Everything we know about MrBeast's rumored relationship with a Twitch streamer who says she met him 'by accident'

YouTube creator MrBeast — whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson — is the most-followed individual YouTuber in the world.

His high-production videos, which typically involve him hosting challenges and giving away large sums of money, have helped him build an audience of 114 million YouTube subscribers.

Donaldson has previously said he invests a huge amount of time into making content, saying that he lives in his studio, and has on occasion gone days without leaving it. On the day he hit 100 million subscribers in July, he told his followers in a live stream: "All I do is wake up every day and obsess over how to make the best videos possible. It's all I care about."

In September the YouTuber took the internet by surprise when he revealed he has a new girlfriend in an episode of the comedy podcast "FLAGRANT."

Though the influencer does not typically discuss his personal life on social media, he revealed in the episode that he'd been dating someone for the past six months.

Donaldson did not reveal the name of his girlfriend, and did not immediately respond to Insider's request for confirmation of her name, but a few weeks later, a Twitch streamer named Thea Booysen said in a separate podcast that she has been dating Donaldson, offering up details about how the pair met and what their relationship has been like so far.

Booysen appeared as a special guest on an October 12 episode of "Wide Awake Podcast," hosted by Joshua Rubin, to talk about the launch of her book and about Donaldson, who she said she had been dating.

The Twitch streamer said she met Donaldson when he visited South Africa, where she lives, accompanied by popular YouTube creators Logan Paul and Casey Neistat.

According to Booysen, the group had plans to travel to Antarctica for a video but ended up staying in South Africa for longer than they had planned, as some of the people they were tested positive for COVID-19.

Booysen said one of her friends met the group in a club, and went out for dinner with them. When Booysen heard about it, she said she decided to go and meet them all for a coffee because she wanted to find out what Donaldson was like.

"I knew of MrBeast. I knew the great things he was doing but I was also, from a psychological perspective, curious, like are these people playing it up, do they have an alter ego?" she said.

According to Booysen, Donaldson was "super nice and very down to earth" in person, and he started asking her lots of questions.

"Little did I know he was actually like going off a list, because he was looking for a new girlfriend potentially, and he had this whole list, he's like: she has to have a hobby, she has to have some interests, she has to do this and that," she said.

Donaldson, whose videos are primarily centered around games and challenges, and less similar to vlog-style updates about his personal life, does not appear to have publicly stated that Booysen is his girlfriend.

In 2020, Donaldson posted a video about his last relationship, with a lifestyle and beauty YouTuber called Maddy Spidell, titled, "Surprising My Girlfriend With 100,000 Roses For Valentines Day."

Spidell made at least two other cameos on Donaldson's channel, and also appeared in some of the YouTuber's Instagram posts from 2019.

In April 2022, Rolling Stone reported that Donaldson and Spidell had broken up and that Donaldson declined to comment on the matter, citing Spidell's privacy.

Chris Tyson, a friend of Donaldson's who regularly appears in videos with him, told the outlet at the time, "I think that's what he's going to be looking for next: somebody who can match his obsession with business and money and all that kind of stuff."

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