Are Below Deck's Ashton Pienaar and Laura Betancourt Still Together?

Ashton Pienaar and Laura Betancourt were the couple that seemed to have the best chance of surviving on land after Season 6 of Below Deck came to an end. The deckhand and third stew, respectively, walked off the boat together in the Season 6 finale and seemed excited for what the future held for them.

So did Ashton and Laura end up creating a beautiful life together after the charter season? Well, not exactly.

Prior to the filming of the Below Deck Season 6 reunion, Ashton told us that his current relationship status is "complicated," although he said during the Below Deck Season 6 After Show above that he is "very single." "I'd love to say I was involved with somebody, but I think my wife is still out there somewhere trying to find me," Ashton said (Is it just us, or is everyone weak at the knees right now?). "She's just taking her time."

When Andy Cohen asked Ashton and Laura if they're still together today during the reunion, Laura said, "We're dear friends." Ashton shared a similar sentiment during the After Show. "Laura and I, we're just on a friendly basis. We check in with each other every now and then. Laura's a cool chick. I think we've got quite a bit in common, in terms of where we are in our lives. She's just a really cool girl to talk to and bounce things off of. And when we see each other, we have a connection. It's cool. Laura's just a fun girl," he explained. "You know, she's just one of those people I think that'll always have a place in my life where we just get each other. We understand each other, and we're on the same level."

Laura said during the After Show that she doesn't know if she and Ashton could one day rekindle their romance. "I think that with relationships, not all the time, but I think that they should be super passionate from the get-go, and I think that because we've had this time apart, it would be hard to get back," she shared. "And also, we live very far from each other, so I don't think that, I'm not into long distance."

However, Ashton seemed to hold out a little bit more hope that he and Laura could one day get back together. "We live in two different countries on opposite sides of the world. We don't know where we're gonna be in the next few months. So that's something you got into the relationship knowing in the back of your mind. But if I ever ended up in Canada or she ended up in South Africa, I'm pretty sure we could, we would — I don't know. I'm not sure. It's hard to say," he said during the After Show. "Is she somebody I could settle down with one day? Probably. If circumstances were different and we could try to give it a shot, would I? Probably."

Although it may have seemed otherwise, Ashton and Laura confirmed that they did not hook up in the crow's nest when things really started to get romantic between them earlier this season. "It's an interesting thing, Andy, I didn't have sex the whole season right until the end," Ashton said during the reunion, which Andy took to mean that Ashton and Laura did, in fact, hook up that last night on the yacht. You know, the one where Ashton covered up the camera in the cabin?

And yes, that does mean Ashton and Vahine, that woman he met at the club, did not have sex in the van, despite "making her moan with pleasure," as Andy put it during the reunion. So now you know.

One Below Deck couple we know had a lot of sex throughout the season was Rhylee Gerber and Tyler Rowland. We saw things cool off between the two toward the end of the season when Tyler told Rhylee he wanted to "pump the brakes" on their relationship. However, it seemed as though things may have heated up again for them while they were in New York City to film the reunion. Though Rhylee and Tyler maintained that they too were just "dear friends," like Ashton and Laura, Andy and some of their fellow Below Deck crew members wondered if they hooked up again during their time in the Big Apple. "What? We were all hanging out in my room last night," Rhylee responded to that speculation.

Backstage at the reunion, Tyler told us that he's seeing "someone other than Rhylee," while Rhylee is single and ready to mingle. "I'm dating. I enjoy dating," she said. "I'm swiping right."

Get the scoop on the rest of the M/Y Seanna crew's current relationship status, below.

What's the Below Deck Crew's Current Relationship Status?