Just when Below Deck Mediterranean fans thought Captain Sandy Yawn and wife Leah Shafer couldn’t get any sweeter — they prove Us wrong.
During the Monday, September 9, episode of the hit Bravo series, Sandy, 59, called Leah, 50, before she arrived in Greece.
“I’m so excited that you’re coming tomorrow! I’m so happy,” the captain told Leah, who sounded equally as thrilled. “I will be on charter when you land and I will see you when I get back from my charter. I love you.”
In a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, viewers saw that Sandy’s contact name for her then-girlfriend was “Leah My Love.” Their sweet onscreen conversation, however, only made Sandy more anxious as she prepared to pop the question.
“I’m nervous that Leah is coming out to see me for the first time ever,” Sandy said in a confessional. “You could put me out in the middle of the storm, I don’t really get that nervous. Proposing to Leah? I’m shaking from the inside out.”
The trailer for season 9 of Below Deck Mediterranean showed chief stew Aesha Scott and the rest of the Mustique crew helping Sandy pull off an epic engagement. Off screen, meanwhile, many fans already know that Sandy and Leah have since exchanged vows.
The couple started dating in 2019 when Leah reached out to Sandy on social media about Below Deck Med. Sandy and Leah have documented every milestone of their relationship — including their nuptials. After their wedding ceremony, Sandy and Leah exclusively opened up to Us Weekly about what was next for them.
“At this stage of our lives … every moment we have together, we make it into a honeymoon,” Leah shared in May. “Like, it doesn’t have to be set days. Even yesterday, we’re walking around Tampa and we just saw this little green two-seater boat and we’re like, ‘Let’s take it out.’ You know, every second is a honeymoon for us.”
She continued, “We’re just so lucky to find this kind of love at this stage in our lives and to have the acceptance by our family and friends. It really is a beautiful love story and celebration, and that’s the truth.”
Leah was also excited about her plans to change her last name, adding, “For me, [getting married] was so surreal. Sandy was telling everybody that she didn’t realize how marriage felt so amazing [and] to know that I’m actually going to take her name — and I’m in the midst of changing my name to Leah Rae Yawn — [and] to not be a girlfriend anymore, it just feels good to be like, ‘Wow, I’m her wife.’”
Sandy, for her part, spoke to Us about getting to have some Below Deck cast and crew present for their special day.
“We only had a capacity of 60 people. So with our family and our intimate friends, it was hard to invite people that we really wanted there from Bravo,” she explained. “So we had the people that have been in our lives since the beginning. Because they saw me, [when] I was single when I started the show. Then everybody knows when I met Leah because that’s all I talked about.”
Below Deck Mediterranean season 9 airs on Bravo Mondays at 9 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Peacock.
