Too Hot to Handle's Katherine and Charlie on Their 'Magical' Connection and If Their Spark Stayed Alive (Exclusive)

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

Too hot to handle fans were probably shocked to see Charlie Jeer and Katherine LaPrell in the bottom two after their wild journey on the show — but the two continue to show growth in the months since filming ended.

After the season six finale aired on Netflix on Friday, August 2, fans learned that Katherine and Charlie were named runners-up, placing them in second place behind the winning couple Bri Balram and DeMari Davis.

Despite not winning the title and the $150,000 grand prize, Charlie and Katherine tell PEOPLE they left the show with something better: a solid relationship.

“Looking back on it, the actual transformation I went through during that process and seeing Katherine go through was incredible,” says Charlie. “[When I] entered, I didn’t even ask for a connection. I wasn’t really open to anything… And so it’s like you get Yin and Yang and you put them together and you have this beautiful relationship that we’ve created.”

“What’s important to me is the relationship I’m in,” he continues. “And if you really look at what the show is about, we won. That’s honestly how I feel when I’m with Katherine.”

Adds Katherine: “After the show, every day he would just repeat his feelings for me. We talked every day. There were no doubts I had when he was turning heads because of the way he would tell me that he had so much confidence in our relationship, but I know that I trust him with all my heart and that he would never hurt me. Don’t do the same to him.”

Katherine and Charlie on ‘Too Hot to Handle’.

Courtesy of Netflix

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Katherine and Charlie seemed like an unlikely duo to settle for second place after their early experiences in the mansion. Although they had an initial spark, they decided to hook up with other people – Charlie with Lucy Syed and Katherine with late addition and Season 5 alum, Louis Russell.

In the end, Katherine realized that her connection with Louis was purely physical, and after an emotional workshop where Charlie and Katherine were put together and forced to be vulnerable with each other, the two realized that the spark was still there.

“It was crazy. I’m so happy they captured that moment, because even when I looked at it, it was actually so magical,” Katherine told PEOPLE of the fateful workshop. “I don’t know if anyone else could say how magical it is, because I just remember being there and going, ‘Oh, shit. I actually like this guy.'”

Charlie adds: “That moment when me and Kat looked into each other’s eyes. It’s honestly the most connected feeling I’ve ever felt with anyone in my life. To experience that moment was really special.”

The duo ended things with Lucy and Louis and then paired up, staying together for the rest of the show. They even stayed together after both being tempted by newcomers Cristian Lager and Sabrina Zima, and concerns about Charlie’s wandering eyes.

“Don’t get me wrong, Louis is such a great guy. He’s an amazing friend and such a great personality,” Katherine tells PEOPLE of ending things with Louis. “But I just had to do what was best for me. I was really trying to take it seriously and be honest with myself. I want that deeper connection.”

Sabrina and Charlie on ‘Too Hot to Handle’.

Courtesy of Netflix

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“With Charlie, I saw him and Lucy, I saw what he would be like with Lucy, and that was definitely something that attracted me, but I wasn’t trying to steal someone’s man or anything,” she continues. “I just thought, if he wanted to come to me, I’d let it happen. And then, it happened, so I said, ‘Okay, I’m ready.'”

When asked if they regret looking for other partners in the first place, Charlie and Katherine answer with a resounding no.

“Regret is such a dangerous word when you’re happy where you are in life. Because if I did, who knows what would have happened?” Charlie says. “The most important thing is that I’m happy where I am now, she’s happy where she is now. And because of that, you can’t really regret anything in your past. All you can do is look back on it, grow from it and try to implement things that you have learned into your future.”

Katherine adds, “Yeah, and it wouldn’t have made the story as beautiful as it is if I regretted or wanted to change anything that happened before.”

After filming ended, Katherine and Charlie say they met outside to make sure their relationship was still as important to them as it was inside the mansion.

“I really wanted to make sure that while I was in there, I didn’t rush anything or make anything happen too fast. And I think that’s one of the reasons we were so tight together,” Charlie explains. “Because I didn’t want to ask her to be my girlfriend on the show or tell her I loved her on the show, even though I kind of knew and felt it. I wanted to give us a chance from the outside.”

“The only way to do it was to let us go our separate ways at the end of it all, meet in real life and see what the real relationship is,” she notes. “And in the end, I went and met her in real life, I was so nervous. I flew to LA not too long ago.”

From left: Flavia, Joao, Katherine and Lucy on ‘Too Hot to Handle’.

Courtesy of Netflix

Recalling their first meeting outside the sanctuary, which also left Katherine “nervous,” she adds: “It was weird because we both had clothes on. Seeing each other every day in bathing suits and then seeing each other in clothes definitely made it funny, but it’s like, ‘Okay, is this really going to work?’ But then I realized, ‘Oh yeah, I love this man, I want to do this.'”

Finally, Charlie told Katherine he loved her — and asked her to be his girlfriend on February 15, 2024. Today, the two have met their families and continue to maintain a long-distance relationship, with Katherine in Los Angeles and Charlie in the UK.

“I think it’s important that you both really want it,” Charlie says. “Leaving the sanctuary, I knew I really wanted to make it work with Kat. And if something doesn’t really work with someone, it won’t work.”

“And I knew that the way me and Kat started things was very honest and it all came from a good place,” he continues. “Katherine really lets me be who I am and I let her be who she is, and it’s such a healthy relationship to the point where I feel like we’re not two people sitting across from each other. We’re two people sitting next to each other looking in the same direction and that’s truly all I can ask for in a relationship.”

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Noting that it was hard to revisit their missteps on the show, Charlie also stressed: “As hard as it is to go back and relive all those things, I made Katherine a priority in my life after the show. And I wanted to really build our relationship with her in real life to the point where I felt really confident, comfortable and safe in it… we got to know each other again in real life and that’s how I wanted to go because I knew she was a special person.”

“Doing it with Kat is something that motivated me to take it seriously, because I started with the intentions that I wanted to end with. And now I’m so grateful for what I have with Kat,” he adds.

Katherine says: “Charlie always made me feel super safe and let me know it was okay to show emotions and express them to him, which I struggled with throughout the series… That’s what I was grateful for and I just wanted to continue with it, because I felt safe with him. It was very important to me.”

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

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Source: HIS Education