Former Miss USA Noelia Voigt Says Going Long Distance Before Getting Engaged Made Her Relationship Stronger (Exclusive)

Former Miss USA Noelia Voigt is confident her relationship with her fiancé Jack Henry Hendrix will last. 

“Before we started dating, we had many very raw and intentional conversations about what relationships mean to us, what love means to us, and making sure that we were both on the same page before entering a serious relationship with each other,” the 2023 Miss USA titleholder told PEOPLE after her Nov. 30 engagement to the construction engineer.

An experience that helped strengthen their bond was going long distance.

Related: Former Miss USA Noelia Voigt Is Engaged to Jack Henry Hendrix! See All the Photos (Exclusive)

“I told him I was going to be moving to Utah to pursue competing at Miss Utah USA with the hopes of winning and then competing at Miss USA,” Voigt, 25, says. “Although long distance is tough, we always knew from the beginning of our relationship that we both individually had big goals for ourselves, and neither one of us wanted to hinder the other from achieving those whatsoever.”

Hendrix, 26, let his commitment shine through.

“When I told him I was moving, he was like ‘Okay, what can I do to help and make you feel the most supported right now?’ ” Voigt recalls. “I can’t even begin to tell you how that question alone made me feel so grateful, lucky and supported.” 

She adds: “We wanted to support each other and be each other’s biggest cheerleaders through those journeys.”

Related: Miss USA Noelia Voigt Got Engaged with a 'Classy, Elegant' Marquise Diamond Ring — See Her Sparkler! (Exclusive)

Voigt and Hendrix eventually got engaged in late November at Florida’s John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in the pageant winner’s hometown of Sarasota. Hendrix proposed to his girlfriend of six years with a marquise-cut diamond with two gold bands.

Their relationship even survived watching Daniel Sloss’ Jigsaw, a comedy special that “can break/has broken thousands of relationships or can be confirmation that you are in fact with the right person,” according to Voigt. In the special, Sloss shares his father’s analogy that life is a jigsaw puzzle and love is a missing interior piece. But Sloss debunks that theory and says society forces people to jam the wrong person into their puzzle. 

“[We] had a conversation about [Jigsaw] afterward about our takeaways and feelings about it,” Voigt says. “We spent some time building and solidifying those bonds and foundations early on so that no matter what came our way as we built our relationship, it would stand strong.”

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The couple’s next challenge? Organizing the day of their dreams. 

​​"We both aren’t super in love with the idea of a huge wedding," Voigt says. "We both have our close groups of family and friends that we would be honored to share our wedding day with in a small and intimate setting. A lot of people think the more the merrier, but for this, I think we are on the opposite end of that spectrum."

She adds that 2025 is their ideal time to get married: “We know we want to tie the knot next year, so let the planning begin!”

Read the original article on People