Omarosa Speaks After Michael Clarke Duncan Death; Couple's Secret Engagement Revealed

The Rev. Omarosa Manigault, former star of "The Apprentice," has spoken about the death of her boyfriend and secret fiance, Michael Clarke Duncan.

"I am devastated," Omarosa said in a statement to RadarOnline.com. "He was the love of my life."

Omarosa and Duncan were secretly engaged and reportedly planned to wed in January, according to TMZ. They kept their engagement a secret from much of the media. They had just started planning for the nuptials when the "Green Mile" actor went into full cardiac arrest on July 13. Omarosa saved the actor's life that day by performing CPR on him.

"We're told Omarosa is just destroyed after waging a valiant fight to save Michael," TMZ reports. "She had doctors flown in from all over the world but constantly worried if she was doing enough."

Duncan's publicist, Joy Fehily, released a statement to The Wrap from Omarosa confirming the 54-year-old actor had died Monday morning after almost two months of hospitalization following his heart attack in July.

Omarosa and Duncan met in early 2010 at a Whole Foods grocery store, according to an article by OK! Magazine. They joked over her villainess persona on "The Apprentice" and, after much courting, she finally fell for him.

The actor gushed over his new love to HollywoodLife later that year.

“[I like] her personality,” Duncan told HollywoodLife in September 2010. “Really! She’s very knowledgeable. She’s the first woman that I can wake up next to and knows all about politics and what’s going on in the world. The world, defense, what’s going on with the President’s program. Anything and everything. She’s very intelligent.”

Duncan, who was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for his role in "Green Mile," is survived by his fiance, his mother, Jean Duncan, and his sister, Judy Duncan.

Action auteur Bay penned a moving ode to his fallen friend on his website yesterday — proving, once more, that the guy really does know how to tug at our heartstrings. Bay begins by remembering how he and his team discovered Duncan:

We found him in a gym. He cried at the first audition because he was so proud to audition for a “Michael and Jerry movie,” he just wanted to make his mom proud. We gave him the role in the room.

His first day on Armageddon he sucked. I remember looking to Ben Affleck and thinking we might need to fire him. But I told him “Mike, I hired you for you, I want the sweet, Mr Clarke Duncan I met in that room.” I said, “the audience is going to fall in love with you.”

He looked and smiled with deep voice and said “Ok.”

From then on out he became the most improved actor on the set.

Bay also fondly recalls Duncan’s “infectious spirit and great belly laugh” before telling another story about the future Green Mile star:

When he said in the movie he “wanted to stay in the White House for the summer” he killed it. In his N.A.S.A. evaluation I told him to cry like a baby. He looked at me with his macho Duncan eyes and said “Mike I can’t do that” I said “yes you can” and it became the biggest laugh in the movie.

“I’m really sad to lose him,” Bay concludes. “Rest in peace buddy.”

“I’m really sad to lose him,” Bay concludes. “Rest in peace buddy. BOOM.”