By John Powell – GlobalTV.com

Sometimes castaways find more than coconuts and immunity idols on Survivor Island. Friendships cannot help to blossom when you are living with your tribe 24 hours a day for weeks on end and sometimes those friendships and feelings can develop into something more, something deeper.

Survivor has had its fair share of showmances and romances over the years. Some have grown and flourished into families and some, well, let’s just say they went their separate ways.

Here are is the list of Survivor’s greatest love stories.

Survivor 50 debuts February 25 at 8:00 PM ET on Global TV.

Love That Lasted

Survivor All-Stars

Let’s start with the most famous Survivor couple of them all, Boston Rob and Amber. Along with Amber’s win, now only was their relationship a main focus of the All-Stars finale when Rob asked Amber to marry him but they had their own two-hour wedding special too: Rob and Amber Get Married.

Four children, two Amazing Race runs, a return to Survivor as a couple for Winners at War and Rob and Amber: Against the Odds following Rob’s career as a professional poker player later the pair really has become Survivor’s First Couple.

Speaking to People Magazine Boston Rob talked about the best and worst about meeting his wife on Survivor Island.

“I literally had nothing to impress her with except maybe catching a fish… but starting with less than nothing on the island made everything else after seem extraordinary. We had nowhere to go but up,” he said.

Rob credits their “strong family values and not forgetting why we formed an alliance in the first place” as the reasons why they are still together for over 20 years.

Survivor: San Juan del Sur

They competed as a dating couple on the series. She was the runner-up to Natalie Anderson. They stayed together and got married in 2015. They now have a family of their own.

 Survivor: Worlds Apart

Once the cameras were done filming it took a few years for them to find each other again and start dating. They got married on November 24th, 2019, with many former castaways in attendance. They have two children together.

Speaking to E! News, Joe explained what drew him to Sierra.

“One of the main reasons that I married her is because I saw so many motherly qualities and just how she took care of her horses and took care of me and I was like, ‘Yeah, I need to make her a forever boo’. She’s just such a hard working mom [and barrel racer] and cares so much,” he said.

Sierra has always appreciated Joe’s patience.

“For me, I feel like Joe has been so patient with me,” Sierra said. “I know I am hard to handle and a lot and to know that he can be patient with me, I knew he would make an amazing father.”

Survivor: South Pacific

Despite Whitney being married at the time they fell in love on the show. Once Whitney’s divorce was finalized they began seriously dating and got engaged on Valentine’s Day in 2013 and married about a year later. They have a family of their own and competed on The Amazing Race as well together finishing eighth.

Following South Pacific, Whitney had this to say about their relationship: “I don’t know if I can really explain that. Who in the world would have thought that I would fall in love on Survivor, of all places? If someone would have told me that I would have said they were nuts, it’s not gonna happen, they’re crazy. We have a lot in common. We’ve both had heart surgery and health problems early in life. We grew up in the same kind of families. We have a lot of the same goals and things that are important to us in life. I can’t put a finger on it. I’ve just never had such a crazy connection with someone in my life…I did fall in love. I was in an unhappy, unhealthy relationship and who would have thought that I would find love on Survivor? That’s insane, right?”.

Survivor 44

It was literally love at first sight for Matt and Frannie on Survivor. The self-described nerds bonded almost immediately. They currently live together in San Francisco.

Matt told us about the romance playing out on the show: “That caught me way off guard, to be honest! You are one of 18 castaways on a beach and everyone is a total stranger. You don’t expect to immediately click so intensely with someone out there! I think it caught both of us off guard! The first few days we couldn’t help it! All we wanted to do is just talk to each other all the time…It is really, really rare to find someone with whom you have so much chemistry right out of the gate. I feel like I’ve known her forever.”

Frannie felt the same way and told us:  “It was very, very hard. I mean, genuinely, a showmance was the absolute last thing I would have ever expected to happen to me! It’s so out of character for me! I mean, coming home and tell my family and friends I have a boyfriend now! And everybody’s was like…Wait! What? It was so hard because the whole time I’m trying to stay in the game, I’m trying to play this game that I’ve waited to play for years so I was mentally fighting it. I was like: Not here! Not now! This can’t be happening! Matt and I just have such a like genuine and real connection that we could not help ourselves. It is exactly like two dorky magnets. It transcended the game and did it knock me off my rocker a little bit and mess up my strategy, for sure. Obviously, I’m so happy with how it played out!”.

Survivor 45

Although both competed on Survivor 45 they didn’t interact much during the filming of the show. They became friends after the series and then became far more than just friends. They made their relationship public on Instagram.

 

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Topps told Out: “We realized that our friendship — being ‘besties’ who talked every single day — was turning into something more last fall, around August 2024, and we decided to explore it casually. But, by January of this year, we knew we needed to make it official.”

