Married At First Sight star Sam Stanton has hard-launched his new romance on Instagram after months of quietly dating a mystery Sydney man.
While the Adelaide-based fitness entrepreneur stopped short of tagging his new partner in the playful social media reveal, Daily Mail can exclusively reveal the man who has captured his heart is Sydney-based project manager Ilia.
Speaking to Daily Mail, Sam simply said of his new relationship: ‘I’m super happy.’
The reality star made the relationship Instagram official by sharing a hilarious video of himself launching his shirtless boyfriend backwards into a lake before turning to the camera with a huge grin as water splashed behind him.
He cheekily captioned the post: ‘Hard launch.’
However, Sam deliberately left Ilia’s identity a mystery by not tagging him, prompting a flood of comments from curious fans desperate to uncover who his new boyfriend is.
Married At First Sight star Sam Stanton (pictured) has hard-launched his new romance on Instagram after months of quietly dating a mystery Sydney man
Daily Mail can exclusively reveal the man who has captured his heart is Sydney-based project manager Ilia
‘You’ve got to tag to hard launch,’ one follower joked.
‘We just want to do a stalk,’ another teased.
Fellow MAFS stars also couldn’t resist joining in, with Bec Zacharia writing: ‘I LOVE THIS HARD LAUNCH. Finally.’
According to friends, Sam and Ilia have actually been together for several months, with the pair quietly building their relationship away from the spotlight before deciding to share it publicly.
‘They instantly clicked,’ one friend told Daily Mail.
‘They’re both obsessed with training, CrossFit and spending time outdoors. They have so much in common and it’s made the relationship really easy.’
Another insider said the long-distance romance has only strengthened their bond.
‘Sam has been bouncing between Adelaide and Sydney to spend time with Ilia whenever he can. They’ve taken things slowly and wanted to make sure the relationship was solid before sharing it publicly.’
‘They instantly clicked,’ one friend told Daily Mail. ‘They’re both obsessed with training, CrossFit and spending time outdoors. They have so much in common and it’s made the relationship really easy’
Away from the spotlight, Ilia works as a Sydney-based project manager with more than five years’ experience delivering projects across customer acquisition, sales optimisation and business operations.
According to his LinkedIn profile, he specialises in project management, stakeholder engagement, customer journey mapping and agile product development.
The fitness connection has been a major part of their relationship from the beginning.
Sam owns Adelaide-based CrossFit gym Studio360 Sports, while friends say the couple regularly spends their weekends training together and making the most of the outdoors.
The romance marks Sam’s first public relationship since his high-profile split from fellow MAFS groom Chris Robinson.
Sam broke his silence to Daily Mail about the breakdown of their relationship, claiming the cracks had been forming behind the scenes long before viewers saw them on screen.
He admitted it was ‘frustrating and confronting’ watching the series back, saying unseen footage left him deeply hurt after hearing comments Chris allegedly made about him behind closed doors.
‘Watching everything back… it really takes me back to how I felt in that moment,’ Sam said.
Speaking to Daily Mail in a raw and unfiltered interview, the groom admitted watching the series back was ‘frustrating and confronting’
Sam said he was blindsided after hearing how Chris allegedly spoke about him behind closed doors – including claims about his finances and living situation that he insists are completely false. ‘Not only was it nasty – it’s not even true,’ he said
‘But the biggest thing sitting with me now is the unseen footage… I’m pretty f***ing hurt by it.’
Sam also accused his former partner of making false claims about his finances and living situation and said watching the episodes unfold left him ‘really angry’.
‘That’s not the Chris that I thought that I knew,’ he said. ‘And that’s not the Chris that I tried to make it work with for another week.’
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