PITTSBURGH – Ben Roethlisberger has finally confirmed that he's getting married.
The Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback and girlfriend Ashley Harlan will tie the knot on July 23, he revealed Thursday to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Roethlisberger said he was surprised by the amount of media attention surrounding his engagement to Harlan when news of it leaked around the holidays. He said the two met at training camp in 2005 and have dated off and on ever since.
The couple's wedding will take pace just a week before training camp is scheduled to begin, assuming the NFL lockout is resolved by then.
"I think a small part of her is hoping we hold out for a week so we can honeymoon," joked Roethlisberger of Harlan, a physician's assistant who turns 27 in July.
Roethlisberger was suspended for the first four games last season for violating the NFL's personal conduct policy. He was accused of sexually assaulting a college woman at a Georgia nightclub in March, but no charges were ever filed against him in the case.
The two-time Super Bowl champion was also accused of raping a woman at a Lake Tahoe hotel in 2008.
So how does Roethlisberger feel about those who say the wedding is just an attempt to repair his public image?
"People will always have opinions of everybody and me, and that's fine, they're entitled," Roethlisberger told the Post-Gazette.
He added, "People can say that it is whatever, but people who know and can see and are around us and know me, know that it's something special when you find that person, and I'm extremely lucky."
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