Kerry Washington used to pin her engagement ring to her undergarments to keep the news private

Speaking on 'SiriusXM's This Life of Mine with James Corden', she said: "I used to pin my engagement ring to my undergarments because I loved my ring so much, so I would sleep in it at night, and then in the morning, I would pin it to my undergarments so that nobody knew we were engaged.

"He had a groundbreaking, record-breaking contract that he had just walked through, and he had been in three or four Pro Bowls, you know. When I met him, he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and I was on this hit show.

"It just felt like there was a lot of public energy around our careers, but we kept our relationship very private when we were dating, I think mostly because we just wanted to protect ourselves and each other,"

The 'Scandal' star struggles with the idea of the world talking about her personal life and decided to stop talking about it altogether when she was on the cover of a bridal magazine.

She said: "I think it's really hard when people have a lot to say about your relationship, and I had been in a really public engagement that when it ended,

"I was in the unfortunate position of being on the cover of a bridal magazine and it was a bridal magazine that came out quarterly, so for three months I walked around and I thought, 'I think I'm done talking about my personal life in the public'.