Love Is Blind stars Lauren O’Brien and David “Dave” Bettenburg were the first engaged couple of season 8 to call it quits, and she recently revealed the moment she knew their relationship could never work.
“There was definitely an element of sadness, but I do feel like you see the moment that I shift — when he starts to get mad at me and mad at my family,” Lauren, 31, told Us Weekly in an interview published on Friday, February 28. “The anger that came from him, I was done. I immediately knew we’re never getting past this. My husband would not speak to me like this. I hope that that comes across clear.”
She continued, “It is heartbreaking to watch this back and relive a lot of the disappointments that I had felt throughout the ending of our relationship, but the minute that that was how he chose to speak to me, I was mad again.”
After leaving the pods, Dave, 33, and Lauren ran into two big roadblocks in their relationship. First, Dave struggled to accept that Lauren had been in a casual relationship shortly before arriving to film season 8. Then, Dave kept putting off introducing Lauren to his family, essentially because his sister was so against him going on the show.
“With all of the noise happening and all of the conversations happening, I think she was just like, ‘I don’t wanna be part of this.’ I think his sister was making these decisions based on what Dave was telling her and how Dave was viewing our relationship at the time,” Lauren explained. “So, I don’t think he really tried to make that happen. I think his sister was being a protective older sister who wanted the best for him and was basing her decisions on what her brother was telling her.”
After Lauren and Dave officially broke off their engagement in episode 11 of Love Is Blind, the educational sales professional revealed that she had actually written a letter to Dave’s sister to hopefully show her that their relationship was genuine. However, Dave never gave the letter to his sibling.
“When he went to go see his sister like a week ago, I wrote her a letter to explain who I am and the whole situation and how crazy it is but how much I want to be with Dave and how much I love him and how much I care about her support, and he just didn’t give it to her,” Lauren told the producers. “I’ve never been this pissed at someone but also sad for them and with them at the same time. I’m really sad this didn’t work out.”
Later in that same episode, many of the cast members met up for a night out at a local bar. Lauren arrived first and broke the news that she and Dave had split. The medical device salesman arrived later, and he seemed to have a hard time with their decision to end things.
“I feel like I took those things a little too personal. I do wish that I could go back and do things differently, and hear things differently, and process things differently,” Dave explained when producers pulled him aside. “Lauren deserves that. I love her and I should be sticking up for her. I would love to go talk to her because I do feel like I could still be that guy for her.”
He later expressed some of this to Lauren. However, she said that while wanted to “believe” Dave’s words “so badly,” she thought that they were “past that.”
