Let’s pour one out (preferably into a frosted martini glass) for one of the most surprising and strangely affirming queer relationships to grace our timelines in recent years: Survivor alum Bret LaBelle and Gen Z TikTok heartthrob Chris Stanley have officially called it quits.
Their love story may have started in the DMs, but it ended — as all modern queer epics do — with an Instagram post and a Lord Huron song. On Monday, April 28, LaBelle took to Instagram to announce their breakup with a message equal parts gracious and gutting:
“Sometimes love means letting go. Chris and I have shared so many memories, laughter, and growth together, and I will always be grateful for that. While our paths are now going in different directions, the care and respect remain. Wishing him nothing but happiness, love, and success on his journey. Thank you for the memories.”
LaBelle, a 51-year-old Boston police lieutenant turned reality TV favorite, isn’t new to competing against the odds. He made it to Day 37 on Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X, a season literally themed on generational warfare — poetic, in hindsight. He later ran The Amazing Race with another Survivor buddy, proving his reality chops went well beyond island politics.
But nothing could have prepared him for the challenge of TikTok fame and the chaotic millennial-gen Z gay dating Venn diagram. Enter Chris Stanley — or as the Internet knows him, @stanchris — a 25-year-old content creator with over 1 million TikTok followers, nearly half a million YouTube subscribers, and the kind of cheekbone structure that makes you suspicious of your front-facing camera.
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The pair met during lockdown (as all the best pandemic-era couples did), with LaBelle sliding into Stanley’s DMs. Stanley later told The Advocate that after watching LaBelle’s Survivor season, he was charmed — proof that nothing says romance like watching someone build a fire and betray their alliance on national television.
Of course, the 27-year age difference made them targets of more than just stan accounts. They were misidentified in public as father and son more times than anyone should endure without at least a free drink. Stanley, never shy to clap back, told The Advocate, “Sometimes people make the outrageous claim that I was ‘groomed’ or something,” before clarifying, “I was the one who pursued [LaBelle].”
The queer community’s reactions to age-gap couples can be, let’s say, passionately mixed. There’s often a strange cocktail of concern, projection, and unsolicited advice — and this couple knew it. Their humor and grace through it all didn’t just normalize non-traditional relationships; it humanized them. Like when Stanley told Page Six about a Christmas tree outing where the cashier thought LaBelle was his dad. He played along, later reflecting, “I’m left wondering what the look would have been like on her face if I had told her.”
While their time together has come to an end, fans and friends are feeling the ripple. Reality TV personalities like Derek Frazier and Dash Katz left heartfelt messages in the comments. And honestly, who among us hasn’t felt like a supporting character in someone else’s bittersweet breakup post?
What made Bret and Chris so magnetic wasn’t just the novelty of their pairing. It was the vulnerability. Two queer men, from different generations, living unapologetically in the spotlight, navigating love, judgment, and online virality with more maturity than many people twice their follower count.
If you’re gay, you likely know the feeling: explaining your partner to strangers who ask too many questions. Laughing off the inappropriate assumptions. Defending your love not because you have to, but because you want people to know it’s real.
So while LaBelle and Stanley may be taking different paths now, their relationship — with all its nuance, meme-fodder moments, and emotional resonance — offered something rare: a public queer love story that wasn’t afraid to be complicated.
And isn’t that what we all want, at the end of the day? Love that’s real enough to be imperfect. Public enough to be proud. And when necessary — graceful enough to say goodbye with a Lord Huron track.
Wishing Bret and Chris all the happiness their respective algorithms can deliver.
Love these two and I feel like..oh! But yes, so life goes on. Apply for next memories album ♥️