Dancing with the Stars pro Rylee Arnold and BYU football player Walker Lyons made their relationship public in October of 2024. He reached out for her phone number with a very simple DM less than 30 days prior to the hard launch.
It really did not take much effort.
Now, to be fair, these two love birds have a much better origin story than the initial message on Instagram would suggest. And now they are one of the most popular Gen-Z couples in the world!
Who is Rylee Arnold?
Rylee is the youngest of four Arnold sisters. Her oldest sister, Lindsay, got her start as a Latin and ballroom dancer as a contestant on So You Think You Can Dance. She later joined Dancing with the Stars as a pro in 2013 and won the 25th season with singer/actor Jordan Fisher.
Rylee was inspired to pursue Latin and ballroom dancing when she watched Lindsay perform on SYTYCD and first gained notoriety as the runner-up on Dancing with the Stars: Junior in 2018. She later joined the main competition series as a pro in 2023 alongside her big sister.
Her first partner was Harry Jowsey, who became something of a controversial character on the show. Rylee Arnold then finished fourth with Olympic gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik the next season.
Dancing with the Stars has never been more popular and she became the first pro born in the 21st century to advance to the finale. It was a perfect storm of popularity.
Arnold has more than one million followers on both TikTok and Instagram.
She is a star. Both on and off of the dance floor.
Who is Walker Lyons?
Walker also comes from a large family. His younger brother, Ryder, is the most well-known Lyons sibling as a five-star quarterback recruit. They are a very big deal in the Mormon community.
Walker was not a scrub either. The former four-star recruit began his college football career at USC. He recently transferred to BYU — in part because of his girlfriend, Rylee Arnold.
The 6-foot-4, 245-pound tight end recorded 20 catches for 223 yards and two touchdowns as a sophomore last season. Expect him to be a big part of the offense for the Cougars in 2026.
Although Walker Lyons is not as popular on social media as Rylee, or his little brother, he has more than 100,000 followers on both TikTok and Instagram. Not too shabby.
How did they meet?
Rylee Arnold and Walker Lyons have a lot of mutual friends. Not only were they both raised in the Mormon faith, many of Lyons’ hometown friends went to BYU. Arnold grew up in Provo.
However, it was Lyons’ family who made the indirect introduction.
She decided not to drive in Los Angeles traffic and instead took an Uber to the mall on a random Saturday. The Uber driver was Walker’s aunt.
“I get in this Uber. It’s this really nice lady,” Arnold said on The Squeeze podcast. “And we’re just like, talking about dance, and she’s talking about what she does. And also she was like, ‘Okay, this might sound really weird. Don’t take this the wrong way.'”
Walker’s aunt revealed that her nephew was playing football at USC and had a gut feeling they would “really get along.” She encouraged Arnold to look up his Instagram and to connect.
Arnold took not but didn’t think much of it and moved on. And then, about a week later, one of her sisters sent one of Lyons’ TikTok videos to the family group chat and told her to try and date him. One thing led to another.
She followed him on Instagram. He followed back and slid into her DMs.
What was the DM?
Rylee Arnold finally revealed the first message from Ryder Lyons in a since-deleted post on TikTok. It could not be more straightforward.
He said: “Rylee!! how are you?? I was wondering if I could get your number !”
She said: “I’m so good!! My number is XXX-XXX-XXXX :))”
That was it. It was that simple. And now the rest is history.
Arnold went Instagram official with her relationship just a few weeks later.
They have been dating ever since! All it took was a very coincidental Uber and a DM.