We Found Love Is Blind Star Lauren’s Ex’s Instagram & There’s Proof He ‘Wanted to Be on TV’
Warning: Love Is Blind Season 8 spoilers ahead. Love Is Blind Season 8 started out rough, with six entire episodes spent in the pods and a lot of screentime devoted to couples that didn’t even make it to the honeymoon in Honduras. But the second batch of episodes went back to what we’ve come to expect from the show, including the drama. Taylor thinking Daniel might have followed her on Instagram and therefore knew what she looked like was the big drama at the start of the second batch of episodes, but Lauren and Dave ended up being at the center of most of the drama.
Why? Because Lauren—who disclosed the relationship to Dave from the time they were in Honduras—returned home only to be accused of still having a boyfriend by the time she went on Love is Blind, and not being “ready” for commitment because of it.
The Netflix reality dating show, hosted by Nick and Vanessa Lachey, focuses on a group of singles from different cities—Season 8 is set in Minneapolis, Minnesota—who commit to dating in pods and not seeing each other until after they’ve agreed to get married. After that, the couple has only a couple of weeks to figure out if they really want to go ahead with the marriage or if they would rather say goodbye for good.
But who was Lauren supposedly “dating” when she went on Love is Blind? Who is the man that caused the rift between her and Dave? Here’s what we know.
Who is Lauren’s ex from Love Is Blind Season 8?
Lauren’s ex is a man named Daniel Nides. The man himself confirmed it on Instagram, going as far as to make a Love is Blind poster of himself, and post screenshots suggesting production had reached out to him to appear on the show in light of the drama. Nides has since made his account private. Reddit, however, has all the information—screenshots included.
“Someone on this sub mentioned his Instagram where he’s been posting about this a lot apparently. The handle is @gymtanlaw. His name is Daniel Nides according to his insta. (He’s been pretty open and public about being the same guy),” a fan wrote.
Nides is a 37-year-old lawyer and was, at least tangentially, part of the same friend group as Lauren and Dave, who seemed to have friends in common to begin with. When Lauren went on Love is Blind, Nides seems to have reached out to mutual friends to inform them of his relationship with Lauren—which is how Dave heard about it and later expressed it on the show.
“Dave was like, ‘Did you date anyone before coming on here?’ I go, ‘I was, like, talking to someone a couple of months ago, but I wouldn’t have said that I dated them,’ but Dave has mutual friends with him,” Lauren said during a confessional interview in the show. “I was giving [Dave] names and he’s like, ‘Oh, I know him. I see him at the pool all the time.’” Dave, on the other hand, didn’t seem to understand Lauren’s thinking. “How do you go from seeing someone so recently to like, ‘I’m ready for marriage?’” he asked Lauren at one point. “That just seems like a huge step in between. … That’s tough.”
After the last batch of episodes aired, Lauren said in an interview with Vulture that she thought Nides only wanted to be on TV, explaining, “Me and him had never once talked about anything beyond a friends-with-benefits situation. We never had serious conversations about that — or much in general. When we got back and I was hearing his version of things, it felt like a 180 compared to any conversation we ever had. I was so confused where it came from.”
In Love is Blind, we also hear Dave’s sister seems to have a problem with Lauren’s previous relationship. But despite Lauren telling Dave over and over again that she would like to explain what happened to his friends and his sister, Dave has yet to give her a chance to talk to them in person. And, considering how much this seems to be weighing on Dave, it seems unlikely the two can last much longer if he isn’t willing to hear Lauren out—or if he’s taking Nides’s word for what happened instead of the word of the woman he promised to marry.
