Kristy Lee Cook is the girl who sold her beloved horse for a trip to audition in Philadelphia for American Idol.
Though she has a couple of things to be sad about, for starters being eliminated from the singing competition this week and not being able to get her horse back, she does have one thing that would get any woman excited. Cook is getting married!
At the end of last night’s show, the guy everyone naturally assumed was Cook’s boyfriend got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. Of course she said “yes!”
During a conference call with media across the U.S. and Canada, Cook admitted they had already gotten engaged back in the middle of March but decided to keep it secret.
“We tried to keep everything on the down low because … I just wanted to focus on music and American Idol,” she says. “His name is Andy … we kind of picked (the ring) out together a long time ago just kind of for fun shopping around for rings … I had no clue he was going to pop the question.”
The 24-year-old country singer from Selma, Ore., has been in the bottom three on Idol several times but had always escaped being voted out of the competition. Cook had a tough time the first few weeks delivering her performances, but after nailing her take on God Bless The U.S.A. by Lee Greenwood, she’s been quite the contender.
Even with all the negative comments from judge Simon Cowell, Cook managed to stay focused.
“I don’t want to let it hit me down and I tend to not hang on to the negative comments just because we’ve got so much going on and we already have so much pressure,” says Cook. “Most of the time, if I agree with it, I’ll take the advice and try to do better, but if I don’t or it’s not very nice I tend to drop it and move on.”
As for who Cook thinks win the contest, she says at this point any of the remaining six competitors can take it.
“It’s anybody’s playing field since Michael Johns left last week,” she says. “So it just goes to show you that the people you think are safe, aren’t, and they can go at anytime. All of them have their own unique sound and tons of talent.”
