NAMES IN THE NEWS : Iacocca to Tie Knot 3rd Time

Chrysler Chairman Lee A. Iacocca will marry for the third time, his fiancee said as the couple stopped in Detroit en route to Europe.

“I’m really excited. I hope he’s as excited as I am,” Darrien Earle, a California restaurant owner, said Thursday.

The couple were in Palm Springs when they decided to make the engagement official on Wednesday evening, the second anniversary of their dating, Earle said.

The bride-to-be, in her 40s, said she hadn’t yet seen her engagement ring, an emerald-cut diamond flanked by baguettes. The pair haven’t set a date, but are considering a fall ceremony, said Earle, a divorced mother of three grown children.

Iacocca’s marriage of 26 years to Mary Iacocca ended when she died of complications from diabetes in 1983. Iacocca has two daughters.

The 65-year-old automotive mogul was divorced from Peggy Johnson Iacocca 26 months ago, about 1 1/2 years after they married.