Love Is Blind’s Dave Bettenburg Addresses Joke, Sister Backlash

Love Is Blind season 8 contestant Dave Bettenburg is weighing in on the backlash he received after cracking jokes in the pods.

Warning: This post contains spoilers from Love Is Blind season 8.

“The crazy thing about that is … if you kind of understand that humor or whatever, people can tell it was a joke,” Dave, 33, said on the Tuesday, February 18, episode of “The Viall Files” podcast. “[My eventual fiancée] Lauren [O’Brien], I think she handled it really well and we kind of connected after that and hit it off.”

Dave quickly emerged as a polarizing contestant on the latest installment of the Netflix reality dating show, which dropped the first six episodes on Friday, February 14. Right off the bat, Dave asked his potential suitors the pick-up line, “What’s wrong with you?” His humor resonated well with some fans — Cazzie David quipped on the podcast that his joke was “perfect” — and not so well with others, but Dave noted that he’s happy he stayed true to his personality.

“I’m happy I approached it the way I did because, like, it landed with a lot of women, honestly. It made things fun. I have a personality, so I was happy to, like, show that side of me,” Dave said. “It also weeded out a lot of the people that I didn’t connect with. It helped me get there a little bit quicker. I like to keep things light, you know, keep it fun and honestly that came out in the speed date portion right away. I was just trying to have some fun with it and see who I connected with.”

When asked by Nick Viall if he could “take it as well as you can give it,” Dave replied, “Yeah, I think so. But I’m kind of quickly learning that it’s harder than I think.”

“I mean I talked a lot, you’re in those pods for hours on end and, like, there’s just a lot of stuff you talk about,” Dave said. “That’s a really important piece of, like, a partner that I was looking for. I want to be able to have fun with that partner. I feel like I just want to be myself and make sure people understand me for me.”

Dave, who worked as a medical device salesman, also addressed his comments on the show about judging people who get “too much Botox.”

“They show me talking about Botox, filler, stuff like that a lot,” Dave said. “I was in that industry at the time and there’s nothing wrong with a little Botox here and there, I’m a fan of that. … I know I’ve been shallow in the past, I really don’t want to be like that. I feel like I talked a lot about being the person that I know I can be when it comes to looks and loving someone for the right reasons. I was thinking a lot about that when I got there.”

He continued, “Honestly, I didn’t really know what to expect. I kind of just went in open-minded. I knew I’d make a few connections and I didn’t expect to go as far as I ended up going.”

Since appearing on the show, Dave explained that his sister — who he shared was not thrilled about his attempt to find love in the pods several times on the show — is “taking it in stride.”

“The internet is just insane, because apparently having a good relationship with your sister is a bad thing. Sorry, she’s cool. Whatever,” Dave said. “I think she’s doing OK. If she was struggling with it, she would have been talking with me and texting me a lot. I think she’s doing alright.”

After a love triangle with Molly Mulaney and Lauren, Dave ultimately picked Lauren — and the pair got engaged.

After the season 8 premiere, cohosts Nick and Vanessa Lachey weighed in on Dave’s behavior. “I think he admitted at some point that a couple of the ladies didn’t take that the right way,” Nick, 51, told Us Weekly in an exclusive interview with Vanessa, 44. “For him, that’s a way of trying to break the ice and be a jokey guy.”

The first six episodes of Love Is Blind are streaming on Netflix. Episodes 7-9 will be available on February 21, and episodes 10-11 will debut on February 28.