It wasn’t that long ago that lovers of the many dating shows on Netflix were very wrapped up in the major fight between Natalie and Shayne on Love Is Blind Season 2. But, early April brought yet another entry in bingeable Netflix reality shows with the 2022 TV schedule giving fans The Ultimatum Season 1. While there is plenty of on-screen drama to be had, now one of the cast members, Lauren Pounds, has accused the show of “lying” about her age, and says it wouldn’t have happened to a man who appeared on the series.
Why Does The Ultimatum’s Lauren Claim The Show Lied About Her Age?
If you’ve watched pretty much any dating show, you’ll know that we generally get the participants name and age right up front (and sometimes their occupation), so that we can begin to get to know them and also put their actions into some kind of perspective. Well, as part of Lauren’s introduction on The Ultimatum, the show lists her as being 26.
But, after posting about her recent 30th birthday on Instagram, it led to a conversation in the comments about her age, with one of Lauren’s followers asking about the age difference. In reply, Lauren said:
They lied about my age. We can’t figure out if it was intentional or not 🙃
Well, I’m intrigued, aren’t you? Lauren went on to screenshot and repost the conversation in her highlights (via Buzzfeed), where she called her being identified as 26 on The Ultimatum “beyond interesting,” and added:
So it's okay for a man on TV to be 30, but we have to lie about age if the woman is?
Of course, the big catch here, as Lauren noted herself, is that we don’t know if her age being presented as 26 was on purpose or not. There are 12 participants on The Ultimatum Season 1, with ages that range from 23 to 30, so it very easily could have been a simple mistake. One of Lauren’s fellow cast members, Alexis Maloney, was listed as being 25 at the time of filming, so it seems unlikely that producers would say, “Nope! Twenty-five is the cut-off age for all of these women!” But, it’s also not impossible that it was done on purpose.
Another commenter on Lauren’s original “30 and thriving” post asked if she complained to producers about the age change, but she didn’t respond to that comment, so right now we don’t know if she attempted to address it with the show. Either way, Lauren has gotten a number of supportive replies on her Instagram after revealing her actual age, and for her time on the show in general, so she’s also thanked her followers for their positivity, noting that “one positive message makes up for ten negative ones.”
We may never know whether or not Lauren’s age was just an easy mistake, but you can watch how her The Ultimatum journey went right now on Netflix, with the finale and reunion hitting the streamer on Wednesday, April 13.
