Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersKenosha will be a good bellwether in 2020 Biden's fiscal program: What is the likely market impact? McConnell accuses Democrats of sowing division by 'downplaying progress' on election security MORE proposed to his wife, Jane, in the parking lot of a Friendly's restaurant.

"We were on a break, and he was trying to get me back, and I said, 'No. I want to get married and you don't,' " Jane Sanders, 65, recalled in an interview with People magazine published Wednesday.

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"We finished our ice cream sundae at Friendly's and we walked out to the parking lot and he said, 'You want to get married?' " Jane recalled. "I said, 'You know I do. Let's not talk about this again.' "

Sanders then reportedly took her by the shoulders, asking her again, "Will. You. Marry. Me."

"Look when you do a proposal, it has to be done with ambience. Proper moment, proper lighting. Right?" Sanders, 74, joked to the magazine.

Jane met Bernie at his first mayoral debate in Burlington, Vt., in 1981, she recalled in the interview, saying she sat near the front of the room and "fell in love with Bernie's ideas."

Sanders asked her to dance at an election-night party weeks later. They dated for eight years and broke up for about a year before Sanders pursued her again.