Survivor only crowns one winner each season, but not all contestants leave the island alone.
Because while the island and its lack of hygienic amenities may not seem like the perfect setting for finding love, there’s no shortage of showmances that have emerged from the reality competition. Take Rob “Boston Rob” Mariano and Amber Mariano, perhaps the series most well-known pair, who saw their strategic season 8 alliance turn into a genuine romance. Rob proposed to Amber during the season finale, and the couple tied the knot in 2005.
More than 20 years later, their love has outlasted several other reality TV romances, with the duo growing their family with daughters Lucia, 16, Carina, 15, Isabetta, 13 and Adelina, 11. Although they met in an untraditional setting, Amber thinks that crossing paths on Survivor allowed them to find an authentic connection, free from superficial distractions.
“The way our relationship started out is so different than what anybody ever experiences with dating,” Amber told Entertainment Tonight in 2020. “When you’re on Survivor, you can’t even brush your teeth, you can’t even brush your hair, you don’t even change your clothes.”