• Jennifer Araujo’s marriage proposal accidentally went viral last month.
• Her now-fiancé’s mother, Dora, accidentally flipped the camera on herself when she recorded the moment.
• Araujo told Insider she wasn’t mad at Dora, but some viewers weren’t as sympathetic.

Jennifer Araujo, her then-boyfriend Jesus Villarreal, and his parents were visiting Rome last month when Villarreal got down on one knee outside St. Peter’s Basilica, a regal and colossal white church built in the 1600s.

The proposal on October 17 was shared on TikTok in avideo that’s now been viewed over 10 million times — except, instead of seeing the heartwarming moment, the camera was focused on Villarreal’s mom’s face the entire time.

As soon as Villarreal got down on one knee, his mother, Dora, who was recording, accidentally flipped the camera to selfie mode, and she couldn’t figure out how to reverse it. The nine-second video captured her first reacting excitedly as she watched the proposal — but soon her brow furrowed as she appeared to realize it had been pointed the wrong way the whole time.

Araujo, 23, who’s from Springdale, Arkansas, told Insider she wasn’t angry at Dora for the technical glitch.

“When I first saw the video, I was cracking up because I didn’t understand how she could even flip it,” she said. “But we were both laughing at the video.”

Luckily, Villarreal’s dad had also filmed the moment with his camera (that she also shared to TikTok). In his video, the two stand in front of St. Peter’s Basilica, and Araujo is seen putting her hand over her mouth in shock when Villarreal pops the question. She nodded her head “yes,” and then the two embraced.

While Araujo wasn’t mad at Dora for the honest mistake, viewers weren’t as generous. Dozens of commenters said they would be “so mad” if this happened during their special moment. Some went as far as to suggest that Dora intended to reverse the camera.

“All she had to do was hold the PHONE,” one comment with over 10,000 likes said.

Yet many others were more endeared and sympathetic toward Dora. They said they sensed the trepidation and worry in her eyes at the end of the video as she was trying to fix the issue. “The gulp at the end when she realized,” one person wrote. “I FEEL SO BAD FOR HER OMG IM ACTUALLY SAD,” another person said. “You can tell she ain’t mean to.”

Viewers then showered her in support, writing “bless her heart” and saying their mothers would do this, too.

Araujo said Dora was surprised the video garnered so much attention and has enjoyed going viral and reading the thousands of comments. Araujo said Dora wants people to know that she didn’t mis-record the video intentionally. She said she hasn’t taken the mean comments to heart because she knows she never meant to flip the camera.

Araujo told Insider she and Villarreal had been dating for three and a half years before the proposal and that they plan on getting married in 2025 so they don’t feel rushed. She said she had an inkling that the proposal would happen.

“He kept asking me if I liked the way I dressed and did my hair,” she said. “So I kind of had a suspicion.”