Davis Mallory, the former MTV reality television star, has announced he is in a relationship with Rachel Vaughan, one year after stating he is no longer gay.
Mallory, 43, posted photographs on Instagram on Sunday showing the couple travelling together. The images feature the pair hugging and kissing in various exotic locations with stunning backdrops.
"It's crazy what love can do. I love you @rachelevaughanaa," Mallory wrote in the caption of the picture carousel.
He also shared a video over the weekend.
"Thankful for new memories that someday turn to old photographs," he wrote alongside the clip.
Vaughan shared her own photographs of their travels on social media.
"First day I met Davis in the middle of the ocean we pet wild horses and hitchhiked up the valley," she wrote in her caption, according to the American entertainment news outlet TMZ.
Meeting as friends
The couple first met in 2022 when Mallory was working as a DJ at a wedding, TMZ reported. They initially travelled together as friends before falling in love.
Mallory told the publication that they began dating in August and do not live together.
The relationship becomes public one year after Mallory announced he no longer identifies as gay, crediting God for his shift in sexuality.
He first found fame as a cast member on The Real World: Denver from 2006 to 2007. The MTV series placed strangers in a house together and filmed their daily interactions. His time on the 18th season of the pioneering programme documented his efforts to become comfortable with his homosexuality, after growing up in conservative Christianity with a family that took issue with his identity.
He later competed on three seasons of the MTV spin off series The Challenge: The Inferno 3 in 2007, The Duel II in 2009, and Rivals in 2011.
Religious revelation
In 2025, the singer and songwriter posted a video to Instagram declaring his shift in sexuality.
Speaking on stage at the Arise House of Prayer and Worship in Hawaii, Mallory told the audience about his upbringing and his time on television.
"I lived the gay lifestyle for about 20 years," Mallory said in the video. "I was on a television show, The Real World, and I came out on the show as a gay Christian, but God really pulled me out of that lifestyle a year ago."
The crowd cheered and applauded the announcement, with people calling out "praise God."
Mallory told the congregation that God had begun speaking to him through his dreams.
"He started speaking to me in my dreams and showing me the spiritual warfare that I was going through," Mallory said. "Every time I returned to sin, I would have a nightmare that my car was being broken into."
He described experiencing vivid imagery of what he believed sin was doing to his life.
"I had a nightmare that I gave my title to someone else, as I was giving my identity to someone else, or my car was sliding backwards," he said. "He was just showing me these really strong visual dreams, these visual images of what sin was doing in my life."
Following his speech, he performed his song Baptized for the crowd.
Previous LGBTQ advocacy
Mallory also shared a screenshot of a statement written in his mobile phone notes application, outlining his religious beliefs.
"I feel like God gave me this vision that us being righteous and following the law is his perfect plan for us," he wrote.
"Sinning in any way is not his plan for us and is not us honoring his design for how he made us. He did not design us to sin, and when we live a life of sin, we are not just dishonoring God, but we are doing a disservice to ourselves and our character."
His recent statements contrast with his earlier public advocacy for the gay community.
In 2018, Mallory spoke candidly in an interview with Out Magazine about his decision to come out on The Real World.
"I went onto the show with the hopes of making a positive representation of what it meant to be a gay man, as I needed this type of role model for myself to be comfortable being both gay and a man," he said at the time.
He said he continued to receive heartfelt messages from viewers who found the courage to come out to their own families after watching his story.
The television experience led him to speak publicly at more than 40 universities across the United States about the intersection between his homosexuality and his relationship with God.
"Immediately after The Real World, I spent time reading books on the subject of what the Bible really says about homosexuality, as I was suddenly booked to speak on the subject at more than 40 universities around the US," he told the magazine.
"At times, I even debated religious teachers on what the Bible said and on whether you can be gay and a Christian: I fully believe you can."
