As a JW in good standing, and if you want to stay that way, you had no option but to marry another JW. Looking at a non-JW as a marriage mate just wasn’t on.
The only JW boyfriend I had, and was engaged to, had a one-night stand with a non-JW girl and got her pregnant. I felt pressured to continue with the engagement as he was “sorry” and begged for forgiveness. But ultimately, I couldn’t start a marriage with such a horrible beginning and broke off the engagement. It was also at this time that I had been learning the real truth about “the truth” so I had decided that marrying a full-blown JW just wasn’t for me.