Love Is Blind star David “Dave” Bettenburg was known to bring up his sister, Nikki Bettenburg, in conversations during his time on season 8, and he revealed how she reacted to watching his relationship with ex Lauren O’Brien play out on the show.
“She watched how hard that was for Lauren to go through,” Dave, 33, told E! News about Nikki in an interview published on Sunday, March 9. “I think she truly is sympathetic and understanding that [it] was a very real experiment that we went through and the process.”
Dave added that his family was just “starting to understand how serious this whole process is” as they watched it on the show.
The TV personality went on to note that having his and Lauren’s relationship documented on the show helped him and his family better understand what he went through.
“My family’s been expressing a lot more support and sympathy towards me,” Dave continued. “Initially, when I came to do the show and test this out, they were a little taken back. They were confused. Like, ‘You have a great job, you have a great life, why can you not just date normally?’”
He added, “But now that they’ve seen it, they’ve just become even more supportive, seeing how emotional and vulnerable I got.”
During his time on season 8, fans watched Dave and Lauren, 32, spark a connection in the pods. However, they hit a major roadblock when Dave learned that Lauren had been seeing someone casually shortly before they started filming the show. While she insisted her past fling was casual, Dave had a hard time coming to terms with the revelation. The pair eventually split before they were able to make it to their wedding.
Even before they split, Dave explained to Lauren several times that his sister was skeptical of his decision to join the show. Additionally, he did not allow Lauren to meet his sister or parents even after filming wrapped.
“It was more about she was trying to protect me from how I might look on a reality TV show,” he told E! News about his decision to bring Nikki up on a regular basis. “She watches a lot of it, and she was just feeling really protective of her younger brother just being misled or making a fool of himself. And that’s what she was really worried about.”
Dave previously addressed the backlash he faced for talking about his sister so much on the show, stating that he had no regrets about how he presented their relationship.
“The internet is just insane, because apparently having a good relationship with your sister is a bad thing. Sorry, she’s cool. Whatever,” he said during the February 18 episode of “The Viall Files” podcast.
He then added that Nikki was doing “OK” in light of the backlash. “If she was struggling with it, she would have been talking with me and texting me a lot. I think she’s doing alright,” the TV personality said.
