Rate My Takeaway YouTube star Danny Malin engaged to marry 'soul mate' Sheffield BGT star Sophie Mei Lan

Danny Malin, who runs the hit Rate My Takeaway channel, popped the question to Sophie Mei Lan over Christmas. They hope to get married later this year after Sophie, who works as a reporter for the Yorkshire Post and enjoyed fame herself when she appeared as a belly dancer on Britain’s Got Talent, said yes.

Danny, aged 43, has developed a huge online following with his popular no nonsense reviews of takeaways around the UK, including several in Sheffield, to which he takes his own table and chair. As well as her work for the Yorkshire Post, Sophie, 34, is a successful health and wellbeing influencer, blogger, author and fitness and dance coach, who grew up in Pitsmoor, and has spoken and written openly about her struggles in the past with eating disorders and depression. She famously impressed Simon Cowell with her dance moves when she appeared on the second series of Britain’s Got Talent.

Sophie told how she and Danny first met through work and became friends as they share a similar sense of humour. She added: “We started to meet up just for chats and coffees and quickly became best friends. Then Danny asked me on an official date so I gave him the challenge of finding somewhere for me and him to eat as I’m vegetarian, mostly vegan, but I wanted him to have what he wanted as I’m quite easy. Before we met, I only knew enough to interview him about his channel and he didn’t know about me either until he had interviewed me on radio.”

Danny said of their romance that he had ‘naturally gravitated towards’ Sophie and found her very easy to talk to. “Falling in love is easy when you find your soul mate,” he added. “She makes me laugh, helps me to smile and made me whole again. Every day brings joy and happiness, even when there are problems we somehow get through and smile at the end of the night. This is what makes her great, wonderful, thoughtful, kind and loving. This is why I love her. She is my soul mate, my best friend, my everything.”

Sophie said they ‘push each other to succeed in all we do’. She described how she was not aware at first just how popular Danny’s YouTube channel is, so it came as a big surprise when on their first proper dates to Tattu in Leeds, Xscape and a Starbucks drive-thru, people kept stopping him to ask for a photo.

She told how they share a love of eating out and having takeaways at home together, and have enjoyed many fun adventures, from bowling to travelling, while she has also got Danny into spa breaks as she loves spending time at the gym and getting spa treatments. But she said that for both of them ‘family comes first’ and the eight children they have between them are their ‘priority’.

“We have both been through a rollercoaster ride in life so since meeting we have made the most of every moment,” said Sophie. “We love everything from long chats over Starbucks, to random experiences such as Harry Potters’s enchanted forest and Ninja Warrior. Well I love anything active and adventurous, whereas Danny is happy watching and chilling, drinking coffee and doing his cameo videos for vans. Although he is helping me rediscover a love of grub after my younger years with a severe eating disorder, and he is getting more active as I am a fitness and dance coach alongside my work as a journalist and YouTuber.”

Sophie has two daughters and a puppy, whie Danny has six children and a dog, so Sophie said they will need a big house ‘for sure’, especially as they both work from home. “Currently though we’re both in council houses. He’s in Leeds and I’m in Wakefield but we see each other every day,” she added. “Danny delivers me Starbucks and a cuddle every morning and then he sits and does his work while I lift weights before I start my work.”

Sophie has already joined Danny on some of his reviews, including one in Paris, and said she was sure she would accompany him to other takeaways. But she added ‘that’s his work and baby and I have my own stuff too’. “Danny has Rate my Takeaway and I have Sophie’s World channel on Mental Health, Neurodiversity and Life,” she said. “So we help each other where we can. But our big thing this year is to do our own channel and social media together. We’ve got a new TikTok @mrandmrsyorkshire.”

Sophie said they have yet to start planning their big day but they hope to get married this year. “All we know is it will be fun, up north, full of entertainment, dancing food and most importantly love and laughter. We’ve also got hen and stag party to sort too,” she added.