What’s It Like to Date in Minneapolis? Ask Love Is Blind’s Lauren O’Brien

If you watched this season of Love is Blind Minneapolis and found yourself screaming “GIRL, NO” every time Lauren O’Brien’s eyes filled with tears, you’re not alone. And if you’re still wondering what the hell actually went down between Lauren and Dave (and that “boyfriend” rumor), don’t worry—Amanda Hirsch of Not Skinny But Not Fat got all the answers from Lauren herself. It might be worse—and pettier—than you think.

For those catching up, Lauren O’Brien was this season’s relatable Midwestern brunette with the perpetual glassy eyes. Known for desperately trying  to communicate in a situation where no one—including her supposed fiancé—seemed to listen, Lauren became the internet’s “crying girl.” Not from weakness, but from frustration. “I’ve never felt so unheard before,” Lauren told Amanda. “I’ve never felt so bad at communicating before… Am I wrong? I don’t know. I was so in my head.”

What’s It Like to Date in Minneapolis? Ask Love Is Blind’s Lauren O’Brien

How it all began

Lauren’s journey to Love is Blind started like many disaster stories—at a post-breakup brunch when she spotted a casting call on Instagram. “I was kind of the known single friend,” she laughed. “I applied, not like as a joke, but just truly not thinking anything would ever come from this.” Six months later, producers slid into her DMs. 

Lauren was cast as an alternate—receiving the final yes just six days before filming. “I was scrambling,” she admitted. “I flew out on a Sunday and found out the Monday before.” Nothing screams romance like joining a televised experiment on a week’s notice. Despite the start, Lauren found herself genuinely considering marriage to Dave. “By the time we left Honduras, I was like, I am closer with this person emotionally and physically than I’ve had with any guy that I dated,” she confessed. “I kind of surprised myself.” 

The rumor that changed everything

In Honduras, red flags emerged quickly. Dave decided to make sex the group chat topic of the trip. “We were encouraged to have those conversations,” Lauren explained. “But he just… put people on blast.” 

Things really went off the rails when Dave got wind of the rumor that Lauren allegedly had a boyfriend. She didn’t. She had a situationship with a man she described as “casual.” 

“He name-dropped him and was like, ‘I heard from a friend of a friend there’s a girl coming on the show who has a boyfriend,'” Lauren revealed. “And my first thought was, ‘Oh my God, I wonder what girl came in with a boyfriend.’ Not realizing he was accusing me.”

When they got their phones back in the Honduras airport, Dave’s friends were blowing up his group chat. “That’s when all of his buddies were like, ‘You just got engaged to someone with a boyfriend,'” Lauren sighed. “I really do think in that moment he was like, ‘I’m out.'”

“He just kept being like, ‘I can’t get past the timeline,'” Lauren said. “I’m like, what else do you want from me?” Amanda nailed it: “It’s the ego. It’s like, ‘I cannot be the guy who stayed with the girl who hooked up with someone before going on the show.’”

A masterclass in deflection

Lauren agreed. “If you need an out, this is a really good out to use… but he was the one who made this commitment and got engaged. And he should have been the one to say to his family, ‘You’re either in or you’re out.’”

Instead, Dave blamed his sister, friends, and everyone but himself. “I wasn’t even having a phone call [with the sister]. Like, he wouldn’t call her if I was in the room or put us on speaker. Meanwhile, my family was like, ‘We want to meet the guy.’”

Off-camera, things were completely different. “There’s even a point a couple of days before we break up off camera, he says to me, ‘I don’t really give a shit who you slept with.’ And then… we would come back to the same topic,” she shared, confirming that every time cameras rolled, Dave brought up the same nonsense. When the cameras were off, “We were good. It really felt like a normal relationship outside of when cameras would roll,” she said.

Lauren found herself defending her reputation on national television. “I’m the one that’s going to sit here and defend myself for being the Minneapolis whore on national television, and I’m willing to do that,” she said.

When asked if she felt slut-shamed, Lauren didn’t hesitate: “Yeah. I just didn’t understand why it mattered.” 

Moving forward

So why’d Lauren stick around? “There is so much growth in a week. I was willing to continue seeing what that looked like… I probably would have wanted to see where things continued to go with him,” she said.

In the end, Lauren walked away with her dignity intact. “By the time he put the nail in the coffin, I was so done.” Now Lauren is thriving. She’s dated since the show ended, including another cast member”I’ve dated a little bit… I kind of dated Scott a little bit, like, six months after Dave and I broke up.” Because if you’re gonna date, you might as well keep it messy adjacent.

Lauren knows what most of us learn a little too late: some men just aren’t built for this. “There was love there,” she said of Dave. “Just not enough to actually work through a relationship.”

And she confirmed what locals already know—Minneapolis really is the worst place to date.