One of the exonerated “Central Park 5,” Raymond Santana Jr. is now engaged to former Flavor of Love contestant, Deelishis, People reports.
The couple announced the news via Instagram Thursday.
Deelishis, whose real name is Chandra Davis, posted multiple videos to her story, showing Santana proposing to her at a restaurant in Atlanta. In the video, which has also been posted to his account, Santana can be seen placing a ring on Deelishis’ finger, which at first doesn’t seem to fit. The social media influencer can be seen helping him out, sliding the ring on. The pair then share a kiss and an embrace while a person behind the camera can be heard happily shouting “you got him girl!”
The two first sparked romance rumors earlier this fall. According to Santana’s Instagram, they've been seen together publically since October of this year.
In an Instagram video in which Deelishis can be seen grilling her bae about his love, the 45-year-old says they met through mutual friends and have been “inseparable ever since.”
The two confirmed they were dating in October when Santana posted a selfie captioned: “Date night with this beauty.”
Since they announced their relationship, the two have been extremely public, showing off their affections on social media.
The two each have children from previous relationships, and according to Santana they have met and get along very well.
Deelishis previously dated Flavor Flav after winning season two of the VH1 reality show, beating Tiffany “New York” Pollard. She dated the rapper for four months after the season ended and recently revealed the two failed to become physically intimate, according to Hot New Hip Hop.
Santana was formerly one of the Central Park Five, now referred to as the Exonerated Five following their 2002 exoneration of a 1989 rape and assault, reports The Innocence Project. He and four others were wrongly convicted when they were young boys. After accusations against the boys went public, harassment ensued, most infamously from Donald Trump.
He, along with Yusef Salaam, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray and Korey Wise, was prosecuted based on confessions made after hours of daunting interrogation. They later withdrew their confessions and plead not guilty but were nonetheless sentenced to prison. Santana served five years. In 2015, Santana brought Ava DuVernay the idea to turn the men’s experiences into a film, which then became the Netflix miniseries When They See Us.
It all started on @Twitter four years ago when Raymond Santana hit me with this question. The rest is their history. Finally told. Thank you, Raymond, Korey, Kevin, Yusef and Antron for trusting me. My brothers. #WhenTheySeeUs
pic.twitter.com/t4mcWUITdr— Ava DuVernay (@ava) March 1, 2019
After he saw Selma, he was touched by DuVernay's truthful portrayal of the story, including a scene in which Coretta Scott King confronted her husband about his extramarital affairs.
“That was bold to put in the film,” he told The New York Times. “It showed the human side of this man who was put on a pedestal. And it told me that she had no fear of telling the truth.”
