Lauren From Love Is Blind's Ex-FWB Made His Own Headshot For The Show

Spoiler alert: This post discusses events through Episode 9 of Love Is Blind Season 8.

The unnamed agent of chaos that’s been at the center of all the recent Love Is Blind drama has finally been unmasked. After returning to the real world, Lauren O’Brien and Dave Bettenburg’s engagement hit a serious rough patch when Dave couldn’t accept just how recently his fiancée had hooked up with another guy. The tension over this former friend-with-benefits completely overtook their whole relationship dynamic. While this “other guy” wasn’t named, it didn’t take social media sleuths too long to track him down. And just like Lauren and her friends warned, he definitely seems like he was angling for some screen time.

Once Lauren and Dave got their phones back, Dave was immediately inundated with warnings from his friends and his incredibly protective sister that Lauren was in a situationship within days of leaving for the experiment. Apparently, Dave’s friends are close with this person Lauren was with, and even more strangely, he was staying in the same building as the couple’s new apartment.

Though Lauren consistently assured Dave that this former fling was never serious, he still couldn’t get over it. Lauren’s friends even chimed in to shed some light, telling Dave that they never even met this guy, but he had texted them about “blow[ing] up this wedding” and was simply desperate to get on TV.

Fans of the show quickly tracked this ex down, revealing him to be CrossFit enthusiast Daniel Nides. Though Daniel has since set his Instagram account to private, a screenshot has gone viral of one of his alleged posts: a self-made Love Is Blind poster of himself.

“You can find me 8 floors up in the same ‘frigging’ building,” Daniel captioned the headshot, referencing his close proximity to Lauren and Dave.

Although it wasn’t shown, Lauren confirmed she did run into her ex shortly after she and Dave had moved into their apartment. “Within 24 hours, I saw him in the elevator,” she told Vulture. “Not fun.”

She also stated that she believes this ex over-exaggerated the extent of their relationship in an attempt to get on TV. “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,” Lauren said. “When we got back and I was hearing his version of things, it felt like a 180 compared to any conversation we ever had ... He also reached out and asked to talk. I texted him back, and he was like, ‘But do you wanna talk in person?’ And my first reaction was, ‘Oh, do you want to get a camera op? Is that where this is coming from?’”