After navigating a love triangle in the “Love is Blind” dating pods, Dave Bettenburg and Lauren O’Brien got engaged and jetted off on a romantic getaway. But their bliss was short-lived.
Soon enough, talk of exes fueled jealousy and confusion, leading to a ‘he said, she said’ debate that dominated the couple’s experience during the dating experiment.
Were Dave and Lauren able to move past the conflict and make it to the altar? We’re recapping the highs and lows of their “Love Is Blind” journey.
What happened between Lauren and Dave in the pods?
Dave, a 33-year-old medical device salesman, instantly connected with Lauren, a 31-year-old education saleswoman, when they started talking in the dating pods.
From the get go, Dave admitted that his job in medical aesthetics colored his views of beauty.
“I’ve been a very shallow person. I used to try to dance around that a little, but I just have. And that obviously has not worked. I really don’t want to be that way at all. I know I’m way better than that,” he said during one of their dates.
Lauren understood and noted that physical attraction can grow the more you get to know someone.
While he was building a bond with Lauren, Dave was also developing feelings for Molly Mulaney, a 30-year-old executive assistant.
Soon enough, Dave told Molly he was going to pursue things with Lauren. It wasn’t long before Dave declared his love for Lauren and proposed. She gladly accepted, then the newly engaged couple met in person for the first time.
What happened between Lauren and Dave in Honduras?
After getting engaged, Lauren and Dave traveled to Honduras for a romantic getaway. While they were out on a boat ride one day, the topic of Lauren’s dating history came up.
When Dave said he had mutual friends with two of Lauren’s exes, she said they were never official boyfriends. However, Dave struggled with the fact that his fiancé was talking with another man shortly before appearing on “Love Is Blind,” especially since he hadn’t had a girlfriend in four years.
Lauren said she still continued to date while waiting to hear if she was selected for “Love Is Blind” Season 8, adding that she would have backed out of the show if she met someone she really loved. However, she said the man she was seeing before filming started wasn’t “her person.”
Dave explained that he had trouble understanding how Lauren was ready for marriage after seeing another man so recently.
What happened when Lauren and Dave moved in together?
After they returned home to Minnesota, Dave heard from some of his friends, who warned him about Lauren’s recent involvement with another man.
The couple met up with a few of Lauren’s friends, who supported her and said the man she’d been seeing was never a boyfriend. Still, Dave wasn’t convinced.
In Episode 10, Dave didn’t come home after going out with friends. Per Lauren, he texted her in the middle of the night to say he was going to stay at his apartment.
“With Dave, I’m frustrated that he’s saying he wants to continue figuring thing out but then he leaves … And I’m the one who’s not ready for marriage?” she said in a confessional interview.
The couple smoothed things over the next day when Dave returned, but Lauren said her parents were concerned she might “get hurt.”
Dave’s sister was concerned about his engagement
In the pods, Dave kept mentioning that his sister’s opinions of his romantic partners were important to him. Once he and Lauren returned to Minnesota, this dynamic caused friction in their relationship, especially since Dave’s sister was worried that he’d end up with someone who appeared on “Love Is Blind” for the wrong reasons.
While the couple was bowling one night, Lauren expressed her frustration with the influence Dave’s sister’s opinions had on him.
“I just feel bad cause my sister, she just didn’t expect me to get this far or keep it going. I kind of led her to be like, ‘It’s not going to.’ She’s like, ‘Why are you lying to me? Why don’t you just tell me what’s going on?’” he explained.
Lauren thought their relationship could be remedied if Dave brought her more into his life.
“Our relationship is going be better when your sister meets me, when your friends meet me. And we’re going to get stronger and be able to focus on us when that’s not a piece of it,” Lauren replied.
But did his family want to meet her? Iffy, Dave said. “My family, they don’t meet just anyone. I don’t want to waste her time either,” Dave replied.
“OK, if you don’t want to waste your sister’s time meeting me, if you don’t see it with me, I want to know. I don’t know how much longer I can keep doing this,” she said.
Their breakup unfolds in Episode 11. What they said, exactly
Dave and Lauren’s tense conversation continues into Episode 11, with Dave suggesting that Lauren “probably didn’t expect” to fall in love with someone who knew her most recent ex.
“You admitted you never ended it and you should have ended it,” he said.
“That’s not what I said. I said there was not a lack of closure in my opinion,” she replied.
“That’s not what I heard. You said, ‘I should’ve ended it. I don’t know why I didn’t.’ And this is where I’m having a hard time. It went from that to saying it really wasn’t that serious. That’s where my lack of trust is coming into play. I had to ask — you didn’t tell me about it,” Dave said.
Lauren admitted that she “hooked up” with her recent romantic partner a week before filming “Love Is Blind.” She then addressed why this man was texting her when they returned from Honduras, saying he “had a different interpretation of our time.”
“Now I’m getting frustrated because on Sunday you literally said, ‘I don’t give a s— about who you hooked up with before this.’ And now we’re coming back to it,” she said.
At this point, Dave brings up his off-camera meeting with Lauren’s dad, who didn’t want to be recorded.
“Yeah, we’re coming back to it because of the way your dad approached me saying that he thought I was there just to see what happens and you were fully ready for this engagement, get married in six weeks deal,” Dave replied.
“I don’t understand why this is on my family when your sister didn’t want you to get engaged. Your dad didn’t even know that there was an engagement,” Lauren replied.
Eventually, the couple agreed that they had a strong connection but should go their separate ways.
In a confessional interview, Dave said he felt like he “let her down” because he “couldn’t get over my own ego.”
“Love is blind but I don’t think marriage is,” he said.
In her own private interview, Lauren said, “I’m really sad this didn’t work out. I’m so incredibly sad about it. I’m also pissed that he let it get here.”
Lauren and Dave got closure at a group event
In Episode 11, several Season 8 cast members got together. Dave and Lauren snuck away for a serious discussion during the event.
Dave admitted that he’s “really bad at” admitting that he’s wrong.
“It just sucks and it’s not you. That’s the thing about all of this. It’s not you. I’m so sick of having to try to defend you versus my friends versus my family. I don’t care about that. It’s my fault. My ego got in the way of really seeing what we had. I guess what I’m saying is I’m really sorry,” he said.
“I have been giving 150% the last week to try to figure things out with you and you’ve not given me that … You were giving me nothing. You were giving me no validation. You were not letting me in in any capacity,” she replied.
At the end of the conversation, Dave acknowledged that their love was “real” and admitted that that “freaks him out.”
“I’m sorry that you’re going through all of the feels of this. I want to believe it so badly and a lot of me does. But it’s just hard to believe. I think we’re past that,” she said.
