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Chris Stanley, Bret Labelle.Courtesy of chrisandbret/Instagram
Survivor alum Bret LaBelle and his boyfriend, Chris Stanley, are still going strong despite criticism of their age gap.
LaBelle started dating Stanley, who is 27 years his junior, in 2020. The twosome have been candid about their age difference throughout their romance.
“Sometimes people think he’s actually my dad. Other people think I’m just with him for money,” Stanley told The Advocatein August 2023. “They think he’s my sugar daddy, which obviously isn’t true.”
He added: “Sometimes people make the outrageous claim that I was ‘groomed’ or something, which not only isn’t the case. In reality, I am the one who pursued him. They think we’re both weird.”
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Keep scrolling for LaBelle and Stanley’s complete relationship timeline:
2016
Nearly four years before LaBelle started dating Stanley, he publicly came out as gay during a conversation with fellow competitor Zeke Smith on season 33 of Survivor. (Smith is also a member of the LGBTQIA+ community and married Superstore alum Nico Santos in 2023.)
“I didn’t grow up in a time when it was normal to talk about being gay, and the millennials do not care,” LaBelle shared in a Survivor:Millennials vs. Gen Xconfessional. “Zeke finds comfort in being himself, and I think that’s great. And I’m hoping that as my life goes on, from here on out, I can be that way.”
2020
Stanley sent LaBelle a message via Instagram amid the coronavirus pandemic, and they quickly hit it off.
Courtesy of chrisandbret/Instagram
January 2023
They became Instagram official three years later.
“Great seeing @realdavewright and sharing a few beers and laughs in San Diego,” LaBelle, who also competed on season 31 of The Amazing Race in 2018, wrote via Instagram while sharing photos with Stanley and a pair of friends.
“As I was checking out yesterday buying this beautiful tree — yes, it’s real — my boyfriend is handing the cashier his credit card, but I’m like, ‘No, no, no. Let me pay for this.’ So, I get out my credit card and I hand it to her,” Stanley recalled in a TikTok video. “She’s like, ‘Oh yeah, nice.’ And I’m like, ‘Why is she so excited that I’m paying?’ And she’s like, ‘I believe the more you give, the more you get this holiday season.’”
Stanley ultimately decided against correcting the woman. “I’m left wondering what the look would have been like on her face if I had told her [the truth],” he added.
