Cradle Of Filth guitarist Marek "Ashok" Šmerda and keyboardist Zoe Marie Federoff are engaged! Congrats to the happy (and very metal) couple, who are surely about to spend a ton of time together both on the road and at home.
Federoff also explained in a social media post that she was not dating Šmerda at the time of joining Cradle Of Filth in 2022, and that their romance had nothing to do with her hiring. Because y'know, there's always gotta be some ulterior motive to some folks on the Internet.
And yes, Cradle Of Filth vocalist Dani Filth approves of the newly-minted instrumental couple. No word on if he'll wear the Jesus Is A Cunt shirt to their wedding, but we're guessing it's a hard "no."
"First of all, thank you all so much for your warm wishes and congratulations," wrote Federoff. "Secondly, I truly wish I didn't feel the need to completely clear this up but there's a lot of strange rumors and stories floating around so, take note:
"I never knew Ashok before I joined CoF. He had nothing to do with me coming on board. I have already written some material for the next CoF album so clearly our engagement has nothing to do with my continued stay in this band.
"We have no plans to leave CoF as we truly enjoy working together, not to mention working with several of our closest friends. Dani has been the greatest and most supportive leader possible when it comes to our engagement. We remain happily committed to his team in CoF.
"Now please- stop speculating and spreading rumors and let's celebrate all the good things happening this year!"