The Olivia Dunne-Paul Skenes romance may have nearly not happened due to an initial lack of an Instagram follow.
During a GQ interview that was published this week that saw the couple reminisce on how they came to know each other at LSU as athletes, Dunne, 22, said she was hesitant to pursue her interest in the baseball star because Skenes would not follow back the Instagram influencer of 5 million followers.
However, Skenes, also 22, cleared up that it wasn’t an intentional decision.
Rather, he wasn’t actively interested in social media but was aware of Dunne, who he said “everybody knew” at the university.
Still, Dunne said she didn’t quite understand how someone her age would not be actively online.
“I was like, ‘Who is this kid and why won’t he follow me back?’” she recalled in the interview. Yet, she was still interested in the “tall, mysterious man” despite their conflicting schedules with Skenes playing baseball on the weekends and Dunne traveling for gymnastics.
“I could never actually watch him do his thing because every Friday that he would start, we were competing,” she told GQ.
Eventually, Skenes asked out Dunne and their relationship became public in the summer of 2023.
Dunne, who is in her fifth year at LSU, has also been supporting Skenes in his budding MLB career.
Last July, she was with the Pirates hurler to celebrate him being named the fifth rookie in MLB history to be named a starting pitcher in the All-Star Game.
Dunne also dressed to the nines with Skenes on the night he won the NL Rookie of the Year.
Along with the interview, the couple also did a big photoshoot for GQ.
Skenes expected that he would get poked fun at by his teammates.
“It’s uh, I’m gonna get some flak in the locker room, I know that and I’m not looking forward to that,” Skenes said with a smile, as captured by CBS Sports following a Pirates win.
“Yeah, I didn’t know what GQ was until the offer came so glad I did it, I think. How’d I look?” he said.
This season across two starts, Skenes has a 1.46 ERA with 13 strikeouts.