WEBER COUNTY, Utah — For Briel Adams-Wheatley and her husband, Adam, love isn’t about perfection.
“Do you think we’ll live to be 60 years married?” Adam asked Briel Adams-Wheatley inside Church & State. “Do you think we’ll make it to heaven?”
“My heaven is wherever I am with you,” Adams-Wheatley responded. "Duh!"
It's about being fully seen and loved exactly as you are.
Adams-Wheatley built a following of 5 million people on TikTok by sharing her everyday life navigating Hanhart syndrome, a rare condition that affects limb development. Her videos span cooking, beauty, mukbang, her journey as a transgender woman, and day-to-day life with her husband, Adam.
They're getting ready to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary this June. But their story started with a simple swipe on Tinder back in February 2020. Adams-Wheatley says they talked for about a week before their first date at a coffee shop.
“It was set up where you could play games, and obviously, since I have no hands, I was like, ‘Ew, I’m not touching my face with those in a public setting,’” she said.
Adams-Wheatley, who was born in Brazil and adopted by a family in Utah when she was a baby, is known online for being fiercely independent. But dating hasn't always been easy. She says people, at times, dated her for the wrong reasons.
But on that first date, she could tell Adam was different. “We got there and we walked through the doors, he’s instantly like, ‘Hey, do you have a cup for her to use to roll the dice?’” Adams-Wheatley said. “I was like, ‘Oh, we’re taking initiative? Got it.’”
Coffee turned into dinner and then into years of being inseparable. But being together has come with challenges.
“Our relationship is public, and so we get a lot of scrutiny online and try to navigate that space and not let a lot of the haters dictate what our love is behind closed doors,” Adams-Wheatley said.
Despite the online noise, she says, Adam has been a constant source of support. “He supports me in being my authentic self and making sure I’m not giving up on myself because of what’s been said about me online,” she said.
In a world quick to judge what it doesn’t understand, the couple continues to choose each other. “Being with Bri has shown me that I don’t have to put that mask on," Adam said. "I love you."
“I love you," Adams-Wheatley replied.
