The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On is Netflix’s latest dating show from the producers of Love is Blind. Like the latter, the show is hosted by Nick and Vanessa Lachey and has a twist beyond just dating: six preexisting couples who are divided on the topic of marriage have to live with someone from one of the other couples for a trial marriage. At then end of the trial period, the contestants have to decide if they want to marry their original partner or move on.
Like the first season of Love is Blind, this show also has some weirdness surrounding a female contestant’s age. While Jessica (34) was the one who was fixated on her age and kept bringing it up herself, this time it’s definitely a production snafu. Lauren Pounds, one of the contestants this season, was aged down by like three years in her chyrons, which listed her as 26. But fans noticed that she posted about her 30th birthday this year.
If you spent the weekend basking in the drama of The Ultimatum — Vanessa and Nick Lachey’s latest Netflix reality dating show — then you’ve already been acquainted with Lauren Pounds, who’s a participant on the debut season.
Lauren appears on the series alongside her partner, Nate Ruggles, as well as a handful of other couples asked to put their relationships to the test on TV before deciding whether or not to get married.
Anyway, Lauren sparked an important conversation on Instagram recently about ageism, and tired, sexist double standards, when a fan noticed she’d shared a post about turning 30 this past February despite — supposedly — being just 26 while filming The Ultimatum.
Obviously, something didn’t add up. “Wait I’m terribly confused weren’t u like 26 on the show?” the fan commented, to which Lauren replied, “They lied about my age [on The Ultimatum]. We can’t figure out if it was intentional or not.”
Lauren later reposted a screenshot of the interaction on Instagram Stories (it still appears in her highlights if you’d like to see for yourself) beside a screenshot from one of her Ultimatum confessionals that confirms she was, in fact, identified as “Lauren, 26.”
Netflix hasn’t addressed the chatter surrounding Lauren’s age being presented incorrectly, so it’s unclear if that was intentional or some kind of unfortunate mistake. If anything changes, we’ll keep you updated.
UPDATE: A representative from Netflix reached out to BuzzFeed and confirmed that Lauren’s age will be corrected on the show.
If I’m being generous, I suppose it’s possible that if she was 29 when it filmed, an editor could have mixed up 6 and 9 (lol). Sometimes if I glance quickly at numbers, I misremember numbers that are a similar shape/outline and this has caused me to miss a train before by mistakenly remembering a 5 as an 8! (I probably shouldn’t admit this or cut it so close at the train station). But if it was actually a mistake, Netflix would probably just say so and they didn’t. All they said was that her age would be updated. An error would look better on them because this just looks a little sexist.
Also, the fact that Lauren and her partner were both the same age, but only she was aged down, makes it extra weird and silly! While I can certainly/personally understand the impulse of a single woman in her 30s to age herself down (it’s crossed my mind), why do it for just one half of a couple? Women just have to be young, no matter what, I guess. Anything above 30 is too old and why would her same-age partner of several years even want to marry her after 30. It makes me think of this random post from my Explore page that I can’t find: it’s a picture of Ana de Armas and a caption expressing disbelief that she’s 30+, and then there’s a comment that says something like “do you think women turn into Prince Phillip after 30?” Seems like The Ultimatum does.
Photos credit Netflix and via Instagram, @laurenkilos
She was a weird one anyway. The whole show is toxic af, but she was part of a pairing that didn’t seem to work. And her chemistry with Colby was cringy.
She definitely talked about not wanting kids like a 29 year old that was set in her life, but spoke to Colby about being open to kids like a 26 year old that did, but not with her current bf.
The whole show was a huuuuuuge mess, with the “kids” acting like they had never met another available person before, and that everyone they kind of liked was the only person they’d ever be able to click with. They were all too emotionally immature to get married and need ten more years of individual therapy before considering even dating again. It was an unpleasant watch.
All of this!
I’ve been watching and ALWAYS laugh when Alexis – the blonde on the right in the pic above – goes into a confessional and her chyron pops at 25 YEARS OLD. No possible way.
Plastic surgery ages people. But yeah she looks older.
She reminds me of Rumor Willis!
Definitely the first thing that crossed my mind as well
Oh, she’s got to be at least 35! And I totally believe that they’ve got a bunch of producers who think any woman on the ‘wrong’ side of 30, well, just cannot be desirable. Lie! Lie about her age! Sure, that’s the answer!
I don’t watch a lot of these shows but tried this one.
It was bad. I kept angry texting my friend. And I felt bad for Lauren since she said she didn’t want kids and everyone seemed to be trying to change her mind. Let her think for herself.
I stopped at the selecting people around the table awkwardly.
Most of these people seemed at least a few years older than their listed ages. Love is Blind was a fun watch (and actually the Japanese version is great) but this show has been truly terrible and cringe-y.
I like the Japanese version as well !!
Uhm…
Colby was one of the worst. Rae, I didn’t get her at all, especially at the reunion, the way she was yelling at Zay while he was just trying to answer her… Zay had its fault but he was probably one of the sweetest. I have a soft spot for April as well, even though she definitely cried a lot. Shanique and Randall are okay IMO.
I felt like Lauren forced herself to agree “on 1 kid”, which pains me. I don’t understand why they lied about her age.
And Colby and Madlyn ??? WTF…
Anyway this concept was just insane, who would be ok with seeing the partner they want to marry date someone else in front of them??
See, this is why they make these shows. You guys believe everything they serve you. They edit the shows HARD and though some of it is true, a lot is not. Lots of it not being portrayed and ltos being pushed in different directions.
Zay is not a sweetheart if we are to believe the people behind the scenes.
But I agree with people commenting here, the people on the show were emotionally immature. Must be something the producers look for making this.
I’m sure it’s edited hard, It doesn’t mean I’m going to personally hate on Rae or anything… I just didn’t understand her in the last episode 🙂 and beside this website I don’t read anything else so I don’t see the BTS stuff, but I’m sure there is 🙂
This show is a crazy mess.
I use my brain at work, so when I come home, I love watching these stupid shows. I cannot wait for this one; I hope it’s as good as LIB. If a guy is holding out on marriage, dump him! I bet most of these couples will end in a break-up.