On Wednesday, August 9, 2023 — Rhea Ripley posted to Instagram announcing her engagement to AEW superstar Buddy Matthews. The post was captioned: “1000x YES! Pure F***ing happiness!”
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Matthews also took to social media to post about the engagement, posting an image with the caption: “My sunshine in the Sunshine!”
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Fellow co-workers of the couple congratulated the couple, including Sonya Deville, Cathy Kelley, Maxxine Dupri, Thea Hail, and Trinity Fatu.
The duo has been in a relationship since 2020, where the two of them worked together in WWE. Despite them both being in different promotions, fans had seen photos of them surfacing together — which brewed the speculations of Ripley and Matthews being a possible item at the time.
On June 21, 2021, Matthews (formally known as Buddy Murphy in WWE) was released from his contract with WWE. To then join and debut again in AEW on February 23, 2022. Now that the two were working in completely different companies, this was the time in which the two grew closer.
Though the exact date isn’t known, the two had moved in together at some point in the timeline of their relationship.
With their relationship growing closer, they created a Twitch channel that went by the name of: House of Buddy — which is a play on the faction (House of Black) that Matthew resides in at AEW. Ripley and Matthews would stream games together online and interact with fans through it.
Now, three years later, the two are happily engaged and ready to take their relationship to the next level.
