The MrBeast girlfriend that readers have searched for since 2022 isn’t a girlfriend anymore. Thea Booysen became his wife in July 2026. So why does the old question still pull so many people in?
Part of it is habit. Part of it is curiosity about a man who films almost everything but kept his wedding off camera. This guide covers how they met, what each of them has said, and the full biography behind Jimmy Donaldson.
In brief: Jimmy Donaldson, known as MrBeast, was born May 7, 1998, in Wichita, Kansas. He grew up mostly in Greenville, North Carolina, and he’s 28 now. His MrBeast girlfriend of several years, Thea Booysen, is a South African author and streamer he met in early 2022. They married on Necker Island in July 2026. He leads Beast Industries, valued near $5 billion, and estimates put his net worth near $2.6 billion.
Who Is the MrBeast Girlfriend? Meet Thea Booysen
Thea Booysen grew up in South Africa. She’s an author, a YouTuber under the name TheaBeasty, and a Twitch streamer. Her channel is much smaller than his, and outlets disagree on her subscriber count, so we leave the number out.
Her education is unusual for a streamer. Brut reported that she studied law and psychology at Stellenbosch University. She then earned a master’s degree in human cognitive neuropsychology at the University of Edinburgh.
Her book matters to the story. Reports say she was close to finishing it when they met. When he asked about her work, the answer impressed him, according to Essentially Sports.
Before Booysen, the reporting we reviewed documents no earlier public relationship for Donaldson. We stop there, because nothing more is on the record.
Booysen has also kept her own career going. She still posts vlogs and life updates. After the wedding, she changed her Instagram name to Thea Donaldson, Complex reported.
How the MrBeast Girlfriend and Jimmy Met in South Africa
Both of them have told the story, and the details line up more than they clash. In early 2022, Donaldson flew to South Africa with Logan Paul and Casey Neistat. They planned to film a video in Antarctica.
Then COVID hit the base. The trip was canceled, and the group stayed in South Africa a few extra days. Booysen described this on the Wide Awake Podcast.
A mutual friend brought her into the evening. Donaldson talked about the same night on the TMG Studios podcast. Of that meeting, he said, “She ended up becoming my girlfriend.”
Booysen told People her first impression was a surprise. She’d assumed YouTubers were mostly a persona. In her words, he’s “actually a nice guy.”
They didn’t date on the spot. IOL reported that they started dating about a month later. Living on different continents, they began as a long-distance couple.
What This Relationship Means to Them, In Their Own Words
Their public language about each other is plain. On the podcast circuit, Booysen said dating him felt “like a movie.” She added that it was also stressful at times, because his fame brings constant attention.
Donaldson talks about compatibility more than romance. On the Flagrant podcast, he said he “put her through the wringer” with questions early on. He explained that he gets along with people who love learning, stay obsessive about something, and keep a hobby.
That list fits what both have said about shared interests. Gaming, science and self-improvement come up again and again. It’s a relationship built on talking, and both describe it that way.
The wedding post was shorter. The couple wrote, “I found MrsBeast. And it was the best day of my life.” The post passed 7 million likes, ECR reported.
Booysen told People the wedding felt like a formality. She said they’d dated with marriage as the goal from the start. She also called the celebration “heaven,” per Aaj News coverage of the same interview.
What Reporters Found That Wasn’t in the Interview
Small gaps appear between the accounts. None of them is a conflict, and none suggests anyone is wrong. They’re the kind of drift that happens when one story gets retold for four years.
- Dinner or club? Most outlets say a mutual friend arranged a dinner. One outlet says Paul urged Donaldson to go to a club, where a friend of Booysen’s made the link. Donaldson told Flagrant the meeting happened in Cape Town.
- Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? Nearly every report places the proposal on Christmas Day 2024. A few outlets wrote Christmas Eve.
- Which day was the wedding? Reports put the vows on July 14, the first day of a week-long celebration. The couple posted photos about a week later.
- Is she his girlfriend or wife? Older pages still say girlfriend. As of July 2026, she’s his wife.
Reporters also noted what was missing. Donaldson films nearly everything, yet the wedding had no livestream. A professional photographer covered it, Malay Mail reported.
MrBeast Girlfriend Timeline: From 2022 to the Necker Island Wedding
Dates matter here, because many sites muddle them. Each item below was checked against reporting.
- Early 2022: Donaldson and Booysen meet in South Africa through a mutual friend.
- About a month later: They start dating, long distance.
