Nico Santos (Zeke Smith) and Nico Santos (Nico Santos) attended the 30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards Beverly Hills on February 28, 2019. Image Press Agency/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
Revisit their love story! Zeke SmithSurprise boyfriend Nico Santos at the GLAAD Media Awards — where they first met four years earlier — with a romantic proposal.
“Nico, your love has taught me how to love. You are my other half, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you,” the Survivor alum, 34, gushed during the Saturday, April 2, awards ceremony in Los Angeles, per Entertainment Weekly footage.
The couple first met backstage at an April 2018 ceremony.
“He said yes. I’m the luckiest guy in the world,” Smith wrote via Instagram. “Thank you to @glaad and @tiffanyandco for making it magical.”
The 42-year-old Superstore alum, for his part, tearfully said yes before proclaiming via Instagram that his new fiancé has “my heart forever.”
The couple first confirmed their relationship in June 2018 via Twitter, with Smith writing, “I guess everybody knows about my hot little 25-year-old boyfriend now. Oh, haaayyy @nicosantos.”
Santos teased back: “Stop spreading lies! I am NOT, I repeat, NOT…25!”
The Crazy Rich Asians actor and the comedian’s relationship has continued to heat up social media through the years.
“I fell in love! About three years ago at the GLAAD Awards, I met my boyfriend, actor Nico Santos,” Smith told EW March 2021. “We just bought a house and are mired in the domestic bliss of choosing paint colors, figuring out where exactly that draft is coming from, and replacing appliances that were just fine during the inspections!”
Smith was transgender before the pair met. He was exposed as such during an April 2017 episode on The Bachelorette. Survivor: Game Changers.
“We’d never seen a trans story responded to with such overwhelming outrage toward the wrongdoer and sympathy toward the wronged,” Smith wrote in a The Hollywood Reporter column after his elimination from CBS competition, noting that he is optimistic about the future. “Typically, trans victims of crimes far worse than what I endured are ridiculed and the perpetrators let off scot-free.”
He continued: “I remain at a loss to fully explain the reaction, but I am grateful and humbled. I am optimistic that this moment — both the example set by Survivor and ‘The Episode’s’ response — will serve as a model for how trans people will be treated by the media in the future.” To the trans person who enters the spotlight next, I hope you get it as good as I did. To the person after, I hope you are met with utter indifference.”
