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Karina Smirnoff Engaged to Marry Brad Penny

Karina Smirnoff on Oct. 15, 2010, in Los Angeles. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images) Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

NEW YORK (CBS) "Dancing with the Stars" pro Karina Smirnoff is set to tie the knot  with her boyfriend, baseball player Brad Penny.

The ballroom champ, who was recently teamed up with "Jersey Shore's" Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino on this season of the ABC dancing competition, revealed to People magazine Sunday that she has been engaged to Penny, 32, since Oct. 4.

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"We kept it quiet because my family is in New York and Brad's family is in Oklahoma so we kind of wanted them to come out and celebrate and be a family first before we let the cat out of the bag," the bride-to-be said.

Smirnoff, 32, said Penny, a former pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, proposed during what she thought was a business meeting.

"We went to this restaurant and [my manager] got on her phone and said 'this guy is killing me,' and got up and walked away," Smirnoff told the magazine. "Then Brad walked in and it still didn't register. He got down on one knee and he opened the box and I said, 'Thank you'. I honestly didn't expect it."

Smirnoff began dating Penny in October 2009, a little after she and fellow "Dancing with the Stars" pro Makism Chmerkovskiy called it quits.

She was also romantically linked to her Season 3 partner, actor and TV host Mario Lopez. The two parted ways in 2008 after two years of dating.

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