Alex Rodriguez Is 'Grateful' for Fiancée Jennifer Lopez: 'We Have Appreciation for Where We Are'

Alex Rodriguez’ssurprise proposal to Jennifer Lopezwas a homerun. The baseball legend, 43, surprised the global superstar, 49 witha 16-carat diamond ringon March 9, during a romantic Bahamas beach getaway. And the duo opened up about their relationship bliss in anexclusive interview in this week’sPEOPLE.

“We’re really happy,”Lopez tells PEOPLE. For Rodriguez, popping the question was the next step in a romance that has blossomed over the past two years: “We have an appreciation for where we are in our lives today, and that’s what we’re enjoying the most.”

“We’re in similar places in our life,” the former Yankees All-Star adds, explaining that “being born in New York, having Hispanic backgrounds, having two kids and being in the public eye for almost three decades,” has made their bond solid.

The couple finds the most joy in spending time with their blended family, which includes Rodriguez’s daughters Natasha, 14, and Ella, 10 (with ex-wife Cynthia Scurtis) and Lopez’s 11-year-old twins Max and Emme (with ex-husbandMarc Anthony).

And while planning a wedding is hard enough for most couples, J-Rod is trying to squeeze it in while managing two very high-profile careers.

Theirlatest collaboration with Quay Australiamarks their first fashion campaign as a couple, and the duo says they found the experience to be “a lot of fun.”

“It was all new to me, but she’s the master,” Rodriguez said of watching his wife-to-be work her magic on set. “She’s put in her 10,000 hours.”

source: people.com