Amanda Bynes is back in the headlines, thankfully for much happier reasons than she has been in the past. On Valentine's Day, the former Nickelodeon star announced on Instagram that she'd gotten engaged to "[the] love of my life."
Fans and the media were surprised by the announcement because Bynes had not publically announced that she was dating anybody before announcing she was engaged. In fact, the media had to scramble to find out and confirm who she was engaged to.
One day after the engagement announcement, Bynes posted a picture of her and her new fiance with the simple caption "lover." She didn't tag Paul Michael in the photo, so everyone was still confused as to the identity of her new mystery man.
A source close to Bynes identified the man as Paul Michael to the media. The source said that Bynes and Michael met while Bynes was in rehab an the two have been dating for a few months.
As soon as the post announcing the engagement went up on Instagram, comments started pouring in. Many people expressed their congratulations. But many others started asking questions because the post didn't quite make sense.
People were initially confused because this was the first time Bynes had even talked about dating anyone. Then fans started pointing out some inconsistencies. One said that she'd been wearing the ring in a recent post. Another pointed out that her mystery fiance seemed to be wearing a wedding ring.
Since the Valentine's Day post didn't reveal the identity of her new fiance, many fans were left thinking that maybe the whole thing was a hoax.
Some fans started to express worry for Bynes. The star has a troubled past. She's struggled with both substance abuse and mental illness, which caused her to spiral out of control pretty publicly in 2012 and 2013.
She was doing well for a while, but she relapsed in 2019 after leaving her sober living facility and ended up back in rehab.
Bynes' recent actions - getting a new face tattoo, announcing an engagement to a mystery man she's been dating for a few months that she met in rehab - have fans worried that she's headed for another spiral. And it has them wondering if she made up the engagement for attention.
Since the engagement announcement, Bynes has not made any statements. She hasn't posted any new information on her social media accounts and she hasn't spoken to the media about her relationship.
All of the information we currently have about her new fiance and whether or not the engagement is the real thing is coming from sources close to Bynes.
According to those sources, the engagement is definitely for real and Bynes is happy and doing well.
Hopefully, Bynes is doing as well as these sources say she is. Congrats to the new couple!
