Matty Healy’s mum Denise Welch addresses son’s engagement

Sign up to Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music

Denise Welch, the mother of The 1975 frontman Matty Healy, has commented publicly for the first time on her son’s engagement to model Gabbriette Bechtel.

Fans started speculating that the pair were engaged after Bechtel, who has been romantically linked to the “About You” singer since September 2023, posted a picture of her wearing a black diamond ring on her wedding finger on Instagram on Tuesday night (11 June).

Welch, a panellist on ITV’s Loose Women, then confirmed the rumours while appearing on the show, telling her co-hosts that she had known about the engagement for a few weeks.

“I woke up this morning to the fact they’ve put it on Instagram. Instagram official, he has got engaged to  Gabbriette Bechtel, Gabbriette, she’s known as. She’s from Los Angeles, she is absolutely gorgeous,” said Welch, before bizarrely adding: “She does have a rat.”

A picture then flashed up on the screen of Welch and Bechtel embracing, while the Loose Women star holds the rat, named Splinter, in her hands.

“We couldn’t be happier. She is everything I would want in a daughter-in-law,” said Welch.

Welch said she had known the engagement news for several weeks (Getty Images)

She revealed that Healy had a black diamond ring custom-made for Bechtel.

“I have known for a few weeks that Matty got engaged,” she told her co-stars. “They went over to see their friends Charli and George in New York.”

Welch’s TV appearance came just hours after Healy and Bechtel attended Charli XCX’s show in New York, when they decided to make their engagement “Instagram official”.

The singer and model captioned the Instagram story: “Marrying The 1975 is very Brat,” in reference to XCX’s new album.

Gabriette’s engagement shared on Instagram (Instagram @gabbriette)

The 1975 frontman seemingly confirmed the proposal news when he reshared his girlfriend’s Instagram post of the black diamond ring. The model later also shared a mirror selfie that appears to show the ring on her left hand.

Since Healy started dating Bechtel, Welch has chimed in on the relationship and shared messages to the couple on social media.

In October 2023, the model shared a photo of herself in a leather apron and a matching thong, to which Welch commented: “That’s exactly how I hope to look in mine when it arrives!!”

Gabriette and Denise Welch with Splinter, the rat (ITV)

Bechtel, known as Gabbriette on social media, is from Orange County, California, and fell into a modelling career when she moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dreams of becoming a professional dancer. She has gone on to work with brands like Diesel, Bottega Veneta and Marc Jacobs.

The model was also the lead singer of Nasty Cherry – a girl group formed by Charli XCX – as well as becoming a social media sensation sharing viral cooking videos online.

Before the couple began dating, Healy was briefly linked to pop star Taylor Swift after she split from her boyfriend of six years, British actor Joe Awlyn.