'Today' correspondent Jill Martin engaged

"Today" lifestyle correspondent Jill Martin, an East End resident born and raised in Plainview, is engaged once more to Boston equity-investment firm executive Erik Brooks.

"I decided to call. It had been 18 months since I had given the ring back," Martin, 45, wrote in an essay for the "Today" website. "Deciding to end our engagement last year was heart-wrenching. … Even though we were fighting and hurting each other to what I thought was an irreparable place, I never thought our relationship would break. But it did. … It took falling apart to build ourselves back together."

She and Brooks, the father of three children, first became engaged in May 2019 in the Hamptons, but broke up a year later. He proposed again recently during a getaway in the Bahamas.

"We wanted to make sure this time would be different. Better," Martin wrote, adding, "While we still fight sometimes, we limit the drama. Misunderstandings that used to last for a weekend now last minutes." She concluded, "When I realized I was confident on my own, that's when I knew Erik and I were ready to get back together."

On Black Friday, Martin will host "Peacock Presents: Holiday Steals & Deals with Jill Martin," which will stream on Peacock and Today All Day, the morning show’s 24/7 streaming channel.