De Villiers married to Danielle de Villiers in 2013.
He planned it before visiting India for the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2013. Danielle and AB De Villiers were followed by photographers and videographers disguised as the security guard.
“About a couple of months leading up to the IPL, I was obviously planning, got the ring and all that, and I decided to do it there. And once I got to the IPL, I got “security guards”, who were actually photographing and videographers to film the whole thing,” de Villiers said in an interaction on web series What the Duck.
“But I told Danielle that I have to travel with security guards, so that’s why they got to go with us. And it ended up to be a great surprise and I got it all on camera.”
The couple is now blessed with two kids. De Villiers said it was a special time.
He also said what Virat Kohli told him after this epic proposal. “That was a very special time in my life. I surprised Danielle completely. She didn’t know a thing about it. And I could not have done it at a more special place than that,” he said. “I remember what Virat told me when I got back. He’s like ‘you’re raising the bar way too high for us’. But I think he did a pretty good job now with Anushka (Sharma).”
Jonty Rhodes, another South African was there in the show. The former cricketer praised De Villiers' planned proposal. “I thought reverse sweeping Dale Steyn for a six was very brave but designing your future wife’s ring, that’s very, very brave,” Rhodes said.
De Villiers revealed Rhodes was his childhood hero during school days. “I still have grass prints on my knees from trying that dive from 1992 against Pakistan. Growing up, I was just eight-years-old and the “in-thing” in school was to imitate that run-out so I did it plenty of times. I always wanted to be like him, and I had a green Jonty cap with Jonty written in yellow on it. I bought it at the first Test that I ever watched live at the Supersport Park. He is a good man as well, not only a good teacher,” de Villiers added.