Malia White and Jake Baker Subtly Confirm They Are Dating with Internet-Breaking PDA
Below Deck Mediterranean stars Malia White and Jake Baker just made their relationship official. The pair who met on season 6 of the Bravo TV series confirmed they’re dating with a kissing photo uploaded on Baker’s Instagram.
Baker, who was the engineer on the show, captioned the picture with a simple black-heart emoji. However, it seems as of this writing it seems Baker's Instagram has been deactivated.
The duo’s Below Deck co-stars flooded the comment section, clearly happy for them. Chief stew Katie Flood replied with a fire emoji. At the same time, stewardess Courtney Veale, who seemed overly excited about the PDA photo, commented that Baker “broke the internet” and added an “OMG” alongside some fire emojis.
Last month, Baker posted a birthday tribute for White on Instagram and noted that he loved her in the caption. However, White has not posted any photos of her with her rumored new beau on her account yet.
White’s new official relationship comes after her breakup with her ex-boyfriend Tom Checketts, a chef on the show.
Break up With Tom Checketts
In September 2020, White confirmed that she and Checketts had broken up after more than a year of dating.
The reality star took to her Instagram to clarify the status of her relationship with Checketts, noting that since everyone was talking about it, she'd rather her fans heard from her than others.
She revealed she had split with Checketts and added that the reason behind it was something she wanted to keep private out of respect for him. The breakup was a surprise to many fans who saw how close they were throughout Season 5.
During part 2 of the season 5 reunion on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, White revealed she didn’t know their relationship status. However, when asked if she regretted her relationship with Checketts, she shared it was nice to have him there.
Similarly, Checketts explained they were both so busy, they had not seen each other for a few months. However, he added they were still trying to make the relationship work.
Cheating Scandal
Although White did not reveal the cause of their breakup, she divulged the true reason a year after their split.
During an episode on season 6 of the show, White seemed annoyed at getting a phone call from Checketts until she dropped a major bomb. In the confessional, she explained that she hated him and that were plenty of fishes in the sea, particularly ones that “don’t sleep with other fishes.”
Shortly after, she opened up to Us Weekly about the things that happened between the two of them.
We were working on different boats. So, it was impossible for us to see each other. And, yeah, he found someone else on his boats, and I didn’t know for a couple of months.
She added she found out about his cheating “through a friend” before “all hell broke loose” between them. She also noted that Checketts was really sorry and wanted to get back together, but she was not interested.