The cute couple met when Chantelle attended the launch for Dylan’s book, Able, at the tail-end of 2018.
She was a plus-one for a friend and begrudgingly dragged along to the event.
“That night I was dealing with PMS, my hair was slicked back and I was wearing an old t-shirt and sneakers. I think it was just, you know, one of those days where you’re just like, I am mopey as. And I was so looking forward to going to dinner, but we had to go to this book signing,” Chantelle told Mia Freedman on her podcast, No Filter.
“I looked across the room, and I saw him and I just went, ‘Ah, that’s my person’. That’s the person I’m going to be with for the rest of my life,” she divulged.
Despite literally having probably the best communication skills for this type of situation, through her work as a sexologist, Chantelle found herself shying away, opting to "stare" at Dylan rather than speak to him that night.
However, the two then connected on Instagram and they planned to get a drink.
Their casual drink turned into a 12-hour first date.
“He was just so beautiful to look at and the way that he spoke. And I think I just recognised that what he was doing was so similar to what I was doing. I really felt like I had met my match at that point,” Chantelle explained on No Filter.
While Chantelle was actively using her work to remove stigmas surrounding sex, Dylan’s activism was working to remove stigma surrounding those who live with disabilities.
Chantelle had also worked with many clients with disabilities in her sexology work.
After their first date, Chantelle briefly returned to Holland, where her family are from.
However, things picked right back up when she got home – she moved into Dylan’s house about a week after her return.
They began to tackle the stigma around disability together.
“A lot of people think people with a disability don’t have sex but I’m having the best sex of my life and it’s important for me to say that,” Chantelle has said previously.
“Dylan and I are quite private but it’s important to get the word out. For me, working with people and having them know I’m in a relationship with someone with a disability is great.”
Dylan also speaks about the stigma in order to dismantle it.
“So many of the 4.4 million people in Australia with a disability struggle with dating and sex,” he said in a chat with Stellar.
“I know that when I was a teenager I wondered, ‘Can I do it?’ and ‘How do I do it?’ I questioned whether anyone would love me because I’m in a wheelchair.
“I want to change the misconception that (disabled) people can’t have sex or be in relationships or fall in love. The only way to destigmatise it is to talk about it.”
Although these two don’t mess around, having moved in together after one week, their relationship hasn’t been without challenges.
They were living together during various lockdowns in Melbourne – which they saw as the perfect chance to expand their family.
“Sauce Alcott 🌭💙 proud mum and dad,” Chantelle wrote on Instagram alongside pictures of their dachshund puppy, Sauce.
Sauce Alcott now has his own Instagram and is a star in his own right.
He stays in Melbourne, mostly with Chantelle, while Dylan’s career sees him travelling the world.
The Paralympian is one of Australia’s highest-performing athletes.
An absolute champion tennis player, Dylan actually got his start in wheelchair basketball.
He won both a gold and silver medal with the Australian wheelchair basketball team, the Rollers, respectively at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 London Olympics.
He competed in wheelchair tennis at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where he won two gold medals.
He was also named Australian Paralympian of the Year in 2016.
After winning his second Wimbledon quad wheelchair singles championship in July 2021, he is now headed to the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, hopefully to continue smashing records.
Chantelle often posts images and videos of herself and Sauce watching Dylan win on television to social media.
She is currently still in Melbourne, weathering the city’s fifth lockdown.
Despite the distance, this beautiful couple seem to just keep moving onwards and upwards.
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