'I Also Dated Somebody Who Boasted About Work On The First Date, This Is Why It's Such A Turn-Off'
Warning: This article contains Love Is Blind season seven spoilers.
There are a few rules to generally abide by on a first date. The first is to dress well — a brown shoe and short combination for men ought to be outlawed entirely; the second is to be inquisitive — try to get to know the potential love of your life who is nervously nursing a negroni on the opposite side of the table; and the third, which Leo Braudy in the most recent season of Love is Blind clearly never learned in Dating 101 is to never boast about work, finances, generational wealth, or inheritance. Particularly not when being filmed for a reality TV show.
For the uninitiated, Leo's frissons so far on the seventh series of the hit dating reality TV show have gone a little like this: he oscillated between contestants Hannah Jiles and Brittany Wisniewski until, after some truly bizarre romantic bartering with Hannah, Leo eventually proposed to Brittany, which she accepted. However, the production team ultimately chose not to invite the pair to Mexico and the couple eventually broke up during their own trip to Miami.
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Unfortunately Hannah and Brittainy weren't the only ones who faced a barrage of budget boasting from Leo. 'I grew up financially very well-off,' he tells three men in episode one. 'I'm not trying to build an influencer career. I'm a rich f*cking art dealer. I grew up, like, I went to a country club, went to private school. My college was paid for.' He also admitted to his wealth in a confessional, saying: 'I’m fortunate. I have an interesting and lucrative job. I’m an art dealer. It’s a family business. I actually own it now.'
I know all too well how much of a turn-off first date boasting can be. Within the first 15 minutes of meeting one date — and before my Aperol Spritz had even arrived — they had regaled me about the boarding school they attended and their families' cadre of holiday homes. For context, this person looked as if they'd been dragged through a hedge backwards, so the irony of his millionaire status felt immeasurably comical. Unsurprisingly, I never visited his holiday homes, and after I sunk my cocktail, I politely made my excuses and ran like the wind.
The only reasons I can see why someone would care to discuss the digits in their bank account would be because they're worryingly insecure, they intentionally want to make their date feel inferior, and they view their financial status as some sort of endearing quality that sits alongside being courteous, emotionally available, and communicative. It does not. On a first date, I want to know about your hopes, your fears, your ambitions. Tell me about why I should date you, not your family and their properties. Contrary to what Leo might believe, generational wealth will never love you back and nor will a bloated ego.
Clearly mortified by the public commentary that's followed his fleeting appearance on the show, Leo has now tried to back pedal. Taking to his Instagram, he has re-shared clips from Tyler Francis’ appearance on the podcast, The Viall Files, during which Tyler revealed Leo 'didn’t mention money to us' other than adding that his Rolex was 'passed down' from his great grandpa.
Leo has also posted a video that showed several messages between him and Ally Dawson, another contestant who appeared on the seventh season of Love Is Blind, who had made a TikTok video about how Leo had spoken about money. He then replied in the comments: 'This is hilarious', before she responded: 'Had I known you were Richie Rich maybe we’d go for a pod round two.' He joked back: 'Musta forgot to tell you. What’s ur Venmo.' She replied: 'I accept cash, checks, and Rolex watches.' Leo proceeded to post this exchange back-and-forth on Instagram, and told his followers: 'If you notice, I never talked about money with her either… Weird.' He also, rather embarrassingly, captioned the post: 'BuT Le0 I thoUgHT aLL U tAlkEd aBOuT wAs MoNeY.'
True love can be found anywhere – that's one of life's few remaining pleasures, but one place it is rarely unearthed is from conversations about inheritance, money or generational wealth before you've learned the other person's last name. In case anybody ever needed proof that money can't buy you class, tact or manners, Leo Braudy may well just be it.
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