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Derek Xiao and Claire Rehfuss have Big Brother to thank for their relationship — but it wasn’t until they were both evicted that their romance took off.
The pair met in July 2021 while living under the same roof on season 23 of the CBS series. Following their respective eliminations from the house, they got a second chance at love when they were in the jury house together for two weeks.
Scroll down for a full timeline of Derek and Claire’s whirlwind relationship:
Credit: Erik Johnson for E-Studios
Big Brother’s Derek Xiao and Claire Rehfuss’ Relationship Timeline: From Housemates to Instagram Official and More
Derek Xiao and Claire Rehfuss have Big Brother to thank for their relationship — but it wasn’t until they were both evicted that their romance took off.
The pair met in July 2021 while living under the same roof on season 23 of the CBS series. Following their respective eliminations from the house, they got a second chance at love when they were in the jury house together for two weeks.
Scroll down for a full timeline of Derek and Claire’s whirlwind relationship:
Credit: Erik Johnson for E-Studios
Big Brother’s Derek Xiao and Claire Rehfuss’ Relationship Timeline: From Housemates to Instagram Official and More
Derek Xiao and Claire Rehfuss have Big Brother to thank for their relationship — but it wasn’t until they were both evicted that their romance took off.
The pair met in July 2021 while living under the same roof on season 23 of the CBS series. Following their respective eliminations from the house, they got a second chance at love when they were in the jury house together for two weeks.
Scroll down for a full timeline of Derek and Claire’s whirlwind relationship:
Credit: CBS
July 2021
After houseguest Christie Valdiserri tested positive for COVID-19, Rehfuss stepped in as her replacement before the show’s season 23 premiere. According to Xiao, he knew from week one that the Ohio native was his “type,” but didn’t act on it because he was trying to win the game. Rehfuss had a similar reaction to meeting the Baltimore native.
“I think both of us had like a little bit of a crush, or at least saw maybe there's some potential there, pretty early on in the game,” she exclusively told Us in October 2021. “But then you just get wrapped up in the game and you just don't think about it anymore. You just are so focused on trying to win the money. And you're not exploring it. You're not really thinking, “Oh, what if this?'"
Credit: CBS
August 2021
Xiao was evicted from the Big Brother house during the August 26 episode.
Credit: CBS
September 2021
One week later, Rehfuss was sent packing during the September 9 episode after pal Tiffany Mitchell, who was the Head of Household, nominated her.
Credit: CBS
September 2021
The duo were then reunited in the jury house, which is where they started to realize that there might be something romantic between them. “I remember the first or second night that she was there, we stayed up all night just talking until 5:00 a.m. That happened every single night for the first, like, five days,” the Hell’s Kitchen, New York, resident told Us the following month of his time with Rehfuss in the jury house. “That’s when I started really thinking like, ‘Wait a second, why didn’t this happen in the house? There’s such a strong connection and chemistry between us.’ I think that was the beginning of us thinking about what this could be.”
Credit: Erik Johnson for E-Studios
October 2021
Us broke the news on October 14 that the TV personalities were dating after developing a “bond” in the jury house.
Credit: Erik Johnson for E-Studios
October 2021
The twosome announced their relationship status via social media the same day. “The absolute best thing to come out of the most stressful 3 months of my life,” Rehfuss captioned a steamy photo of the couple on Instagram.
Xiao shared his own snap with his girlfriend, writing, “Expect the unexpected? 😅 Shoutout to all my fellow houseguests for helping us keep one last secret 🙏🏼. Coming out of the Big Brother house has been overwhelming, but I’m so lucky to have had Queen Claire by my side making me smile and laugh everyday ❤️ I’m so excited to see what’s next for us!”
Credit: Courtesy of Derek Xiao/TikTok
October 2021
The start-up founder shared a goofy TikTok video with his love in celebration of their romance. “When you finally go public with your relationship,” he wrote alongside a clip of the pair dancing and hugging while the Bee Gees’ “More Than a Woman” played in the background. “We were way too happy at this take,” he captioned the video.
