It was love at first lockdown.
In February 2020, New Yorkers Matt Robertson and Khani Le met on Hinge and had a great first date at an Indian restaurant. The fun continued at an axe throwing range for their second date.
For their third outing, Robertson, now 34 and a marketing executive, and Le, 32 and a publicist, decided they should go on an adventure.
Over text, Robertson suggested they go on a five-day vacation to Guanacaste, Costa Rica.
“You only live once,” he remembers saying to himself in order to justify the risk, “What’s the worst that could happen?”
Le was game — despite some warnings from friends.
“I said yes, just throwing caution to the wind,” she said, adding, “I was kind of like, ‘Go with the flow and see what happens.’”
On March 17, they boarded a Delta flight at JFK.
They enjoyed three days of ziplining and cocktails at an all-inclusive resort, but the day before they were to return, they learned that their flights were canceled indefinitely as a result of the coronavirus shutdown in the US.
Their third date turned into both a 79-day nightmare — and the beginning of a long-term romance.
The pair’s ordeal is the subject of a new Netflix documentary “Longest Third Date,” out Tuesday.
“It was a crazy, surreal experience,” Robertson told The Post.
After 11 days, the resort they’d been staying at closed, forcing Robertson and Le to scramble for shelter at various Airbnb locations — including a wall-free treehouse where they had to use the bathroom in front of each other.
“You get real close real quick,” said Le, who had recently gotten out of a relationship and wasn’t looking for anything serious. “There was no hiding whatsoever.”
Boredom also brought them closer — physically.
“When you’re stuck together there’s not much else to do but drink and f–k,” says Le in the doc.
At one point, she feared she might be pregnant, which made their situation feel more dire than exciting — as did a near-fatal accident that ended with their rental car in a lagoon.
“I was like we have to get back home,” Le says in the doc. “It’s not fun anymore.”
They were originally set to leave on June 2, but that flight was canceled.
Ultimately, they made it home later that month via a government-sponsored flight to Houston. From Texas, they were able to get a flight back to NYC.
By then, they were a couple.
A month after their arrival home, Le moved into Robertson’s apartment in Hoboken, NJ.
In June 2021, they celebrated their 1-year anniversary by getting a blue French bulldog they named Banks.
The three of them now live together on the Lower East Side. Robertson and Le have no plans to marry — yet.
“We’ve enjoyed slowing things down a bit,” said Robertson. “It’s been fun to just hang out and do normal dating things that we missed out on in the early stages.”
But the lovebirds don’t regret their rushed romance, and advise others to consider a crazy third date.
“Do it!” said Robertson. “As long as those first two dates are good, do it.”
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