Love Is Blind season 8 star Lauren O’Brien was just as frustrated as the viewers watching back her relationship with — and breakup from — Dave Bettenburg.
“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 exclusive interview about the breakup scene. “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.”
Lauren said that is how she’s felt rewatching their entire relationship, which took a quick turn when Dave learned that he had mutual friends with a man who Lauren hooked up with leading up to the experiment.
“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,” Lauren added.
Fans have been confused about how much Dave has fixated on Lauren’s ex — who she calls a “friend with benefits” — hypothesizing that Dave was harping on the situation to get her to be the one to end things. Lauren told Us that she agrees with the theory.
“You see this come up with Molly too — he wants Molly to be the one to put the nail in the coffin and I don’t think he knew how to effectively problem solve things,” Lauren said of Dave’s pod connection with Molly Mullaney. “[He’d say], ‘’It’s my dad, or it’s this guy,’ it’s his friends, or it’s his sister. Like, there’s so many other people that are causing the downfall of this relationship and not him.”
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Dave’s sister was another major point of contention in their relationship. After making it clear in the pods that his sister might be hard to win over because she didn’t fully support her brother going on the reality TV show, Dave made it impossible for Lauren and his sibling (or any of his family) to meet her.
“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 said. “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.”
Lauren revealed on the show that she wrote a letter for Dave’s sister — which he never gave her.
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“[In the letter], I talked about Dave and I’s story and how crazy it is and things that I loved about him and I just wanted to normalize us,” she told Us. “I just want it to be like, ‘I’m normal. We’re normal. This is a crazy situation that we’re in, but I’d love a relationship with you.’”
Lauren and Dave’s breakup went down before the scheduled weddings. The pair were arguing at a bowling alley when they decided to go somewhere to talk. While Us assumed they were going home, they ended up … in a movie theater.
“[We were at this] retro bowling alley and right next door is a little theater and it was, like, closed down. But it was so funny because we’re having this serious conversation and a couple of times —there must have been like an older group out at their little bowling league — a couple people walked in and they were like, ‘Is this where this event is?’ And our producer had to run in and I’m like, like, crying and our producer had to be like, ‘Please leave,’” she recalled with a laugh.
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Less than 24 hours after the split, the twosome saw each other at a cast snow tubing event.
“Timing wise that was tough,” Lauren told Us. “I felt very emotionally drained. We had broken up within 24 hours [of the outing]. It was fresh. Dave and I ending this relationship was very sad, but I had gotten so close with the other couples and I was sad that I couldn’t support them throughout the rest of their process. I knew what was coming and I just was excited to see them and check in and make sure they were good too.”
During the get-together, Dave did approach Lauren.
“There was an element of me being like, ‘I’ve been waiting weeks for you to say this.’ But I remember thinking, ‘I don’t fully believe this,’” she said of Dave’s semi-apology. “ I think he shut down [during the experiment] and you see me say that at the group hang. I say, ‘I’ve been giving 150 percent, you’ve given me nothing.’”
Fans also saw Molly come fiercely to Lauren’s defense after sitting down with Dave.
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“She killed it. She said to Dave what I think the world has been thinking,” Lauren said of watching that scene. “We have talked, obviously, throughout the last year and I knew that she supported me. [But] I had no idea that she, like, was so on my team. I was so impressed by her.”
Previously, Molly had run into Dave at a bar during the experiment. “I honestly wasn’t super worried at all,” Lauren told Us of the exes running into each other at the time. “My friend Sara also ran into them and had conversations with Dave and if there was anything big I needed to hear, Sara would tell me. And I love Molly and I trusted Molly and I wasn’t about to immediately jump to the conclusion of ‘Oh my gosh, Molly and Dave are gonna talk and then I’ll just be out of the picture.’ I really did not go there.”
Overall, Lauren feels an “element of sadness” about her failed engagement, but is happy she didn’t walk down the aisle.
“I got to choose an engagement ring that I love — that would be my vision for my ring. And that was taken from me in this engagement. I am thankful that I didn’t try on a wedding dress. I mean, my friends and family had Airbnbs and planes booked and I’m glad that that did not come to a head.”
When asked if she had any lingering questions for her ex, Lauren concluded, “I don’t have any questions right now. I don’t need any clarity or closure from Dave.”
The final episode of Love Is Blind premieres Friday, March 7, with the reunion dropping Sunday, March 9.
