How Did ’Special Forces’ Couple Shawn Johnson & Andrew East Meet? Their Relationship Timeline
Shawn Johnson and Andrew East are two of eight recruits left on Season 4 of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test. The former gymnast and ex-NFL star are competing on the show as individuals, but they’ve been there to support one another through the grueling tasks on the course.
Off the show, the longtime couple has been supporting one another in real life for more than a decade. Scroll down for a refresher on their relationship, including how they met, when they got married and had kids, and more.
How did Shawn Johnson and Andrew East meet?
Johnson and East met in 2012 (they were both 20 at the time) after she attended the London Olympics and met his brother, Guy East, who was competing at the Games in cycling. “He starts to go on this tangent about this little brother of his and how I have to meet him,” Johnson recalled in a now-deleted 2018 YouTube video.
The former gymnast explained that she had been looking into attending Vanderbilt University, where [Andrew] East was a student. Johnson’s now-husband reached out to her over Twitter and invited her to a Vanderbilt game. “We talked over Twitter, then I got her number,” East revealed. “Then we started talking and texting.”
Johnson was competing on the All-Stars season of Dancing With the Stars in the fall of 2012, so East flew out to Los Angeles to meet her for the first time.
However, their second date didn’t happen until nine months later in June 2012 when Johnson flew to Nashville to see East again. Just four months later, she moved to Nashville to be closer to him.
When did Shawn Johnson and Andrew East get married?
East proposed to Johnson in July 2015. He got down on one knee after she threw out the first pitch at a Chicago Cubs game. They tied the knot in April 2016 in Franklin, Tennessee.
How many kids do Shawn Johnson and Andrew East have?
Johnson and East have three children. Their eldest daughter, Drew, was born in October 2019, followed by son Jett in July 2021 and another son, Bear, in December 2023.
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Prior to giving birth to Drew, Johnson suffered a miscarriage in October 2017. The couple shared the sad news with fans in a YouTube video and revealed that they learned Johnson was pregnant just two days before she lost the baby.
“Somehow, I lost the pregnancy already,” she said in the emotional clip. “It sucks. It’s definitely no fun, guys … and having a doctor confirm that we miscarried doesn’t feel good.”
Where do Shawn Johnson and Andrew East live?
Johnson and East live in Nashville, Tennessee. They have lived there since 2012 while he was attending Vanderbilt University and she relocated to be closer to him.
What do Shawn Johnson and Andrew East do for a living?
Johnson and East are both long retired from their sports. Today, they make a living as content creators. They created their Couple Things podcast in 2019 and continue to share episodes to this day.
East started the podcast after Drew’s birth. “He started it without me knowing, and he told the whole world that we had launched it and we didn’t even have an episode. And it charted to No. 2 without even having an episode,” she previously told E! “I mean, I almost punched you in the nuts. I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? Now we actually have to do it.’ And that’s what started the first episode … I love it, because we get to meet such cool couples.”
The pair continues to document their lives on their YouTube channel and other social media accounts.
Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, Season 4, Thursdays, 9/8c, Fox
