Neil Patrick Harris: 'I won't get married just to set an example'

Neil Patrick Harris has insisted that he and partner David Burtka would not marry just to "set an example".

The How I Met Your Mother star, who announced his engagement to Burtka in June, explained their impending union as "complicated" because of the way the proposals came about.

"It's complicated. David proposed to me five and a half years ago in New York on the same street corner where we met. The following year on Valentine's Day in Santa Monica, one of my gifts was a ring and I proposed to him," Harris recalled in an interview with Details.

"Then, when the marriage-equality stuff was on the tipping point in New York, where we have residency because we have an apartment there, it seemed my responsibility to at least tweet about it - to say, 'Please vote for marriage equality in New York, it would be nice to get married someday'."

However, Harris went on to say that the engagement has been blown out of proportion, as it is not what the pair originally intended.

He explained: "It passed, and then someone tweeted David asking if we were going to get married, to which David replied, 'Yes, I proposed to Neil and he proposed to me'. Which I think sounded immediate and wasn't.

"It's exactly what we didn't want to do, because we contemplated getting married in California, before the Prop 8 debacle, and I opted not to immediately because I didn't want it to be a media event.

"I didn't want to go marching down the street with camera crews. Oy. To get married? Really? It seems like you have an agenda when you do it that way.

"I wouldn't want to get married to be an example. I'm hoping we'll be able to get married in California soon, but there are no plans afoot."

Harris insisted following the engagement announcement that they are not planning a wedding and have no date set for when they will tie the knot.