The Challenge veteran opened up about pacing himself with the Real Housewives of Atlanta star, months after their Traitors season sparked chatter about a possible romance.
CT Tamburello isn't jinxing anything, but he's willing to say things are going well with Phaedra Parks.
The 52-year-old Real Housewives of Atlanta star and the 46-year-old Challenge veteran confirmed they were a couple earlier this month, and they've already made it official on a red carpet, appearing together at the 2026 Creative Arts Emmy Awards. Now Tamburello is filling in some of the blanks.
"I'll say, I don't want to jinx it, but I'll say we're in a good place," he told Us Weekly. "With her, she just brings peace. It's easy to just stay calm around her."
What's striking is how much of the appeal, by his own account, comes from difference rather than similarity. Tamburello, who has built two decades of reality television on being the loudest guy in the room, framed the dynamic almost like a case study in contrasts.
"I know I'm crazy in my own right," he said. "It's probably for the best if I'm not around her every day, to be honest. But she's amazing. She really is." He reached for a very specific reference point to describe it: "the way I would describe it is like Paula Abdul, 'Opposites Attract.' You remember that old video? That's us."
He also copped to the messier stretches. Two steps forward, two steps back, in his words, is part of the pattern. But he insists the lesson has landed, even if it took him longer than most.
"Contrary to popular belief, I do learn," he said. "Maybe a slower learner, but I do learn, and some things are better left unsaid and I think oversharing can be a bad thing."
That last line does a lot of work for a guy whose entire public identity was built on decades of Challenge confessionals and reunion blowups. It suggests a deliberate shift, less narration, more restraint, at least for Parks.
The two go back to 2024, when they were both competitors on season 2 of The Traitors, the show that's turned into something of a matchmaking pipeline for reality veterans looking for their next storyline. Sparks were reportedly flying even then, long before either side confirmed anything publicly.
With the relationship now out in the open and a red carpet appearance already behind them, the obvious next question is whether either franchise, Atlanta or The Challenge, starts working the romance into its own storylines. Neither camp has said anything about that yet.
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