I read the sentence below in a news article:
"The couple had been engaged since the summer," her spokeswoman said in a statement.
Why was "had been engaged" used in this sentence. Is it wrong to say "The couple have been engaged since the summer"? Is this sentence in passive voice so "had been + past participle" used?
PS: I read other questions on stackexchange about tenses, but I couldn't understand why was had been + past participle used in the sentence.