It’s one thing to hear about a love story. It’s another to watch it unfold right before your eyes. TikTokers Tyler Bergantino, 30, and Gabriella “Gabby” Gonzalez, 21, are documenting their own connection in real time.
The couple’s love story has taken over a corner of TikTok, and they’re being hailed as a national treasure by the internet’s romantics.
“I’ve never felt so invested in two people,” one person wrote of their romance on TikTok.
“Do I personally know Tyler or Gabby? No. Am I all the way invested in this romance? Yes,” another wrote.
“I’ve never wanted to see a happily ever after more,” one commenter summed up.
Bergantino and Gonzalez have a joint 2 million followers on TikTok. Gonzalez, who is 6'1", posts videos about cultivating self confidence as a tall woman. Standing at 6’9," Bergantino is a former college basketball player who interviews strangers — and also posts about his height.
Their similar statures compelled Gonzalez to ask Bergantino to meet up and film a collaboration while he was visiting Miami in June.
What they couldn’t predict was sparks flying as the video recorded.
“It was so weird because I was going into this thinking, OK, cool, this is just going to be a typical collab. But then when we started talking, I felt like I knew her my whole life,” Bergantino tells TODAY.com in a joint interview with Gonzalez.
"When we started talking, I felt like I knew her my whole life."
Tyler Bergantino
“It was the weirdest thing. It was just so easy to talk to her. It was so easy to be myself around her. The interview shows that because none of that was pre-planned,'” he continues.
In the viral TikTok they made and posted June 2, Gonzalez openly flirts with Bergantino, who happily flirts back. At one point, he asks her ideal height for a man. While Gonzalez says height doesn’t matter at first, she caves and names 6’9," not knowing that was his height.
“Wait, so what’s your ideal height for a woman?” Gonzalez asks in return.
“How tall are you again?” he laughs. “I like her,” he later says with a smile.
Two days later, Bergantino and Gonzalez came out with a second, equally flirtatious video in which they talk about their dating lives and why they’re both single.
“I tried my best to flirt a little bit. I saw a moment and I took it,” Gonzalez tells TODAY.com.
The video concludes with Bergantino asking Gonzalez what she was “doing tomorrow.”
“I hope you asked her on a date,” one person wrote in the comments.
Another said, “THIS is how to flirt.”
They snuck in one last meetup before Bergantino was set to fly out. Gonzalez posted a “GRWM” (get ready with me) video before they met up, followed by a “post-date interview” at the café. Their updates? They learned they “both really like ‘Star Wars’” and own light sabers, and that Bergantino was ready to learn “un poquito” Spanish for her.
Gonzalez, in the video, offers to drive Bergantino to the airport. If he returned to Miami, she’d be the “main reason,” he says.
“It was definitely an interesting goodbye,” Gonzalez tells TODAY.com. They gave each other a “long hug” before departing.
As for whether there was a goodbye kiss? “I may have snuck in a little cheek kiss,” Bergantino says. While he was tempted to go for a full-on smooch, he resisted.
“I wanted to kiss her, but I also told her like, ‘Hey, listen. This is all kinds of crazy, we have to take this slow.’ So it was more like a tight squeeze for right now and we got to make this happen,” he says.
Since then, the pair have been sharing updates about their personal life on TikTok. Gonzalez recently posted a video of herself holding a bouquet of flowers that Bergantino had sent. In another video, she revealed she has the same birthday as Bergantino's mom.
Bergantino, meanwhile, posted a song that he wrote for Gonzalez called “My Intentions.”
“Beyond all the pressure and attention / through all the likes and comments and mentions / I want to be crystal clear with my intention to get you on a flight that’s headed straight in my direction,” he says, going on to describe how his “posture took on a different form” when he stood next to her. “Can’t describe how this feels / a pretty girl who’s pretty real / I’m so glad you wore those heels,” he continues.
Their videos have amassed millions of views. They’re trying not to let that get to them.
“The audience right now that’s watching all this is cool, but what matters most is making sure you’re comfortable and making sure I’m comfortable. We have to make sure we’re doing this right,” he says.
“Literally, in my journal, I have, ‘Build the kingdom and the queen will come.’ I was focused on building my own stuff. That was my main focus. I’ve had relationships in the past, some good, some bad, but it never really worked out. It’s really hard for me to even find a genuine connection,” he continues. “Having followers is not as good as some people say.
However, his connection with Gonzalez felt different, he says: “With this, it’s like OK, cool, like maybe we could build something together.”
The thing that really fulfills me and Tyler is the girls coming and saying, ‘I’m regaining hope in love.'
Gabby gonzalez
Gonzalez echoes the same sentiment. She “wasn’t really focused on boys” before she met Bergantino because she had “rushed” her last relationship.
“I wasn’t looking and I was almost avoiding it. I was like, I just need to focus on myself, my friends, my family, and my passions with work. I need to be happy alone to be happy with somebody else,” she says.
But once she met Bergantino, her approach changed.
“Once we clicked, I literally thought about my last relationship and was like, ‘Oh my god, don’t rush it. No rushing. Don’t ruin it. Don’t ruin it.’ But even though I kept telling myself that, I was like, but this just feels different,” she recalls.
Now, Bergantino and Gonzalez are taking things slow and they haven’t given each other labels as yet — but the feelings are real, they say.
Their love story-in-updates has given audiences hope that it could happen to them too. The duo says giving hope is the best part about this whole experience.
“The thing that really fulfills me and Tyler is the girls coming and saying, ‘I’m regaining hope in love. You’re giving me confidence to wear heels and flirt with the man that I like,” Gonzalez, who uses her platform to uplift tall women, says.
“We are somehow — and it is crazy to even say this — but it feels like we’re helping to reshape society in a better way to just be more compassionate and authentic. It’s so much fun that we get to show that and share that and encourage that.”
After her interview with TODAY.com, Gonzalez posted a photo of herself laughing during our interview when asked about their airport goodbye (and if a kiss was involved). In the snap that her mom took, you can see her laughing and kicking her feet up in the air.
“This is me while talking about everything that’s going on between us. It’s so crazy. I read the comments and everyone’s like, ‘I’m giggling and kicking my feet over this.’ Like, guys, same!” she says.
“It was genuinely a 30-minute phone call about how we met, what’s happening now, and what’s happening next, and that is how I looked on the phone. I feel very blessed.”