Survivor: Island of the Idols

They too didn’t begin dating until after their series had wrapped. With some of her Olympian pals in attendance when they were married in 2024.

Elizabeth walked herself down the aisle and told People Magazine:  “My dad lost his battle to cancer [in 2021],” she explained, “and I felt that if it wasn’t my dad walking me down the aisle, it wasn’t going to be anyone. It was incredibly empowering, and I loved everything it symbolized for me as a woman.”

Elizabeth spoke about the many positives of being married to Jack: “Being married means no matter what, we always have someone we can lean on, count on, and trust in. Honestly, Jack is just stoked to finally wear his wedding band. I’m stoked I can officially rely on Jack to do all the cooking for the rest of their lives — cooking is not my strong suit.”

Survivor: Blood vs. Water

They competed as a dating couple and later married. They have two children. Tyson proposed to Rachel on Marriage Boot Camp. Their marriage was featured on the Martha Stewart Weddings YouTube channel.

Survivor: The Amazon and Survivor: Africa

They didn’t even compete on the same season but met through mutual Survivor friends. They are married and adopted a child.

Survivor: San Juan del Sur

The married couple competed together and both finished 10th that season. They have four kids. He won Survivor Cambodia and is a firefighter. She is a police officer.

Survivor: Blood vs. Water

The engaged couple competed on Blood versus Water. They were finalizing wedding plans when Caleb was killed in a train derailment. Caleb was only 26.

At the time, producer/host Jeff Probst released this statement: “We are shocked and deeply saddened by the loss of Caleb. He was one of the most humble and likeable contestants we’ve ever had the pleasure of working with on the show. A true gentleman. He will be missed by so many. We extend our most sincere condolences to his family and to his fiance, Colton.”

Survivors, Not Soulmates

Survivor China

They won their $80,000 wedding from the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau but their marriage ended very badly with all manner of awful accusations.

Survivor: Micronesia – Fans vs. Favorites

They were an item on the show but afterwards it was all downhill especially since Ozzy revealed that he actually had a girlfriend at the time but things weren’t working out.

“It just never quite worked. The passion of the island, the jungle love, the fighting our way for a million dollars was amazing and I just didn’t see our personalities sync up correctly. It didn’t end up working out,” he admitted on the Drop Your Buffs podcast.

Ozzy confessed that he was a big part of why things didn’t work out.

“When I really think about it, I was an asshole. I should’ve been more open to my feelings with her at the time. I kind of liked the excitement of maybe this storybook affair of Amanda and I falling in love with each other, having a great relationship and coming back and getting married on live TV. We were going to be like the Boston Rob and Amber. It just never really worked out that way.”

Survivor: All-Stars

They competed together and dated for 10 years, even lived together. During his cancer battles Ethan admitted that Jenna’s love and support got him through it all. Ethan later married an interior designer.

“We will carry with us the memories of a relationship grounded in love, laughter, support and friendship. We have experienced some of life’s greatest joys and toughest challenges together and our decision to be apart can never diminish that. We want to thank everyone for their support and we ask that our privacy be respected as we move forward,” said the couple in a statement to People.

Another Survivor relationship that was brought about by personal ties in the Survivor community but ended in a very public and ugly divorce. They have a daughter together. Parvarti detailed the relationship in her book Girls Don’t Win.

In the book she states: “It was my anger over the particulars of our marriage that finally helped me break free. It gave me the power to overcome my fear and filled me with energy to act. I know then that staying in my marriage would mean letting a part of myself die–the part of me that longed for real, honest love and partnership. If I stayed, I would never know love. But if I left, at least I’d have a chance. It wasn’t a guarantee, but a chance was enough for me. To fully live, I had to kill the dream I held so dear: my dream of a loving, nuclear family with this man. I didn’t care how much money it would cost me or how scary the process would be. I needed the possibility of real, honest love in my life.”

Parvarti has come out as queer and was dating Canadian comedian and actor Mae Martin. In the latest update, Parvarti described their relationship as “in flux”.

Survivor: Ghost Island

On the show, the two denied their feelings for each other but become a couple after the series creating a travel vlog together. They have since broken up.

David vs. Goliath

They shared a showmance on the island and dated for some time afterwards, broke up, got back together before finally going their separate ways. Alec violated his Survivor contract by posting a picture of himself and Kara on social media. He was therefore banned from the finale.

Addressing the controversy he told us : “It had nothing to do with Survivor. With social media things can be misconstrued. Anyone who knows me understands I have the utmost respect for Jeff Probst, Survivor, the most incredible show on the air. The fact that I got to be part of that was insane. I grew up watching it with my family. So, to have that as a bone of contention, I own it. It happened. I apologized.”

Survivor: San Juan del Sur

The couple competed on San Juan del Sur and later become engaged. Production had no clue they were dating when they were cast as they applied separately. They broke up and Reed went on to marry another Broadway performer.