What Happened To Gold Rush Star Rick Ness' Ex-Fiancée Leese Arie?

The following article includes references to drug use.

Rick Ness, a mainstay on Discovery's "Gold Rush," has a history of on-and-off reconciliations with his ex-fiancée Leese Arie. The couple last broke off their engagement in February 2024 after briefly reuniting in December 2023. Following the split, Arie took to social media to share her frustrations and reveal the reasoning behind returning the ring. 

"I will never understand how someone can propose to you and not even 48 hours later cheat yet again with another prostitute," Arie said in a private Instagram post (via Starcasm). She added, "After 3 years of constant cheating and lying I never learned, but after finding out that he did it again today I can officially say that I have learned my lesson. I will never be able to win over his addiction of cocaine and prostitutes."

Since the breakup, Arie has turned her focus to healing and self-care. While she has made her Instagram private, her bio tells us she's since moved to Arizona. (She couldn't be further from the frigid northern regions of the show's digs.) She's also active on TikTok, where she captioned a January 2025 video, "Yes I've changed because my old version was too weak." Arie's words are a testament to how, through all this drama, she has shown resilience and a determination to move on from the pain of her past relationship. And, as fans know, there's plenty of pain to speak of.

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The 2024 breakup wasn't their first: Rick Ness has had quite the tumultuous relationship with Leese Arie. And, unfortunately for him, it's all played out in the most public way imaginable: on social media. Their first engagement in October 2022 seemed like a happy new chapter for Ness, who had been facing seasonal affective disorder. (It's one reason why fans didn't see much of Ness on "Gold Rush" during Season 13.)  

However, just weeks later, Arie took to TikTok to accuse Ness of cheating. Ness admitted to his infidelity on Facebook while hinting at a reconciliation, writing, "I screwed up just about everything you could screw up, believe me ... I've done the unforgivable, but she has continued to forgive me." Despite the betrayal, the couple reunited in January 2023.

Unfortunately, the reconciliation was once again short-lived. By May 2023, Arie had ended the relationship again, citing Ness' ongoing infidelity as the primary reason. In a major revelation on Instagram (via Starcasm), Arie claimed that Ness had cheated on her more than 200 times over the course of their relationship. "[People] make mistakes, but being cheated on over 200, yes — I said two hundred times ... is NOT A MISTAKE!!" she wrote. Ness and Arie's 2023 breakup sounded definitive, with Arie stating she was officially done for good — but, as we now know, they had one more go-round in them. For the time being, their breakup in February 2024 remains the final one.