Rhea Ripley Is a Pro-Fighter and Not Just in the WWE Ring — She Also Fights for Love

At the height of the WWE Women’s World Championship tournament, the favorite to win, Rhea Ripley, might be out for the season. She was injured during a backstage segment of WWE’s Raw when Liv Morgan attacked Rhea with a chair. Luckily, Rhea (whose birth name is Demi Bennett) has the love of her life by her side to support her.

Rhea rose up in the world of wrestling after competing independently as Demi in 2013. In 2017, she joined the WWE as part of the Mae Young Classic and harnessed the power of her ring name. Throughout this time, she also had several romantic relationships, mostly with fellow wrestlers, before finally getting engaged in 2023. So what is her relationship history?

We don’t know exactly when Rhea and Demetri called it quits, but they started dating in 2019 when Rhea went to train with Demetri. The two met at a gym when Demetri had his Master’s degree in Sports and Exercise Science and was interested in becoming a professional wrestler. Rhea was already a star and the two immediately hit it off.

Rhea told WWE’s Chasing Glory at the time: “Kevin—he goes by Demetri—he’s only been wrestling for, I want to say a year-and-a-half to two years, so that’s not very long. He’s still pretty green and still has a lot to learn, but he learns super fast. I’ve been trying to help him along the way. We’ll watch matches and I’ll sort of break it down for him and explain things.

"I’m always there for him ’cause I want him to succeed. He’s been straight on not wanting too much of my help ’cause he wants to succeed on his own; he doesn’t want me to give him anything, which I appreciate.”

Rhea and Buddy (whose birth name is Matthew Adams) first met in 2020 and decided to stay in touch. Buddy had previously dated WWE wrestler Alexa Bliss, but they called off their engagement in 2018, leaving him single and available to fall in love with Rhea. She first confirmed their relationship in a sweet Instagram post of the two embracing with a black heart emoji in the caption.

Since then, Buddy and Rhea haven’t been shy about their relationship, despite working for opposing organizations. (Buddy works for Tony Khan’s AEW as a member of the House of Black while Rhea is part of WWE’s The Judgment Day.) Both Rhea and Buddy grew up in Australia, giving them plenty to bond over, and in August 2023, they announced their engagement.

Throughout the years, wrestling fans have shipped plenty of potential Rhea Ripley relationships. However, not only has she never confirmed them, but the rumors were actually proven to be false. Everyone wanted Rhea and Dominik Mysterio to be an item after she encouraged him to join The Judgment Day on Raw. She claims she even “turned him into a man,” but their on-screen relationship is simply fodder for the audience. He’s been in a relationship for almost 14 years with a woman named Marie.

In addition, people thought Rhea and Damian Priest were dating because of their close friendship. Both are also members of The Judgment Day, but she confirmed to Metro that they’re just friends. “I get along with them boys so well – even Priest, we’ve been friends for so long now. We’ve always talked about wanting to do an inter-gender tag match together, we are so similar,” she shared.

And we can’t forget her relationship with Liv Morgan. The two have fought against each other, but also alongside one another, and fans around the world shipped them when they came together to compete in the Women’s Tag Team Championships in 2022. However, Rhea hasn’t spoken about any romantic interest in women and Liv was allegedly dating Bo Dallas at the time. Luckily for us, Rhea still has a wrestling romance under lock and key with Buddy!