All About Mariah Linney, 'Outer Banks' Star Madison Bailey's Serious Girlfriend

From ELLE

There must be something in the water over at Outer Banks. A few days after Madelyn Cline and Chase Stokes, who play love interests Sarah and John B on the show, confirmed they're dating, another OBX co-star has announced her new relationship. Madison Bailey, who plays Kiara on Outer Banks, revealed on TikTok that she's dating UNC-Charlotte basketball player Mariah Linney, 21. Ahead, everything we know about Bailey's new girlfriend, including how TikTok introduced the couple.

The couple is Instagram and TikTok official.

In late May, Bailey came out as pansexual on her TikTok, writing, "Nobody knows what pansexual means. Girls, boys, trans boys, trans girls, nonbinary babies. It's what's on the inside, boo." She previously alluded to her sexuality in a September 2019 Instagram post captioned, "Easily distracted by all genders🏳️🌈."

Bailey's next TikTok, which has been viewed nearly 13 million times, confirmed her relationship with Linney. In the video, Bailey can be seen repeatedly mouthing along to voiceover that says, "I'm not falling" before ending with "Okay, I'm falling." Then, Bailey brings Linney into the frame while smiling and hugging.

On June 15, Linney made their relationship IG official by sharing a photo of herself and Bailey with her nearly 45,000 IG followers. "💍‼️" Bailey commented on the post.

Linney is an accomplished basketball player for the Charlotte 49ers.

While Bailey is enjoying career success with Netflix's Outer Banks, Linney is heading into her senior year at University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Linney hails from Goose Creek, South Carolina, is majoring in sociology, and has had an impressive athletic career thus far. According to her official roster page, Linney was named the USA Today High School Sports State Player of the Year as a senior at Goose Creek High School. In her most recent season, Linney was a starting guard in all 30 games. Linney regularly shares photos from the season on social media.

This isn't their first time getting flirty on social media.

Although Linney and Bailey just made their relationship official, signs of their romance could be seen on the 'gram and TikTok earlier. "Mine mine and mine," Bailey wrote underneath one of Linney's posts in May, and "😍😍😍 wow wow" underneath another last week. On June 13, the basketball player tweeted, "my girl is so talented, biggest fan."

But you can find the most evidence of the couple's bond over on Linney's TikTok. Since confirming their relationship, Linney and Bailey have posted several videos dancing together.

Yes, they can thank TikTok for their meet cute.

How did this Gen-Z pair meet? That would be TikTok, according to Linney's account. "Thanks to TikTok," Linney captioned one of their videos last week.

In late May, Bailey dueted a video of Linney captioned, "Just me staring at Madison Bailey."

There were several opportunities for a chance meeting before May, as Bailey grew up in North Carolina, where Linney is going to school. And Outer Banks is filmed in South Carolina, where Linney is from. But Bailey confirmed to Entertainment Tonight that Linney caught the actor's attention on TikTok before the pair began DMing each other on Instagram.

The couple's relationship quickly became serious.

The future couple realized they only lived 20 minutes away from each other in Charleston, making their first date easy to plan. “I was staying in a hotel in Charleston and was like, ‘Just come hang out. We can chat, chill. Everything’s closed so it's not like we can go out anywhere,” Bailey told ET, adding that Linney met her parents only three days later.

“It’s very serious,” Bailey continued. “I had zero hesitation to post on social media about it because I was like, ‘No matter what happens, you will be in my life forever.’ I care about her so much. She's very gentle-hearted, kind, loving, and you see that in the way she loves basketball [and] her family. You see her loyalty and dedication in the things that she cares about. I think I am in love.”

Bailey said she feels "lighter" since telling the world about her new relationship.

During a Mental Health Q&A on Lucy Hartselle's Instagram Live yesterday, Bailey discussed coming out as pansexual and introducing Linney to the world. "To be so transparent, especially in an industry when a lot of people want to be in my personal life, it’s nice that I can be like 'Here's my personal life. You can have it. It’s fine,'" she said, according to Us Weekly. "I feel zero shame, and I don’t feel that way because nobody’s ever really shamed me for it and I know a lot of people have had lot of hate and lack of support. I know so many, countless stories of queer people that did not have support. But if you’re asking me personally, that’s just my experience with it. It was worth it. I feel lighter, I feel happier that I can just be so open and honest."

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