How Watching Bravo Together Strengthened My Relationship With My Fiancé

Nothing brings a couple together quite like Real Housewives.

By Alexis Dent, SELF

“I’m in for the night. Hope you guys have fun though,” I texted my now-fiancé, Roberto. Within seconds, I received the response, “Why? Too busy watching Real Housewives of Atlanta?”
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I snickered, impressed he'd paid enough attention to remember the name of any Real Housewives franchise. At that point, we’d only been dating two months—not long enough for him to have known the full extent of my Bravo obsession. But clearly, he knew enough. Watching a few episodes of my favorite reality TV shows and drifting off to sleep before 10 P.M. was just what I needed at the end of a long day. Nothing beats throwing on PJs, scarfing down a pint of Ben & Jerry’s, and watching Real Housewives of New York’s Dorinda Medley head to a luxurious dinner party after having one too many drinks.

During the beginning of our relationship, Roberto loved to pick on me for my passion for Bravo TV.

Every time I turned down an invitation to meet for drinks or go out with friends, Roberto teased me about the importance I placed on my favorite housewives. He even celebrated our first Christmas together with a gag gift: a combination lock that I could put on pints of Ben & Jerry's when I decided I was done for the night. (The lock fits around the top of an ice cream pint, and you need an access code to unlock it and remove the cap.) The cheeky (albeit surprisingly practical) present perfectly embodied my shamelessness—I loved to indulge in premium ice cream and morally ambiguous reality television. (For the record, his jokes never got to me—he's such sweet, gentle guy, and I knew he was just being playful.)

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But over time, Roberto’s relentless teasing of my Bravo obsession started to cool. One day he came over while I was in the midst of marathoning Vanderpump Rules, one of my favorites. The show follows former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast member Lisa Vanderpump as she runs the Californian restaurant SUR. Instead of making fun of me, he plopped down in front of the TV and became increasingly wrapped up in the Vanderpump trap. As he began uncontrollably giggling and watching in awe, I knew he finally understood my infatuation with the ridiculous and all-too-dramatic series.

As it turns out, a day spent watching Vanderpump Rules is a slippery slope that can lead to a full-blown Bravo obsession.

The next show on Roberto’s radar? Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. He loved voting in the polls, playing along with the drinking games, and rooting for sloppy behavior from his favorite guests. Just like that, Roberto was hooked. He started religiously keeping up with Watch What Happens Live—and a bunch of other Bravo shows, too.

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Before long, he was performing impressions of his favorite stars (his impersonation of Million Dollar Listing New York's Fredrik Eklund is particularly great) and picking sides in infamous Bravo feuds. (FWIW, when it comes to Vanderpump drama, we’re #TeamStassi forever.) We've now created taglines for our Real Housewives personas. Mine is, “I’m opinionated, over-educated, and slightly medicated. Be careful before stepping on my toes.” His? “My life is like a playground, and this is just another walk in the park.”

It’s been two years since Roberto first poked fun at me for loving Bravo, and he's now my Bravo-loving fiancé.

Watching Bravo together has made our relationship both more fun and more loving. Together, we’ve watched multiple seasons of our favorite series—Southern Charm, Vanderpump Rules, and, of course, Real Housewives. We’ve even purchased past seasons of those series so he can catch up on all the excitement that unfolded prior to his obsession.



[post_ads]We now structure our social lives around some of our favorite shows. Like sporting events, Bravo series are best enjoyed in real-time. Each week, we carve out time to sit side-by-side on the couch—homemade cocktails in hand—and dive into the latest Bravo saga. Spending this time together is obviously great, but there’s something really special about laughing (or eye-rolling) in unison as we indulge in our favorite Bravo-lebrity drama—an unlikely source of entertainment that’s now become our beloved tradition.



Before Roberto and I developed our shared Bravo obsession, we didn't watch much TV together. And when we did, one of us was always looking on passively while multitasking (aka, when he was watching golf, I was scrolling through Instagram—and vice versa). Now, we actually bond over the shows we watch by chatting and joking throughout each episode. Sure, I'm still live-tweeting along with the show and Roberto's still following the Bravo lovers subreddit, but we're sharing the funniest stuff we find with one another.



Spending more time together in this way confirmed something we both already knew: We genuinely want to be around one another, sharing our interests, hobbies, and lives. And Andy Cohen, if you're out there reading this, call us any time—you've got two Bravo experts ready for our reality TV debut.

See more at: SELF