Captain Sandy’s Girlfriend Leah Shafer Says ‘Trust’ Keeps Their Relationship Alive
Trust is the backbone of any healthy relationship, but how strong does that bond have to be if your partner is a superyacht captain? According to Below Deck Mediterranean‘s Captain Sandy Yawn’s girlfriend Leah Shafer, that bond has to be solid.
Shafer recently said that she’s often asked how the couple endures going long periods of time without seeing one another when Yawn is on charter. She said they’ve built a relationship based on trust and independence.
“I get so many people asking me, how do I handle Sandy being away for weeks, maybe months at a time? Well, it’s called trust. It’s called knowing who you are. And it’s called just letting go and letting someone be free,” she shared in an Instagram video.
“When you hold too tight and when you suffocate and you smother, things die when you suffocate something,” she continued. “You got to let the relationship breathe. You got to let your person breathe. When you’re in a relationship you got to let each other be independent and free to be who you are meant to be.”
“Yes, obviously, we miss each other very much and we love each other very much,” Shafer said. “But it is so important to stand in your own truth. Your own path, your own purpose. Then they want to be around you. They miss you. They want to call you, talk to you.”
Yawn and Shafer met over social media and had an instant connection. Shafer reached out to Yawn and said she’d never done anything like that in the past. “It freaked me out because I’m like, oh, I’ve never done that before, in my lifetime,” Shafer told Showbiz Cheat Sheet in 2021. “I knew when she hugged me, that she was the one. You knew, too.”
At the time Shafer was married to a man, but something shifted when she met Yawn. “Definitely when I met her,” Shafer said. “Definitely, I just knew I knew everything makes sense because I was married 20 years to a guy and I was he was more like my best friend, but I wasn’t into him that way. Like you’re supposed to be. When I met her, I’m like, oh, that’s how you should feel. That’s the passion and the love that you should feel. And then I was like, it’s worth it for that leap of faith in that jump.”
Shafer and Yawn never looked back and said their relationship is thriving. “Sandy and I are all about working on ourselves as individuals,” Shafer told Showbiz Cheat Sheet in 2019. “Our inner awareness and growth, through constant self-work and reflection and are open to always changing and growing. We believe in meeting in the middle.”
Adding, “We like peace and kindness. Sandy has been nothing but kind, loving, and supportive and allows me to just be me. Sandy and I are completely opposite in many ways, and that’s what makes it even more beautiful.”
The couple has talked about marriage someday, but they are currently focusing on projects and business. Yawn is scheduled to be at the helm when Below Deck Med returns for season 8.
