‘Survivor 45’ has a late-in-the-game showmance between Dee and Austin, but the game has complicated their relationship. Are they still together?
The Gist:
- Dee Valladares and Austin Li Coon struck up an unexpected showmance on the beaches of Fiji in Survivor 45.
- Austin trusted Dee with valuable information, but Dee blindsided Austin when she had the chance to do the same.
- Dee confirmed they continued seeing each other after filming wrapped but says they're taking things slow.
Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for the ending of Season 45 of Survivor.
After watching Survivor 45, we couldn't help but feel ecstatic for Dee Valladares and her huge win — but that's not the only thing that had us grinning during the finale. After watching Dee's showmance with Austin Li Coon blossom over the course of the final few episodes, we want to know the latest!
We’ve now seen intimate chats on the beach, comparing themselves to Rob and Amber from Survivor: All-Stars, and they’ve even had a romantic date on a sandbar (with Katurah as a third wheel). Now that Austin and Dee are back stateside, what's the status of their relationship? They both seemed to be pretty into their showmance and both claimed that their feelings were 100 percent real (and not just game strategy). So, are they still together?
Are Austin and Dee from 'Survivor' still together?
The Reba Four were dominating Survivor 45 until Drew decided to target Julie Alley. However, Drew and Austin’s plan got back to Julie when Austin decided to tell Dee, which changed the trajectory of the game. Dee told Julie and the two of them worked together to blindside Emily. Austin assumed that Julie had found out about the plan from someone else, but during Final Tribal Council, Dee fessed up.
Dee managed to blindside Austin a second time in Episode 12 when the girls and Jake took out Drew. Once again, Dee chose not to fill Austin in on the plan — and he admitted later that if she had, he would have given Drew his amulet in order to save him.
With all of these strategic decisions, we wouldn't blame either Austin or Dee for chalking their showmance up to just something that happened during filming and wasn't meant to last forever. However, during the finale, they still seemed to be very into the idea of pursuing something once the cameras stopped rolling.
Dee confirmed that her relationship with Austin continued after the show — but not whether they're still together.
In the post-finale episode of the official Survivor podcast On Fire, Jeff asked Dee to comment on the status of her relationship with Austin. She didn't give too many details but did confirm that she and Austin's relationship continued after the cameras stopped rolling:
Jeff: Was this ultimately a showmance or did it continue?
Dee: It was both! It was a showmance and it did continue. Once we can finally post, you’re gonna see a lot of pictures of us on vacation.
Jeff: So does that mean you’re still together?
Dee: it means we are taking things slow because he lives in Chicago and I’m in Miami. So we're taking it slow. That’s my answer, my final answer.
It should also be noted that Dee currently follows at least two of Austin's family members on Instagram (in addition to following Austin himself). Even if they're not currently together, there's no denying that they had a ton of fun flirting on national television!
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