Is this the modern era’s Boston Rob and Amber Mariano?!
In the latter half of Survivor season 45, a showmance began to blossom between alliance members Dee Valladares and Austin Li Coon. And after several episodes of hand-holding, helicopter rides and, okay, some lies, the twosome found themselves sitting next to one another on the Dec. 20 finale, verbally battling it out for the title of Sole Survivor. (Oh, and Jake O’Kane was there, too!)
Ultimately, the jury chose to award the $1 million prize to Dee in a 5-3 vote over her island boyfriend, due in large part to her key decision to not tell Austin she betrayed him in an early vote until they were in front of their eliminated castaways. Strategic and savage!
But as it turned out, Austin wasn’t too upset.
“Girls are better at playing guys than the other way around!” the grad student told Jeff Probst with a laugh after the votes were read. “All good!”
While Dee and Austin’s relationship became the main focus of season 45’s finale, which was filmed months ago, their current relationship status was still TBD.
Until now.