After a MAJOR public scandal rocked Paulie Calafiore and Cara Maria’s relationship at the end of 2018, they’re back together and happier than ever, and he opened up to us EXCLUSIVELY about how they got back to this point.

Paulie Calafiore and Cara Maria Sorbello have come a LONG way since he was exposed for cheating on her with his ex, Danielle Maltby, at the end of 2018! The drama unfolded after the two returned from filming The Challenge: War of the Worlds last fall, during which their relationship, which began in early 2018, got super serious. However, it was all torn apart when Danielle went public with the fact that she had been talking to and seeing Paulie behind Cara’s back throughout the summer and fall of 2018. Cara and Paulie were on rocky terms for a while, but she eventually took him back.

Now, they live together in Montana and are practically inseparable, but it took a lot of work to get to this point. “We had to sit down and just have real conversations,” Paulie told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY. “I just was brutally honest about everything that was going on in my head over the summertime, even though it may not have been things she wanted to hear. It started with me taking accountability for the mistakes I made.” Paulie said that he spent a lot of time reassuring Cara that he was “still that person who was crazy” about her.

“I didn’t want to be punished for mistakes I made early in our relationship, when we ended up growing to have an unbreakable bond in a setting where relationships usually get torn a part — in the Challenge house.” he said. “Everyone was trying to tear us apart every day [on War of the Worlds], and we got closer. That says something about our bond with one another.”

As part of repairing the relationship, Paulie also paid a visit to Cara Maria’s parents before he moved to Montana for good. “I just said, look…I’m not perfect,” he revealed. “I never claimed to be. I make mistakes like everyone else, but I’m crazy about your daughter and I do want to be with her.”

The Big Brother alum admitted that the first two months of trying to win Cara back were hard, but they’re “happier than ever” now. “We’re closer than we’ve ever been,” he gushed. “It’s a testament to what our connection truly, really is. We fit each other. Nobody can take that away from us. Nobody knows the struggles. We know what’s real and what’s not and we live through it every single day together. We fight hard to make each other better and we block out all the negativity that tries to get thrown our way. I messed up, I’m human. But my feelings for her have only gotten stronger as the days have gone on, so it’s worth fighting for. We’re going to come out of it stronger and more unbreakable than we even were on this season.”

Meanwhile, on War of the Worlds, Paulie had major beef with one of Cara’s exes, Kyle Shore, but he told us that things are in a better place in that relationship, too. Although, they’re not perfect, of course. “After the initial night where we went head to head with each other, we realized we could do this without being at each other’s throats,” Paulie explained. “There’s going to be aspects of the game where you try and get in your opponent’s head, but by the end of it, we had a mutual respect for one another as far as competition goes. We had multiple talks in that regard. At this point, we still don’t see eye to eye with each other, but we also realize that we’re not each other’s biggest enemy.”