The love story of a former 'bunny' and an Olympic champion: the secrets behind Kayla Rae Reid and Ryan Lochte

More and more couples are meeting through social networks, whether they are completely anonymous or famous, love can be found just around the corner. A great example of this is the six-time Olympic champion swimmer Ryan Lochte and model Kayla Rae Reid.

Lochte was considered one of the best swimmers on the scene, dominating in freestyle, backstroke, and combined styles. Without a doubt, the American is one of the best, participating in four Olympic Games, where he won six gold medals, three silver, and three bronze. Furthermore, he was crowned World Champion 39 times.

Kayla Rae Reid, for her part, wanted to be a professional cheerleader and ended up becoming a model, achieving great fame. She modeled for Hugh Hefner while working as a real estate consultant.

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Their paths crossed in 2016, when they met through a well-known dating application, as she herself said in an interview for Daily Mail Online. "He was on a well-known dating app and so was I. That's all I have to say on the subject," Rae Reid said at the time.

The swimmer also confessed to Cosmopolitan magazine that he was a regular app user. "On Bumble, the girls are the first who have to move, and I don't like that very much. So I left it. I decided to use this other well-known dating app because I heard that it was a success at the Sochi Games and I thought: 'I'm going to give it a shot.'"

She was clearly the one for Lochte, as the two started a family together. Ironically, the couple refused to make their relationship status public at first, but then went viral in 2016.

(Photo: Ryan Lochte Instagram)

In 2016, the couple went public after the American model was spotted with Lochte at the Rio de Janeiro Games (Brazil), where she celebrated his great success in the 4 x 200-meter freestyle race. It would be Lochte's last Olympic event.

There, Rae Reid also met the family of her future husband, who also accompanied him to the Rio Olympics. "His family is awesome. They've been very kind to me. He hasn't met my family, but it could happen, we'll have to see," she told the Daily Mail.

Lochte was tangled up in some major controversy during the Rio Olympics when he was out partying with his teammates James Feigen, Gunnar Bentz, and Jack Conger. The group faked a robbery to mask the damage they did at a gas station.

The sequence of events began at a private party organized to celebrate their successes in the Games. After drinking a little too much, they ended up refueling at a gas station where they lost control and destroyed the vicinity.

After being detained by security members, to avoid taking responsibility for what happened and paying the expenses caused by their destruction, they decided to invent that they had been victims of an armed robbery and that the criminals had been the ones who had left the trail of destruction.

The International Olympic Committee (COE) sanctioned Lochte with a 10-month suspension, which led him to live one of the worst moments of his career. "There were a couple of moments when, through tears, I thought about going to bed and never waking up," he told ESPN.

However, in the midst of all that trouble, he always had the unconditional support of Rae Reid: "I will always support him, no matter what happens," she told a Daily Mail journalist when he asked her if she would continue to show her face. For the athlete, something he also did during the swimmer's participation (in 2016) in the 'Dancing with the Stars' program.

It didn't take long for them to announce their engagement that same year, and they did so through their respective Instagram accounts with some romantic photographs taken on the beaches of Malibu (California). "Forever memories!!!" Lochte wrote while she said, "Speechless. Absolutely beautiful. In love with you."

"As soon as I saw the head come out, I immediately cried. (…) We are on cloud nine. It's a dream come true. I'm still in shock. I can't believe we had a baby!," said Lochte on US Weekly.

The idyllic love story would end not in one marriage, but in two. And, according to People magazine, Lochte and Reid were married for the first time in a court in Gainesville (Florida) in August 2018, and it was their son Caiden who was in charge of carrying the ring in the ceremony.

"We wanted Caiden to be old enough to walk down the aisle. One of our visions was that he could be the bearer of the ring," they told People.

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The second ceremony was held in a beautiful, intimate, outdoor celebration on a private property in Palm Springs (California) and was attended by approximately a hundred guests including family and friends.

(Photo: Ryan Lochte Instagram)

That year 2018 was also complicated for Lochte in sports after the United States Anti-Doping Agency imposed a 14-month sanction on him for having received a transfusion that violated the anti-doping code. The substance received was a legal vitamin supplement, but he had passed the amount limit.

After the sanctions, he tried to prepare thoroughly for his fifth Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020, but he failed to qualify in the final rounds. He would end his professional swimming career at the age of 35.

A son, two weddings and several sporting disappointments later, their second child would arrive. In that case it was a girl, Liv Lochte, who was born in 2019 and with whom the wishes of the Olympic medalist were fulfilled.

"We are excited. We are very excited. (…) Ryan is a great father; I can't wait to see him as a father of three children. He is so great with children in general that they always gravitate towards him. I am excited too, [but] I'm more of the worrying, strict, not-so-fun mom, let's say. It's a good balance," Rae Reid told US Weekly.

(Photo: Ryan Lochte Instagram)

Today we can continue to see this wonderful family full of love and happiness through their social media accounts, and it all started with a 'well-known dating app'. Let us know what you think in the comments!

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