Spoilers for all episodes of Perfect Match season 3 ahead. Can a self-described menace find love on a reality dating show? On Too Hot to Handle season 5, Louis Rusell was known for his flirtatious ways, and now he’s brought them to Perfect Match season 3. He claims to be a changed man now, but even as he matches with Sandy Gallagher from The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On season 3, he’s also playing the field and joking about bringing a “monument from London” into the villa (that would be his, um, Big Ben).
After matching in episode 1 of the Netflix reality series, the two navigate some pretty big ups and downs tied to their shared connection and how they should explore things with other people. They fared well in some of the compatibility challenges, but fought hard over the outcome of a kissing contest. Louis questioned if Sandy truly liked him or simply tolerated him, and Sandy found herself wondering what would happen if her Ultimatum trial husband, J.R., came back into the picture.
Did these hurdles make their relationship stronger? Or break them for good? Read on for everything we know about Louis and Sandy’s journey on Perfect Match season 3 and where they are now.
What happened between Sandy and Louis on 'Perfect Match' season 3?
When Sandy heads into the villa, she says she wants someone “smoking hot” but also with “depth”—a bad boy with a soft side. She finds it in Louis, who admits he’s “a bit of a menace,” but one with a warm heart.
Though they’re happy together after matching, neither rules out exploring other options. Sandy chats with Carrington (Love Island USA) when he comes through the villa, but tells him she and Louis have a good thing going and their connection is strong. And Louis admits he was nervous about having new guys come into the house, but also doesn’t object when AD and Ollie send him on a date with Alex (Temptation Island): “I like a little bit of toxic jealousy,” he says with a laugh.
This leads to their first major source of strife: Louis tells Sandy that Alex is the kind of woman he’s dated in the past, and he doesn’t know where his head is at. As he’s taking time to get to know Alex better, Sandy frets that her match likes “new shiny objects,” but it remains to be seen if this new woman can “handle” him. Louis overhears this and takes it to mean that she’s only tolerating his personality, which upsets him. She swears that isn’t the case, but says his flirty demeanor makes it hard to fully let him in. He ultimately decides that while he’s intrigued by Alex, he doesn't want to lose the connection that he and Sandy have.
Those feelings are tested by the kissing challenge, when all the participants had to kiss each other while blindfolded and wearing headphones. Louis rates Sandy’s kiss a 10, while Sandy only gives his a 9—and ranked Clayton (The Bachelor) a 10. This leads to another fight, because Louis deliberately didn’t put effort into the kissing challenge but is annoyed that she did.
While in the boardroom, Sandy sees temptation in the form of J.R., with whom she did a trial marriage on The Ultimatum, and makes the chaotic choice to bring her ex into the house—both to make Louis sweat a bit and to see if she and J.R. have any unfinished business. But Louis eventually apologizes for being immature, and Sandy decides to keep her relationship with J.R. in the past. “The past few days have really opened my eyes to what I have with Louis. I’m catching feelings and they’re just getting stronger and stronger,” she said.
So are these two actually on solid ground now? They work well together in the pole challenge, but then they find themselves at odds again about flirting with other people in the villa. Louis is bothered that Sandy is talking to Jalen (Too Hot to Handle), so he decides to flirt with Olivia (Temptation Island) as payback. Naturally, this leads to another argument: Louis tells Sandy that seeing her with other guys makes him question if her feelings for him are genuine. Sandy is hurt that he wouldn’t trust her intentions, counters that he’s done “way more of that stuff,” and walks off crying.
Louis says her chats make him question things, and she reminds him that she could have sent herself on a date with anyone while she was in the boardroom, including her ex, and didn’t. The talk goes late, so while Sandy is still unhappy that Louis has the “audacity” to question her having conversations with other guys when he’s doing the exact same thing, they decide to match and keep the conversation going—but it doesn’t really feel like a loved-up commitment.
Things get even messier at the guys’s mixer when Louis goes full “what happens on vacation stays on vacation.” While Sandy is telling people that she and Louis are “really close” now, he’s kissing Alex during a game of Truth or Dare and again in the pool.
