It’s been a year since Seven Year Switch star Tim Naughton proposed to girlfriend Jackie on the set of the reality show, but today the pair said things weren’t as they seemed.

In a revealing Instagram post, Jackie shared that they weren’t allowed to share the news of their engagement – not even with their family – because of their contract. The show wanted to save the proposal for the last episode of the show.

Tim proposed on the final day of shooting on Jackie’s favourite beach at Burleigh, where the couple now live, this time last year.

“We had an early Christmas with my family the next day seeing as how I was in town and I remember how ecstatically happy I was,” Jackie wrote.

“I was bursting to tell them but we weren’t allowed to because of our contract.”

After that, Jackie says, “we planned to invite family and friends over to watch the proposal in the last episode as a big surprise. But the producers decided to cut it from the last episode a week before it went to air as well as all the fun dates we went on etc, to keep everyone in suspense until the reunion show.”

Looking back, Jackie says she wishes she had just told her family the day of the real proposal.

Fans expressed sympathy for the couple at having to hide their engagement for so long.

“What a way to ruin a special time in your life by the show!! It all worked out in the end though and now you are a beautiful family unit,” commented one fan.

“That sucks that they did that to you! But look what you have now.. A beautiful baby boy that trumps all that!,” wrote another.

The Queensland couple also said that they’ve put their wedding plans on the back-burner, because so much has happened since their proposal.

“The show went to air, we bought a house, moved interstate and of course had a baby,” wrote Jackie.

She says when it comes to getting married, they’ll “do it eventually.”

In an act of solidarity, a number of fans shared their stories of how ‘life’ got in the way of getting married. “We finally married after a 10year engagement, small business and 4 kids just kept putting it back,” wrote one of Tim and Jackie’s Instagram followers. “We got there in the end.”