- April 2022: They make their first public appearance at the Kids’ Choice Awards.
- August 2022: Booysen says on a podcast that they’ve started looking at houses.
- June 2023: Donaldson discusses the relationship on the TMG Studios podcast. Coverage says she planned to move to the US.
- November 2024: In an interview with MyBroadband, Booysen says they’ve bought a house and adopted a dog.
- December 25, 2024: He proposes in South Africa with both families present.
- Early January 2025: The couple announces the news.
- July 14, 2026: The week-long wedding celebration begins on Necker Island.
- About July 21, 2026: They post wedding photos on Instagram.
Notice the pace. Four years passed between the first meeting and the wedding. For a man who ships a video every week, the relationship moved slowly and quietly.
The Proposal and the Wedding on Necker Island
The proposal was small. Donaldson hid the ring inside a larger gift on Christmas Day 2024. ECR reported that he chose the day on purpose, because Booysen is close to her family and he wanted them there.
Nashaniva reported that the couple wore matching festive sweaters with the MrBeast logo. For a creator known for million-dollar stunts, that’s a modest scene. He’d told People earlier that he wanted a private wedding.
The wedding followed that promise. About 70 guests joined a week at Richard Branson’s 74-acre Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands. A family friend who’s an ordained minister officiated. Marcy Blum planned the event.
Business Today reported that Donaldson wore a Ralph Lauren tuxedo. Booysen’s gown came from Nicole + Felicia Couture. Their first dance was “Die With a Smile” by Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars.
The menu leaned on sushi, seafood and Wagyu beef. The cake was carrot, which is Booysen’s favorite flavor. Guests spent the week kitesurfing, snorkeling and playing board games. Booysen had already posted photos from a bachelorette trip to Italy about a month earlier.
Looking ahead, Booysen told People the couple wants a week-long island celebration every year. That detail suggests the private week wasn’t a one-off.
MrBeast Biography: The Man Behind the Relationship
Readers who search for the MrBeast girlfriend usually want the man too. So here’s the full biography, so the two pages agree.
Early Life: Wichita, Greenville and a Military Household
James Stephen Donaldson was born May 7, 1998, in Wichita, Kansas. His parents are Susan Parisher and Charles Donaldson. Biography.com says both served in the US military. Sportskeeda adds that his mother worked as a prison warden in Germany before a move to Fort Leavenworth.
Her long shifts shaped the household. Au pairs often watched the kids. The family moved often, and Greenville, North Carolina, became his hometown.
His parents divorced in 2007. Biography.com says he isn’t in contact with his father. He’s the middle child. His older brother, CJ, runs a YouTube channel called MrBro. He also has a younger sister, and he hasn’t shared her identity.
School and College
Donaldson played outfield for several years at Greenville Christian Academy, a private evangelical school. He graduated in 2016. Pages that call him a high school dropout are wrong.
College didn’t last. Biography.com says he enrolled at East Carolina University and quit after about two weeks. Newer references list Pitt Community College in Winterville instead. Every account agrees he left fast.
Reports also differ on how he moved out. One says his mother made him go. Another says he’d earned enough from videos to leave on his own.
MrBeast6000 and Crohn’s Disease
He began posting in early 2012, at age 13, under the name MrBeast6000. After school, he and his friends spent hours on Skype calls trying to decode why some videos spread.
At 15, he was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. Some retellings place the start earlier or later, so we use his own account of age 15. The illness ended his baseball years.
He’s described the cost often. In February 2025, he told Steven Bartlett that flare-ups still leave him tired. His own summary: “I just live life on hard mode.”
The Breakthrough and 500 Million Subscribers
The turn came in January 2017. He posted a video of himself counting to 100,000, which took more than 40 hours. The channel climbed fast after that.
He hit 100 million subscribers on July 28, 2022. He passed 400 million on June 1, 2025. He crossed 500 million on June 12, 2026, which makes him the most-subscribed individual creator on the platform.
Forbes ranked him the top creator earner in 2022, at roughly $54 million. Its 2025 list put him on top again, with $85 million. In 2021, his Squid Game recreation reportedly cost about $3.5 million.
Giving: Team Trees, Team Seas and Beast Philanthropy
Team Trees began October 25, 2019, with Mark Rober. It has raised more than $24 million for the Arbor Day Foundation. Team Seas followed on October 29, 2021, and has raised more than $30 million.
