This article originally appeared on People.
Jennifer Hudson is in no rush to walk down the aisle.
In a Wednesday appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the 35-year-old opens up about her nearly nine-year engagement to her fiancé David Otunga, revealing that she doesn’t mind delaying the nuptials.
“I’m not in a rush,” she tells the host. “He ain’t going nowhere.”
Former pro wrestler Otunga, 37, proposed to Hudson in September 2008 after less than a year of dating. The love birds welcomed their first child, David Jr., 7, nearly a year later in August 2009, with the singer’s rep telling PEOPLE that she parents were “ecstatic.”
About a month after becoming engaged, tragedy struck. Hudson’s mother, Darnell Donerson, and her brother, Jason Hudson, were found fatally shot in a Chicago home. Her 7-year-old nephew, Julian King, was found dead in the backseat of a car.
Hudson’s former brother-in-law William Balfour was convicted of the murders in 2012.
Hudson later credited Otunga with saving her life, noting that she would have been in the Chicago home with her mother and brother had she not flown to Florida to visit Otunga.
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“That’s one of the things that saved my life, because I could have been home with my mom then,” Hudson said in an interview with Ebony. “[Otunga] wanted me to come out to Florida with him instead of going to Chicago.”
She added: “I flew out to see him; that’s why I’m still here. I’ve never said that before, and I can’t believe I just said that now. But I didn’t know. He was just like, ‘I’m going to this wrestling thing, and it’s in Tampa. I’m going out there now, so you can come out there and see me versus going home.’ ”
In the wake of Balfour’s conviction, the love birds said they were “very excited” about planning their wedding.
Watch the full video here.