Jared Goff and Christen Harper first met on a dating app and are now engaged

PHOTO: PHILLIP FARAONE/FILMMAGIC

Jared Goff and Christen Harper are getting married.

The NFL quarterback has enjoyed a successful football career thus far, playing for the Los Angeles Rams from 2016 to 2021 before getting traded to the Detroit Lions. In 2017, the Rams saw their first winning season in 14 years and their first playoff appearance in 13 years with Goff leading the team. The following year, the Rams played in the Super Bowl for the first time since 2001. Goff then helped the Lions break a 15-game losing streak in 2021.

Off the field, Goff is in a relationship with model and actress Christen Harper. The pair were first linked in 2019 and announced their engagement three years later after Goff proposed on a vacation with friends.

While they both have their own busy careers — Harper appeared in the 2022 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue — they’re quick to support each other. In addition to Harper attending her fiancé’s games, the couple have also attended red carpet events together like the ESPY Awards.

So, who is Jared Goff’s fiancée? Keep reading to find out more about Christen Harper.

She grew up in California

Jared Goff and Christen Harper announce engagement. CHRISTEN HARPER/INSTAGRAM

Harper was born on May 28, 1993, to Michael and Daria Harper, and her hometown is Valencia, California. Her older brother, Shane Harper, is a professional ice hockey player who’s played in the American Hockey League and for Sweden and Russia, per Eurosport. Harper attended California State University, Northridge.

She’s a model and actress

CHRISTEN HARPER INSTAGRAM

Harper works as both a model and an actress. According to a Sports Illustrated profile, she decided to pursue a career in modeling to help pay for college.

Harper’s acting career began when she was a child with a role in the 2004 short film Seven Eleven. She also appeared in the 2019 films Auggie and The Obituary of Tunde Johnson. With Goff, she appeared in an episode of Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Detroit Lions.

She was a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Swim Search finalist

ALEXANDER TAMARGO/GETTY

In 2021, Harper made it to the final 15 of the annual Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model Search and was selected as one of six models to appear in the magazine.

She described participating in the Swim Search as “such an incredible journey,” adding, “I am so inspired by these women every single day. I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to connect with so many different people across the country.”

She met Goff on a dating app

Jared Goff and Christen Harper. CHRISTEN HARPER/INSTAGRAM

Harper and Goff have been dating since 2019 after they met through a dating app.

In a video taken for Sports Illustrated during Miami Swim Week, Harper revealed that she met Goff on Raya, the private, membership-based dating app that’s often used by celebrities.

“I was truly not looking for anything at the time,” Harper said. “I had just gotten out of a long relationship and I was trying to stay single for a year. Then I met him and the rest is history, baby.”

She got engaged to Goff in June 2022

CHRISTEN HARPER INSTAGRAM

Goff proposed to Harper in June 2022 while on a vacation with friends in Los Cabos, Mexico. Goff popped the question on the beach and called himself the “luckiest guy in the world” in an Instagram post announcing the news.

Harper also shared the news on Instagram, writing that she couldn’t “wait for forever” with the quarterback. The following week, she wrote alongside a series of photos from their trip, “Still on cloud 9 from the best weekend of my life.”

She is supportive of Goff’s career

CHRISTEN HARPER INSTAGRAM

Harper is always quick to support her quarterback fiancé. In December 2021, the Lions ended a 15-game losing streak while she was on a shoot with Sports Illustrated, and the outlet shared a video of Harper reacting to the news.

“It’s over? Shut up, shut up,” she says in the video. “You guys, this is their first win, like this is crazy. … Oh my god, this is gonna make me cry.”

When Goff was initially traded to the Lions, Harper was on board to make the move to Detroit, despite her career being in L.A.

“We’ve always been in California, so there was an excitement to a fresh start, but at the same time, my whole career has been in L.A. and I did not know what it was going to look like moving away from that,” she told the New York Post. Despite her initial hesitation, she was glad she took the leap with Goff.

“I feel lucky to kind of start branching out into doing different things,” she continued. “I think the space allowed me to do that because if I stayed in L.A., I probably would have continued to do the same work I’ve done for years.”

Harper has continued to cheer Goff on during the 2023-24 football season. In January 2024, she shared a video on Instagram of her fiancé stopping by to kiss her on the sidelines following the Lions’ first playoff win in 32 years.

“It was always Detroit,” she captioned the sweet video.

She was a panelist on the “Women of the League” web series

One new area that Harper branched out into was the sports community. In December 2022, Harper appeared as a panelist on Stay Doubted’s first-ever original content series, Women of the League. The web series “focuses on empowering women through raw, honest conversation that challenges the stereotype of what’s traditionally been perceived as a ‘typical’ NFL wife.”

The model appeared alongside fellow NFL spouses, Allison Rochell, Kym Jackson, Whitney Risner and host Josie Leinart.

During the second episode, Harper opened up about the sacrifices she’s had to make for Goff’s career and her experience adjusting to a new city.

“In L.A. it was such a different experience for me because I did have friends and family, so I wasn’t as involved with the women on the team,” she said in the video. “But moving to Detroit, it was such a stark contrast, I had nothing there. So I really relied on the women on the team.”

She continued, “Because we were in L.A. I had the best of both worlds. I was working every day but I could still be with Jared … But once we moved that was a huge sacrifice for me, I was giving up a career.”

“That was really hard and it really affected my identity and kind of who I was. I had a hard time at first,” she added of the move to Detroit. “I am still trying to find that balance of still having stuff that is my own and still working.”

She’s spoken out about online trolls

Harper has found herself on the receiving end of online harassment, even receiving death threats from Lions fans when the team would lost games.

In an interview on the podcast Courtside Club, Harper said that she’s learned to “not listen” and to “block out that noise and try to enjoy the moment because it only lasts for so long.”

Harper added: “At the end of the day it’s a game, and of course it’s important; for us, it’s our life, and it’s his life. But all those other people there, they’re just there for entertainment. And they’re gonna say things, and they’re drunk, and they’re whatever.”

She and Goff are getting married in California

JEFF KRAVITZ/FILMMAGIC

According to Goff, the couple will wed in California sometime during the summer of 2024.

“California is where I grew up and live currently, and my fiancée is from just outside of [Los Angeles] so she was born and raised there as well. We have some pretty good roots there,” he told PEOPLE in April 2024.

Goff added: “We’ll have all our friends and family there. It’ll be a big party and something we’ll remember forever.”