'Overjoyed' Olympian Goes Viral for Her Unexpected Response to Surprise Engagement: 'I'm a Witch!' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Duncan McLarty and Apsara Sakbun.Photo:Brailen Harrington

Brailen Harrington

A woman has gone viral for her reaction to her surprise proposal.

For American-Cambodian swimmer Apsara Sakbun, 2024 was full of rings. She spent her summerrepresenting Cambodiaat the2024 Paris Olympicsand ended winter as an engaged woman. Now, her ecstatic reaction to her surprise proposal on Dec. 26, 2024 at the Indianapolis Art Center in Indiana has 1 million views and counting on TikTok.

“POV (point of view): the camera man when we got engaged,” Sakbun, 23, wrote in an onscreen caption of her viral proposal video. She added in the post’s caption: “I have never in my life hit the dougie…yall I was TOO hype to be embarrassed.”

Apsara Sakbun and Duncan McLarty’s surpise proposal.Brailen Harrington

In the clips — which were taken just moments after Sakbun’s now-fiancé Duncan McLarty, 24, popped the question — the bride-to-be couldn’t contain her excitement. She first began shouting “Oh, my God!” as she jumped up and down in her high-heeled boots. Then she began dancing and did the Dougie.

After embracing McLarty, she shouted, “I’m a witch! I’m a witch! I knew it!”

“I swear I am a witch because I just have the strongest intuition like I have dreams about things and they actually happen,” Sakbun tells PEOPLE. “I don’t even know how to describe it, but I’ve always said that … I have been dreaming of this and knew it was going to happen. It was more than an intuition thing.”

“I didn’t even know that it came out looking back at the videos,” Sakbun adds. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I said that.’ "

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Sakbun and McLarty met in August 2019 and started dating in March 2020. The day of their engagement, McLarty told his unsuspecting girlfriend of almost five years that they were heading to a Christmas pop-up bar. In actuality, he was planning on getting down on one knee and proposing with an oval diamond on a gold band with silver prongs.

Apsara Sakbun.Brailen Harrington

“He was rushing me and I was thinking there’s no way if I’m getting proposed to he’s gonna be rushing me,” Sakbun says.

In the TikTok video, a “shocked” and “overjoyed” Sakbun struts around with her left hand stretched out as she admires her new rock. “Oh my God, we’re gonna get married! I’m gonna be a wife!” she said, prompting giggles from McLarty.

“I was overjoyed. I knew that a proposal was in our future. But just the timing of it was a shock to me,” the bride-to-be tells PEOPLE. “So I was just freaking out. I’m so excited.”

Apsara Sakbun and Duncan McLarty.Duncan McLarty and Apsara Sakbun.Apsara Sakbun and Duncan McLarty.PHOTO:Brailen HarringtonDuncan McLarty and Apsara Sakbun.PHOTO:Brailen Harrington

Apsara Sakbun and Duncan McLarty.Duncan McLarty and Apsara Sakbun.

Apsara Sakbun and Duncan McLarty.

Duncan McLarty and Apsara Sakbun.

Apsara Sakbun and Duncan McLarty.PHOTO:Brailen HarringtonDuncan McLarty and Apsara Sakbun.PHOTO:Brailen Harrington

When McLarty saw Sakbun’s elated reaction, he was happy but relatively unfazed.

“He’s used to me being insane,” Sakbun says. “So he was just laughing it off.”

source: people.com