Credit: Courtesy of Derek Xiao/Instagram
October 2021
The lovebirds shared a sweet Instagram Story video together after returning to NYC, where they both currently live. “Here is her gorgeous New York apartment that isn’t in Queens, because she is a liar,” Xiao joked as his GF joined him in the kitchen. After Rehfuss accidentally disclosed where she lives in the Big Apple, her man explained that they’ll be hanging out in New York for two weeks and would love recommendations of things to do.
Credit: Courtesy of Claire Rehfuss/Instagram
October 2021
The Al engineer gave Xiao a crash course in watching Survivor during one of their first days back in New York. “It’s happening! Here we go. Going to be trying to give him lessons, tell him what’s happening,” she said in a series of Instagram Story videos before teaching her BF how to play the game within a game.
Credit: Courtesy Derek Xiao/Instagram
December 2021
Xiao shared a series of sweet photos from the couple's romantic hot air balloon ride along with a few goofy selfies from mid-air.
Credit: Courtesy Derek Xiao/Instagram
February 2022
"Happy Valentine’s Day to the only person who could make $750k look like a consolation prize 🥰💕," Xiao wrote via Instagram on Valentine's Day 2022. "I was scrolling through my photo album, and I may or may not (may) have gotten a little teary eyed seeing all the memories we’ve had together 🥺 Thank you for being one of the most caring, funny, intelligent, beautiful, and ~mushy~ people I know. Can’t wait to see you soon ❤️."
Credit: Courtesy Derek Xiao/Instagram
July 2022
"Goes to Miami once and changes his name to Mr. 305," The Challenge contestant joked via Instagram Rehfuss encouraged her boyfriend's nickname, commenting, "🔥🔥🔥 dale."
Derek jokingly added: “You know, those [NYC] rent prices. We couldn’t stay.”
Credit: Sonja Flemming/CBS
August 2022
The news broke that the duo would be competing together on season 34 of The Amazing Race. The latest installment of the reality TV competition premieres in September 2022, with the contestants beginning their travels in Munich, Germany.
Credit: CBS Broadcasting
December 2022
After a series of trials and tribulations, Derek and Claire finished season 34 of The Amazing Race on top, winning the $1 million grand prize together. Derek told Us that the competition strengthened the duo's bond in ways he'd never imagined.
"I think at the very beginning, I had delusions of grandeur around how good our relationship was because we hadn’t been tested, so I didn’t know. But then we actually got tested, and now I think our relationship actually is where I thought it was," the Baltimore native said.
Claire added: “We just were really required to talk about like, 'How do we communicate, how do we wanna solve problems?' and be very honest and be very real with each other in a way that I think a lot of couples don’t have to be, necessarily, and still be happy. So, that just made it so much stronger, and it’s made it so much more applicable when we get into, like, fights or whatever outside of the race too. I do think it was really a test — which I think is very cliche that people say — but I think that it did make us a lot, lot stronger.”
Credit: Sonja Flemming/CBS
September 2023
While promoting their guest appearance on the season 35 premiere of The Amazing Race, Derek and Claire exclusively told Uswhat they’ve learned from each other during their relationship.
“[Claire’s] a very empathetic person. She not just feels [but] internalizes other people’s emotions and how they’re seeing a situation and she empathizes with that,” Derek said. “And I feel like that’s something that has hopefully transferred over to me. I’ve been picking up one percent of it, which is already one percent more than I had.”
Claire, meanwhile, gushed about her boyfriend’s ability to expect the best.
“Derek enters every situation or environment that we’re going into with an optimistic lens. I think Derek’s way more optimistic than I am,” she shared. “I am a pretty fear-based person and an anxiety [-prone] person. … He’s made me more open-minded and more open to going to [new] environments or hanging out with people or doing new things that normally I would be like, ‘No, that’s too much. I would rather just stay home.’”
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