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Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg announces her engagement

Sandberg's late husband, SurveyMonkey CEO Dave Goldberg, died in 2015. Her 2017 book focused on dealing with grief following his death.

Queenie Wong Former Senior Writer
Queenie Wong was a senior writer for CNET News, focusing on social media companies including Facebook's parent company Meta, Twitter and TikTok. Before joining CNET, she worked for The Mercury News in San Jose and the Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon. A native of Southern California, she took her first journalism class in middle school.
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Queenie Wong
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Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, 50, is engaged.  

 Getty Images

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said Monday that she's engaged to Tom Bernthal, the co-founder and CEO of strategic consultancy Kelton Global. The announcement comes nearly five years after Sandberg's late husband, SurveyMonkey CEO Dave Goldberg, died unexpectedly at 47 years old from heart complications.

In a brief post on Instagram and Facebook, Sandberg shared a black-and-white photo of her happily gazing into the eyes of her fiance. "Engaged!!! Tom Bernthal, you are my everything. I could not love you more," Sandberg writes in the post. 

Dealing with the grief of losing her husband was the focus on Sandberg's 2017 book "Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy." Goldberg suffered from a cardiac arrhythmia -- the improper beating of the heart -- in 2015 and collapsed on a treadmill while vacationing in Mexico. 

In an interview with The Guardian in 2017, Sandberg said that "women get judged much more harshly" than men for dating after the loss of their spouse. "I think I'm helping people remember that dating, for those who want to do it, is part of moving forward, and it is option B," she told The Guardian. 

People magazine, citing a source close to the couple, reported that Sandberg was set up with Bernthal by her former brother-in-law Rob Goldberg. Bernthal, 46, reportedly popped the question to Sandberg, 50, after a mountain hike and picnic lunch at Vermejo Park Ranch on the New Mexico-Colorado border on Saturday, which was a re-creation of the couple's first date. Bernthal, who is divorced, has three kids and Sandberg has two children. The engagement ring Bernthal gave Sandberg has five tiny hidden diamonds to represent each of their children, according to People. 

"Both Tom and Sheryl share a strong commitment to all the same things, especially family and philanthropy," the source told People. 

Sandberg didn't say in her post when the couple plans to tie the knot.