coaches. Everything felt more collaborative, and I took more ownership of what I was doing."
Wherever Rippon ends up this year, one thing’s clear: He won’t be doing it alone.
