Senator  proposed to his girlfriend Mindy Noce on Saturday and said it is 'the most exciting thing I’ll do with my life besides making Jesus my Lord'.

Former presidential candidate, Scott, 58, asked mother-of-three interior designer, Noce, 47, to marry him on the beach in Kiawah Island in South Carolina. 

Lifelong bachelor Scott has long been private about his dating life, but after meeting Noce at church a year ago and bonding over Bible study he said he knew he had met his 'soul mate'.

Scott told the Washington Post: 'I’ve been very patient and prayerful, and I’m really excited and somewhat nervous.

' The pair plan to wed this year. 

Now Scott seems firmly in the running for Vice President after he dropped out of the presidential race last year and endorsed on Friday in .

Scott proposed to Mindy Noce on Saturday in South Carolina

He said he asked for her parents' permission two weeks before Christmas and spent a month planning the proposal

He said: 'We need a president who sees Americans as one American family.

And that’s why I came to the very warm state of New Hampshire to endorse the next president of these United States, President Donald Trump.'

Scott said he asked Noce's parents for permission to marry her two weeks before Christmas and then spent a month planning his proposal. 

Originally he said he was going to ask her after a game of pickleball, but his friend suggested he choose something more romantic. 

He settled on Kiawah Island but said the cold weather meant persuading Noce not to wear gloves was difficult. 

Scott said: 'My joke is as soon as I saw her picture, I figured it out. But the truth is about two weeks into it, I knew there was something very different about her and her faith.

'In our first conversation that went about an hour and a half or two, we ended up deciding to do a Bible study together.' 

At first Scott was secretive about their relationship, leading some to question whether his girlfriend really existed. 

He said during his presidential campaign in May that he was dating and then in September described her as 'a lovely Christian girl', but still didn't name her.

Scott brought Noce on stage after a debate in November in Miami 

His reticence prompted the Washington Post to publish an investigation into his 'mysterious' love life.

The Post learned that the couple played pickleball and that Scott was embarrassed to find out that he was the 'weak man on the court.'

Scott's campaign manager also confirmed to the Post the woman was real and that they even went to the zoo together.

But no one saw Noce, or knew her name, until  after a . 

The South Carolina senator has been defensive in the past when his relationship status has been compared to the last single serving president, James Buchanan in 1861.

'The fact that half of America's adult population is single for the first time, to suggest that somehow being married or not married is going to be the determining factor of whether you're a good president,' Scott said at the time.

'It sounds like we're living in 1963... not 2023.'

Early in his career, Scott claimed to have been a 30-year-old virgin and ran a campaign on a pledge of abstinence.

Scott dropped his own presidential run and has since endorsed Trump, putting himself into the running for Vice President

Noce is an interior designer and mother of three who lives in South Carolina

The design and renovations manager graduated from the College of Charleston, where she majored in Health Science

In 2012, after 16 years in public life and winning a seat in the US House at 46-years-old and still unmarried, Scott admitted he is no longer a virgin.

Noce is a Charleston-based design and renovation consultant. She has lived in South Carolina since she graduated from the College of Charleston, where she majored in Health Science.

She works as an interior designer for Atlantic Properties of Lowcountry real estate firm.

According to the firms website, Noce was introduced to the area when her three older brothers played football at The Citadel.

She has resided at Isle of Palms and Daniel Island for almost eighteen years, and is as self described, 'mover-and-shaker with a creative eye and love for people.'

Her Instagram account is filled with photos of her interior design work and group shots with her colleagues.