Several years ago a strange Englishman traveled to America to join The Daily Show’s team of comedian faux-journalists. His name was John Oliver, and he’s lovely. I’ve been crushing on him pretty hard for years, not knowing if he was single or taken, gay or straight, or something in between. Turns out he’s very straight, and he’s had a girlfriend for two years. She’s beautiful, and she just proposed. I read this wrong! He proposed, and she accepted! My dream lover just got engaged. Here’s the kicker: I think she’s a Republican. And an Iraq War vet! And they met at the Republican Convention in 2008. Ah, true love.

A July trip to the Caribbean was more than just a summer vacation for John Oliver and Kate Norley.

“We were in St. Thomas on holiday,” when The Daily Show correspondent, 33, decided to pop the question to his girlfriend of two years, he told PEOPLE Saturday at Comedy Central’s “Night Of Too Many Stars: An Overbooked Concert For Autism Education.”

The couple, who met in 2008 at the Republican National Convention – Oliver was covering, Norley was campaigning – were friends first.

“I finally made a move,” Norley, an Iraq War vet, laughingly admits. “I got seduced,” adds Oliver.

Life has changed since her time on active duty, and Norley is now enjoying a slower pace of life.

“I was a medic in the Army,” she explains. “It was difficult, but right now it’s nice that I get to spend time with the love of my life.”

“It’s the most emasculating thing I could possibly do to go out with someone who has actually done something valuable with their life,” Oliver adds jokingly.

“He’s got a forum,” Norley says on a more serious note. “We still have troops on the ground. No matter whether there are two or 200,000, we have to make sure our hearts and minds are with what they’re doing.”

The couple plan to wed “some time next year.”

[From People]

At first I thought she was a Republican activist, but CB pointed out this recent interview John Oliver did with NPR’s Terry Gross where he described Norley as a veterans’ advocate. John described their first meeting at the Republican Convention:

“That was pretty strange, I’ll say. It was – because it was the – you must remember that it was the – Republican was still exactly the week after. Usually, there’s a break between the Democrat and the Republican conventions. So I was exhausted, and there was a certain layer, the mid-layer on which we weren’t allowed to film at the Republican National Convention. That’s where most of the high-end politicians were. So, obviously, that is the one place, really, you do want to film. So, we’d found a catering entrance that we could access. We put our camera stuff through with the catering equipment and fancy cakes. So, we would have a certain amount of time before we were kicked out. And at one point, we were being literally chased by security, and my girlfriend, my partner now, soon-to-be wife… She said you can hide in our room, if you like. She served. She was a combat medic with the first cavalry in Iraq. And so she was there with a [veterans rights‘] group. They’d been at both conventions. And so… Yeah, yeah, kind of lobbying for veterans’ issues. And so -yeah, we met there and kind of kept in sporadic touch and then met up Christmas last year. And, you know, we’d live together pretty soon afterwards. It was – yeah, we met in what I would say scientifically is the least romantic place on earth: the Republican National Convention.”

[From NPR]

Aw… doesn’t this make you love John Oliver even more? That he fell in love with a veteran and that they’re getting married? So sweet.