Love is Blind couple Danielle Drouin and Rory Newbrough’s relationship started off picture perfect. He was her first pod date and they felt an immediate draw to each other. Their connection only became stronger as the process continued. It was the stuff of reality TV fairytales.
Rory and Danielle’s strong bond led to their engagement. The couple was ready to plan a future together, but the reality of the real world hit them fast. They broke up after only a few weeks together. One thing that haunted their romance all throughout it was Danielle’s feelings for another Love is Blind contestant, Matt Thomas. Screen Rant interviewed Danielle and she shared more details about her unseen romance with Rory and Matt.
Love is Blind daters could spice their pod dates up by adding activities to their sessions. This led to her and Matt bonding while practicing yoga. She says, "One time, Matt and I did yoga together. We did a whole yoga flow together; just coordinating breathing and that was pretty special." The two bonded over more than just yoga, which is why Danielle found herself in such a difficult position. Eventually, Rory decided to propose to Danielle, but Matt decided to leave Love is Blind without making a proposal.
"Matt and I had our last date together, and he told me that it was his last day there. He told me that he didn’t feel comfortable getting married this soon and wanted to experience life with me first. He said that he wanted to go on trips with me and go through all the senses together. He wanted to actually hold my hand and tell me he loved me before we were forced into something. Not forced, but I guess that’s maybe how he felt. He didn’t want to rush anything." Danielle continued, "He wanted me to also leave and I told him that I couldn’t do that. I told him that I needed to have my last date with Rory and talk to him. I couldn’t 100 percent tell him the same things that Matt was telling me because my heart was also still with Rory. I knew I owed it to Rory before I made any drastic decisions to leave."
Danielle felt a wave of emotions and joy when she first met Rory and they became engaged. Danielle was content with her decision to be with Rory. However, while engaged to Rory, Matt continued to reach out to her.
"Matt found my social media. He found my emails and started contacting me. Meanwhile, I’m still at the facility, but he sent me some emails and messages on Instagram. He liked some very special photos that were tied to conversations and memories that we had together in the pods. Kind of like a secret little code."
All the Love is Blind contestants who weren’t continuing on to the Mexico portion of the season decided to meet up.
"It was kind of our own fun little party to just meet everybody. I knew Matt was going to be there. I walked in holding Rory’s hand and wearing the ring. I see Matt instantly, I had never met him before and my heart sank. It truly sank. I was just so overcome with emotion. He comes over to me and goes to shake my hand, and he says, ‘Hey, I’m your friend Matt.’ I pushed his hand away and gave him a huge hug. I said ‘it’s so nice to meet you.’ We didn’t talk for the rest of the night. I couldn’t talk to him because it was just too much for me. At the end of the night, he said goodbye to me and I told him that we needed to talk sometime soon."
After meeting Matt in person for the first time, Rory and Danielle’s romance took a turn.
"After Rory and I got back from Miami, life started to get real. We started to meet each other’s friends and family; we had to go back to work. There was a lot of questions and there was a lot of real life things coming up. He was kind of far away. He had long hours at his job. Our lives were very different. I got nervous. He asked ‘do you think that you should move in?’ I honestly started to become so overwhelmed. I wondered ‘is this real? Are we really engaged? Should we be moving this fast?’ I told him that I needed to sit back from it all. Inside I was still so conflicted because I had feelings for Matt and Rory. I felt like it wasn’t fair for me to be trying to pursue this future with Rory right now when I still had feelings for Matt. I felt like it wasn’t fair to Rory."
After Rory and Danielle officially ended things, Matt and Danielle took a couple weeks before they met up again in person. They then built a friendship that became romantic.
"I had really strong feelings for him. At the time, I thought it was the real deal. I even met his family. We spent the holidays together. We never committed to being boyfriend and girlfriend, because Matt felt a little uneasy about it for some reason. He doesn’t like labels, which made me very uneasy to be honest, because I just went through this whole thing and I was committing to him now."
We have more of Danielle and Matt’s story coming up, so make sure to return to Screen Rant to read more of our exclusive interviews with the Love is Blind cast.
Screen Rant edited this interview for clarity.