CT Tamburello and Phaedra Parks’ Romance is Years in the Making
It has been two years since TV audiences watched Phaedra Parks and CT Tamburello occupy opposite sides on The Traitors, but it seems their unlikely chemistry is very much in play. The former opponents are now officially a couple. Parks confirmed their romance and shared their future plans ahead of a planned outing together.
Phaedra Parks and CT Tamburello confirm their romance ahead of their red carpet debut
Phaedra Parks has made things official with CT Tamburello. On September 4, she appeared on Jeff Lewis’ SiriusXM show and gushed about her new romance after Lewis questioned if her status as Tamburello’s plus-one at the Emmys was a “platonic thing.” While Parks has played it coy in the past, she was honest and open this time around, telling Lewis, “No, it’s not.”
The romance didn’t come out of nowhere. Rumors had been building for weeks after Tamburello posted a photo of Parks on Instagram in early August, captioning it, “Anybody want to throw a good word in for me!? … still looking for a +1 for the Emmys.” Parks responded almost immediately: “Baby I’m already yours.” From there, the flirtation escalated quickly, with Parks referring to Tamburello as “her man” and Tamburello sharing increasingly affectionate posts of his own. Fans suspect the romance likely bloomed sometime in June.
Fans saw it coming
While the pair have officially confirmed their romance this year, fans have seen it coming for years. Their connection actually traces back to 2023. Phaedra and CT met while filming Season 2 of Peacock’s The Traitors together. While they spent much of the season on opposite sides of the game, they developed an instant bond, with sparks flying from the very beginning.
Their rapport didn’t end when the cameras stopped rolling, either. In a March 2024 interview with Extra, Phaedra gushed about her former castmate, insisting that she would love to work with him again. She went on to call him a “gentleman” and an “alpha male.” CT was more guarded, insisting that nothing happened between them, but he did confirm that they had a bond during filming.
Now, more than two years after their season aired, they are finally giving it a chance in real life. Whether the relationship becomes a fixture on future Bravo or Peacock programming remains to be seen.
This isn’t the first time they’ve dated co-stars
Falling for a fellow competitor isn’t new territory for either Phaedra Parks or CT Tamburello. They each have a well-documented history of on-screen romances that began on set. Phaedra met one of her recent boyfriends, Cheick Kone, on the set of Married to Medicine. Phaedra’s marriage to Apollo Nida played out in front of Bravo audiences on The Real Housewives of Atlanta.
CT Tamburello has been connected to co-stars, too. He is perhaps best known for his years-long, on-again-off-again relationship with Diem Brown, whom he met on MTV’s The Duel in 2006. The two became one of The Challenge franchise’s most iconic couples, with Brown’s ovarian cancer battle playing out publicly on-camera and Tamburello supporting her through it. Brown died in 2014; Tamburello was by her side.
