Too Hot to Handle's Bri and DeMari Dish on Life Outside the Retreat and Where They Stand Today (Exclusive)

Warning: This story contains spoilers from Too hot to handle season 6 finale.

Bri Balram and DeMari Davis are grateful to have the time Too hot to handle he brought them together with each other, but they are still working to navigate life after the show.

As the Season 6 finale dropped on Netflix on Friday, August 2, fans finally got to watch as Bri and DeMari, who made things official on the show, were named the winning couple — and took home a whopping $150,000 in prize money.

“We went through so much together on that show,” DeMari told PEOPLE exclusively after their win. “I feel like it was like, ‘Okay, after all we’ve been through, something’s got to give. We’ve got to win something at this point.'”

“Me and DeMari, we were already building that momentum in our relationship,” Bri adds. “I forgot we were even in a competition. I was so caught up in how much I grew in the experience.”

From left: Bri, DeMari and Gianna in ‘Too Hot to Handle’.

Courtesy of Netflix

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Leading up to the finale, the two overcame several challenges together. Brie’s decision to kiss multiple men in the first episode resulted in her temporary banishment from the mansion. While she was gone, DeMari spent some time with newcomer Season 4 alum Flavia Laos Urbina — a date where Bri accepted Bad Lana’s offer to spy on them from banishment and spend some of the group’s prize pool.

After she returned to the mansion, the two reconnected – but things got complicated when Bad Lana sent DeMario on a date with new bombshell Valentina Rueda Velez. He ended up kissing Valentina, and even though he was honest with Bri about what they did, she wasn’t thrilled and kicked DeMario out a bit.

They finally saw eye to eye and she forgave him, but they faced another challenge when Bri was set to date newcomer Jalen Olomu-Brown. Despite him being her guy, Bri remained loyal to DeMari and the two later made things official with DeMari asking Bri to be his girlfriend.

Although they ended filming in a loving relationship, the two say things have changed a bit since then.

“At first when we left the mansion, it seemed pretty easy because we were FaceTiming every night, but he’s in a different time zone, so it got really hard,” explains Bri. “And then he told me that he was having delayed reactions because of the whole experience, so we just decided to take a break, separate for a while and didn’t really talk for a while.”

Bri and DeMari on ‘Too Hot to Handle’.

Courtesy of Netflix

“All couples go through these things, so I’d be lying if I said this was a perfect world,” she continues. “I just want to be real and honest about it.”

“It’s complicated,” DeMari adds. “We’re working on things… It was real there, but it was such a small window. So we were really trying to teach each other from the outside [and] figure things out.”

Netflix is ​​too hot to handle: All your burning questions answered

The couple notes that while neither is currently dating anyone else and have met their families, they consider their relationship status to be “BriMari on hiatus.”

“Looking back on these things was hard,” DeMari admits. “Even though we both know how we feel about each other, title or not, it was hard for Bree to watch the whole Valentino situation. Even me, I’m not jealous, but I got a little bit right there, watching Chris… but we really it allows us to remember how good things are, how real those feelings were when we were there.”

Bri adds, “Yeah, it’s a little complicated right now. Our communication is really great. We still have disagreements about what’s happening on screen, we’re thinking about things in the past. So all those old emotions are starting to come up … right now it’s ups and downs. falls, but we are still on our BriMari journey.”

The cast of ‘Too Hot to Handle’.

Courtesy of Netflix

As for their personal growth, Bri admits that even though she’s grown up, the struggles she faced entering the mansion are still ones she still struggles with today — especially with DeMari.

“I’m not going to lie: I feel like I’ve grown a lot from that experience, but trust will always be my biggest problem in relationships,” she explains. “DeMari is the type of person who doesn’t like to go to bed upset. He likes to talk about things. Whereas me, I like to sit in him for a while and really think about things. So we’re always butting heads there because he wants to get out of the way right away, while I’m still actively working on not being such a drama queen.”

DeMari, on the other hand, believes he has grown as a person and even admits to regretting some of his actions in the mansion, including extending his date with Valentino and physically assaulting him.

“Honestly, if Bri had reacted any other way, I would have left the same way I came in,” he says. “So she really helped me become capable of doing the things I do. But right now I definitely regret that decision [with Valentina], because when I look back on it, I’m like, ‘You didn’t have to do that on a date, bro.’ You could easily go back and say, ‘Hey, I think I feel something or whatever. Let me see.’ Any other option of way to do it. It was like a million other ways, and I just went with the dumbest one.”

So, is marriage in the cards for these two one day?

“I want it, but not right now,” says Bri. “I’m not ready for marriage on any level. So I won’t be part of that either Love is blind or Ultimatum or any of that… but marriage is something I want in my next long-term partner, and I’m hoping it might be DeMari.”

“I agree too,” he adds. “Obviously my brother is the reason I came on the show. He’s got a wife and four kids now… it’s really important to me to keep it going. My mom and my dad were married for 10 years before I was born, so that it’s very important to me that it happens, I’m not saying now, I’m not really saying when, but at some point I really want it.”

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Too hot to handle season 6 is now streaming on Netflix.

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