{"id":186877,"date":"2026-08-28T17:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T17:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/186877\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T17:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T17:15:08","slug":"canadas-drag-race-star-opens-up-about-heated-rivalry-boyfriend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/186877\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada’s Drag Race star opens up about Heated Rivalry boyfriend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aurora Matrix, winner of Canada\u2019s Drag Race All Stars, has opened up about dating Heated Rivalry<\/a> star Matthew Finlan.<\/p>\n

The pair have been dating on and off for the past two years, with Matrix describing their relationship as a \u201cfairytale\u201d.<\/p>\n

Read next<\/p>\n

Finlan plays Kyle Swift in Heated Rivalry Season 1, who is one of the main characters in author Rachel Reid\u2019s Common Goal book.<\/p>\n

Who does Matthew Finlan play in Heated Rivalry?<\/p>\n

Kyle is a bartender at the Kingfisher, the gay sports bar where Kip Grady (Robbie G.K.) regularly meets his friends. He has a small part in the TV adaptation.<\/p>\n

Matrix, who appeared on Canada\u2019s Drag Race Season 1 and later returned for All Stars, revealed that returning to filming made their heart grow fonder after putting their all into stealing the crown.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been together for a little bit now, and it\u2019s been truly the best thing in the world. He\u2019s also an actor, so he understands my world and the arts, but he\u2019s not necessarily involved in the drag,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Aurora Matrix confesses their feelings to Finlan<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s a good little, like, you understand my world, but you\u2019re not necessarily in my world, and it\u2019s a great balance. I feel like it\u2019s kind of the best thing and what I\u2019ve been wanting my whole life,\u201d Matrix added.<\/p>\n

When preparing for All Stars, they told Finlan he was \u201cnot a priority\u201d, though admitted they missed him while filming. Upon returning home to Toronto, the Drag Race star called Finlan and confessed their feelings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI planted the seed, and it worked. I think there\u2019s something that\u2019s flourishing here, and since then, we\u2019ve been together, and it\u2019s been a fairytale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heated Rivalry season 2 cast<\/p>\n

It has not yet been confirmed that Finlan will appear in Heated Rivalry Season 2, which began filming earlier this month in Toronto, Canada.<\/p>\n

So far, leading actors Hudson Williams<\/a> and Connor Storrie<\/a> have been confirmed to reprise their roles as Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov.<\/p>\n

Daniel Diemer and Shaheen Jafargholi<\/a> are the latest stars to be announced to join the cast of Heated Rivalry Season 2 as Ryan Price, the protagonist of Reid\u2019s Tough Guy book, and his love interest Fabian Salah, an indie musician.<\/p>\n

Emily Hampshire, Edvin Ryding, Robert Naylor, Sabrina Jalees and Priyanka<\/a> have also been announced to join the cast, with Robbie G.K. and Fran\u00e7ois Arnaud<\/a> also tipped to make a return.<\/p>\n

Heated Rivalry\u00a0season 2 is scheduled for release in April 2027 via Sky in the UK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aurora Matrix, winner of Canada\u2019s Drag Race All Stars, has opened up about dating Heated Rivalry star Matthew…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[59062,17,8166,59063],"class_list":["post-186877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-aurora-matrix","tag-canada","tag-heated-rivalry","tag-matthew-finlan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}