Back at the villa, Louis’s cagey behavior makes it obvious something happened, and when Sandy asks him what’s going on, he comes clean, surprised and embarrassed that he’d do this to her. Despite telling him she felt disrespected by his behavior at the mixer, she says that he apologized and told the truth, so he’s still her match. Louis steps up and plans a romantic date by the pool for the two of them, saying, “You deserve to be treated like this.” Sandy is touched that he’s showing her a deeper side of himself, but then they’re thrown another curveball when she’s sent on one final date with J.R.
Her Ultimatum ex makes a pitch for them to rekindle their romance, saying she deserves an “equal” and vowing not to do what Louis did to her at the mixer. Sandy admits spending one-on-one time with J.R. brought up old feelings, and while she cares for Louis, she’s also not naive to what he’s like. However, Sandy tells J.R. that they already had their time and that she can't deny her connection with Louis. Even though the stress of constantly defending the relationship seems to be getting to Sandy, she and Louis match again for the final time.
When the entire cast reunites for the finale ceremony, Sandy and Louis argue that they're the perfect match because they have chosen each other even after their messy, challenge-filled journey. Both Alex and J.R. call out Louis for his behavior at the boys's mixer, but Sandy points out that he was honest and confessed outright. Louis even reveals that he's planning to move to L.A., removing the long-distance issue.
Unfortunately, Louis and Sandy get knocked out of the running for the season's grand prize when host Nick Lachey adds in one last compatibility challenge. (Hasn't this season been long enough?) The pair gets eliminated when they give different answers to the question, "What's a flaw that your man has, but one you can live with?" Louis says "being loud," but Sandy puts "his attention span and ADHD," so they do not prove themselves to be the perfect match.
Are Sandy and Louis still together after 'Perfect Match' season 3?
Following the finale's ending, both Sandy and Louis confirmed to Elite Daily that their relationship did not last. According to the couple, the pair did go on a joint couple's trip with winners Lucy and Daniel after filming, but Sandy confirmed that she and Louis both left the show with zero expectations.
"We were very real about certain things: We live in different countries; there’s a bit of an age gap; we are working on different things in our lives," she told the outlet. "Things just fizzled out. We’re still friends, everything’s good, but I think reality sunk in, and we definitely are at two very different places in our life. I just don’t think that things could realistically work where we’re at right now."
Louis added, "We sort of came to a mutual agreement with where it’s going to go. The way that my lifestyle is and the goals that I have set, it’s hard for me to focus on someone that’s not in the same country. We are still cool. We see each other. It’s still the same vibe, but I think where my life is heading, it didn’t make sense."
As for where Louis's life headed following his split with Sandy, the 24-year-old went public with a different relationship before his season even aired. On July 31, 2025—the night before Perfect Match premiered—he walked the red carpet for the premiere of the horror film Weapons alongside an entirely different reality star. The Perfect Match star was spotted with none other than Love Island USA season 7's Huda Mustafa.
For anyone who somehow missed Love Island mania earlier this summer, Huda had the most contentious arc of this year's installment, from her many crash-outs with ex Jeremiah Brown to becoming a season 7 finalist alongside Chris Seeley...and then breaking up with him during the finale. Aside from the carpet debut, neither she nor Louis has addressed their relationship, so we don't know how they met. Although it seems Louis became friends with LIUSA season 6 finalist Miguel Harichi relatively recently.
Since Louis and Huda's debut, Louis has been called out for spoiling his Perfect Match season 3 coupling, which is admittedly on poor form for a reality star. During an appearance on "The Viall Files" podcast, his co-star Rachel Recchia said that his actions "affect the whole cast."
"It’s literally airing—we have what, maybe two weeks. It feels, like, a little selfish," she said. "Sandy and him have such a good connection on the show. Now people are kinda seeing things like, 'Oh, what's going on now?'"
Sandy hasn't spoken out on Louis's new relationship. However, when asked about cast members "spoiling the season" during an August 7 Instagram Q&A, she promised she would be "talking about this soon and laying it all out."
She added, "In the meantime, the show is pure comedy and you will be surprised how it ends, so def keep watching."
