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A 27 Year Age Gap Isn't Stopping These Men From Loving Each Other
Survivor's Bret LaBelle, 49, and TikToker StanChris, 23, dish on their relationship and dealing with jealousy.
Age is just a number!
At least that’s what couple Bret LaBelle and StanChris believe about their 27-year age gap.
The pair opened up about their relationship in a recent interview with Bear World Magazine who called them the Bear “It couple.”
LaBelle, 49, was a contestant on The Amazing Race, but really made a name for himself while on the Millennials vs. Gen X season of Survivor where the Boston Police Lieutenant shocked everyone by coming out as gay.
His boyfriend StanChris, 23, on the other hand, is a YouTuber and TikToker who made it big doing vacation vlogs and man-on-the-street style interviews where he approaches strangers and quizzes them about gay culture and celebrities.
The age-gap couple told Bear World Magazine that they met because they both slid into each other’s DMs. StanChris admitted to first noticing LaBelle when he was “binging Survivor during quarantine.”
“I watched Bret’s season and noticed that he was from Boston,” StanChris, whose real name is Chris Stanley, admitted. “I was in New Hampshire, so it wasn’t that far away. And the whole time I was like, oh, he’s so hot, he’s so handsome, he’s so everything. And then he came out and I was like, ’Oh my God! He’s gay?’ I actually could have a shot!’ So I just shot my shot with him on Instagram.”
That’s when StanChis noticed that LaBelle had DM’d him before.
“I got this message from him, and he already had a lot of followers at the time,” the reality show alum said. “Instagram has the three message boxes, the primary, general, and the crazies. Usually, if you don’t follow someone, they’re in the crazies. All of a sudden, he’s in my primary. I go, how is he in my primary?”
Turns out LaBelle had drunkenly messaged the TikToker before and didn’t remember until that moment. “We think this is a really cool story. It means that we both sought each other out at different times,” he said.
In the early days of their relationship the large age gap bothered LaBelle, “But as we got to know each other and as the relationship formed, it got to the point where I still was worried about it, he was becoming less worried about it. But then, I said, well, who cares? This is working,” he said.
The couple has also had to navigate the tricky world of fame together. Both have fans sliding into their DMs, but they try not to get jealous. This was tested recently when LaBelle was behind the camera for a video where his boyfriend was asking two Bears if they wanted to “kiss or slap” him and the two men picked StanChris up and kissed him on the cheek.
“It’s not that I get jealous. A lot of people know who I am now when I’m sitting there holding the camera. It just feels a little weird. So I’m just saying, maybe if I’m the cameraman that day, don’t do that one. That’s all,” LaBelle quipped.
The Bear/twink couple, who have been dating for two years, announced their relationship on social media where they faced some backlash from people who thought there was too big of a gap in their ages. But that hasn’t stopped the pair from sharing their life online. In fact, they’ve done a few Q&As on YouTube and even have a joint Instagram account where they post photos and videos about their adorable relationship.
They’re so sweet they’re giving us a toothache!
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
