Fan-Favorite ‘Big Brother’ Couple Moving to LA Together

Big Brother alums Derek Xiao and Claire Rehfuss are making a big step in their relationship. The adorable pair recently announced they are moving across the country together. “We’re moving out to L.A.,” Xiao told Us Weekly, adding they “had to ditch” the Big Apple. “You know, those rent prices. We couldn’t stay.” They don’t have a permanent place as of yet, noting their next L.A. home is “semi-temporary” as they search “for a more long-term lease.” They met during Season 23 of the show in 2021. Despite being competitors, they made an instant connection. They started out as friends on the show, and explored their romantic connection while sequestered in the jury house.

“I think that we both really felt the chemistry once we got to jury house and could really connect with each other,” Rehfuss told Us in Oct. 2021 in a joint interview with Xiao. “We would stay up late talking every single night and we just really developed a bond.” He agreed that it was hard to disguise their feelings for one another, adding: “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. 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.”

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But he waited until he was evicted to make a real move. He wasn’t afraid of falling in love on TV, but admits he didn’t want the cameras around necessarily to document it. “I mean, you saw what happened to Alyssa [Lopez] and Christian [Birkenberger] week one,” he explained. “For me, despite getting taken out very early on, I did want to win that game. … I knew that if I let myself, I would just fall for Claire in the house.”