For Joey and Scott, their moment of triumph on “What’s in the Box” unfolded in near silence, at least at first.
Speaking to Gayety, the gay couple opened up about their time on the show and the big money they won at the end.
“An incredibly long silence after I called out the last number, ‘8,’” Joey said. “It felt like forever, but in the back of my mind I was thinking, ‘Oh my god! I just won this game!'” I can’t believe it. ”
Scott’s reaction was quieter, but just as intense. “The moment the confetti started falling, it felt like I was in an out-of-body experience,” he said. “My mind went blank and everything in me went silent for a moment. And then, as it started to sink in, I just felt an overwhelming joy. I don’t know if I’ll ever feel that again. It was so…huge.”
Throughout the game, the couple maintained a balance of confidence and nervousness. “We knew it was a 50-50 win,” they said, but they had a slight advantage in batting first. Finding the key early helped ease their nerves. Still, the panic continued until the revelation.
It wasn’t until they watched the show that they realized how physically in sync they were. “We found ourselves holding hands and swaying together,” they said. “Apparently that’s how we support each other in stressful situations.”
When I asked who yelled louder after the win, they both laughed and agreed it was Joey. “It’s me. It’s definitely me,” Joey said. Scott didn’t argue. “Joey, sure,” he said, explaining that the unreal calm in his head suppressed his reaction.
As I stepped off stage, the reality of the moment began to settle in. “The gist of our conversation was, ‘I can’t believe this happened,'” they recalled. Returning to the dressing room, the two closed the door and hugged each other. “We just hugged each other for a long time,” they said. “Eventually, we started talking about our future and how everything had changed for us.”
The victory felt real as the contestants celebrated together at the hotel that night. But the deeper impact came later. “It was when we got back to normal life and home that things really started to settle down,” they said. For about a week, the couple sat together with the television off and tried to remember everything. “It went by incredibly quickly,” they said as they discussed plans and next steps.
Their calm approach during the match was born of intentional preparation. Since they didn’t have to learn past episodes, they focused more on teamwork than trivia. “We decided to spend a little time on it,” they said. “Instead, we are working hard on ‘training’ for teamwork.”
At the time, Joey and Scott were living in the mountains while rebuilding their home after Hurricane Helen. “We had been mostly isolated for several months and had just been working together to overcome some really difficult challenges,” they said. They hiked to the top of the mountain every day, talked, and learned how to read each other’s trust. Those skills were directly reflected on stage.
The only time there was much disagreement at the end was when Scott almost picked the wrong team. “Joey had to jump in and make the right choice,” they said.
They noted that the prizes are already changing their lives. “This finally brings us over the brink of hurricane recovery,” they said, giving them stability, savings and the opportunity to travel.
For LGBTQ viewers, the reaction was very emotional. “We received many messages from all over the world,” they said. But the tears come from the parents. “But these tears came from straight parents of gay and transgender children who watched it with us and told us how happy their children were. Neither Joey nor I had gay role models when we were growing up. Even people we knew personally. There was no one to watch it on TV. We grew up believing that marriage was for someone else and not for people like us. We are not normal, and if we chose to be who we are, our lives would not be normal either.”
Neither Joey nor Scott were raised with gay role models. “We grew up believing that marriage was for other people, not people like us,” they said. “If one child could understand within us that life is wonderful, we would be overjoyed.”
Source: Gayety – gayety.com