Beast Philanthropy started in 2020 as a channel and nonprofit. Fans call him a modern-day Robin Hood. Critics say charity gets gamified when suffering only draws attention if it earns clicks. Both views rest on the same videos.
Business: Feastables, Lunchly, Beast Games and Beast Industries
MrBeast Burger came first, in 2020. It later drew a legal fight with Virtual Dining Concepts over food quality. He sued in 2023, and the company countersued for $100 million. He then leaned harder on physical products.
Feastables, his chocolate brand, was announced in January 2022. Reports cite more than $500 million in sales. Lunchly, built with Logan Paul and KSI, was announced in September 2024. Viewstats serves other creators.
On March 18, 2024, he announced a $100 million deal with Amazon MGM Studios. Beast Games debuted on Prime Video on December 19, 2024, with a $5 million prize. Season 2 premiered January 7, 2026.
On September 16, 2024, five unnamed contestants filed a proposed class action in Los Angeles. It alleged unpaid wages and unsafe conditions on the Las Vegas shoot. These are allegations only, and no claims of guilt are made or implied. A July 2026 case summary says no class has been certified and no court has ruled.
On February 9, 2026, Beast Industries bought Step, a money app with more than 7 million users. The price wasn’t disclosed. In January 2026, the company raised $200 million from Bitmine at a $5 billion valuation.
Money and Home
Donaldson owns a little over half of Beast Industries. That stake anchors the $2.6 billion estimate. He became a billionaire on paper in June 2024, at age 26. He’s said his cash balance is often near zero, because he reinvests nearly everything.
He remains rooted in Greenville. Reports say he spent roughly $10 million on a neighborhood of houses for family and staff. His main home is a $5 million estate, and his production campus covers 100,000 square feet. Social Life Magazine reported that his hard assets likely stay under $30 million.
Analysts still flag key-man risk. If he stops filming, the company’s value could fall fast. Our [INTERNAL LINK: MrBeast height → height guide] covers another question fans keep asking.
Life Together in 2026
At 28, both Donaldson and Booysen are the same age. Reports don’t say which of their homes they use most, and we won’t guess. We know they bought a house together by late 2024, and that his base stays in Greenville.
The couple rarely appears in each other’s videos. Booysen has filled in for a few of his, but it isn’t a habit. That separation looks deliberate. It leaves one part of his life unfilmed.
For more on how the pair got here, see our [INTERNAL LINK: MrBeast and Thea Booysen → relationship guide]. And for the question of age, see our [INTERNAL LINK: MrBeast age → birthday and biography guide].
Conclusion: The MrBeast Girlfriend Is Now MrsBeast
The MrBeast girlfriend of search results is Thea Booysen, a South African author and streamer. They met by chance in early 2022 after a canceled Antarctica trip. They dated long distance, went public that April, and married in July 2026.
Donaldson’s own words about her are few and plain. His life is documented in detail, from Wichita to 500 million subscribers. The relationship is the quiet part, and both seem to want it that way. We’ll update this page as their story moves.
More on This Topic: MrBeast Age: How Old Is Jimmy Donaldson, and What Has He Built So Far?
FAQ
Who is the MrBeast girlfriend?
Thea Booysen, a South African author, YouTuber and Twitch streamer. She’s now his wife, since they married in July 2026.
How did mrbeast girlfriend Thea Booysen?
They met in South Africa in early 2022 through a mutual friend. His Antarctica video trip had been canceled, so he stayed a few extra days.
When did MrBeast propose?
He proposed on Christmas Day 2024 in South Africa. Both families were present, and the couple announced it in early January 2025.
Where did MrBeast get married?
On Richard Branson’s Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands. About 70 guests joined a week-long celebration that began July 14, 2026.
How old is MrBeast in 2026?
He’s 28. He was born May 7, 1998, and turns 29 on May 7, 2027.
What is MrBeast’s net worth?
Estimates sit near $2.6 billion. They rest on his stake in Beast Industries, valued near $5 billion. He’s said his cash is low, so most of it is paper wealth.
Disclaimer: The biographical, financial, and relationship details in this guide are synthesized from verified public records, media interviews, and third-party journalism. Unless explicitly quoted, this narrative reflects editorial aggregation and does not constitute official statements or direct endorsements from the individuals involved.
Sources: Business Today · ECR · Complex. Also referenced in the text: People, Biography.com, Forbes, Sportskeeda, Brut, IOL, Malay Mail, Aaj News, MyBroadband, Nashaniva, Essentially Sports, Social Life Magazine.
