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The Ultimatum contestant Lauren Pounds calls out Netflix for lying about her age on the show

‘We can’t figure out if it was intentional or not’

Amber Raiken
New York
Thursday 14 April 2022 22:27 BST
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(Netflix )

The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On star Lauren Pounds has called Netflix out for lying about her age on the show, as she’s listed as 26-years-old when she is really 30.

Pounds and her partner, Nate Ruggles, 30, were one of the six different couples who faced an ultimatum, as one of them was ready to get married while the other was not. After going through a two month experiment, couples decided if they want to get engaged or walk away from each other forever.

In the first episode, viewers were introduced to 26-year-old woman, Pounds, who had received a marriage ultimatum from Ruggles.

However, shortly after the show premiered, an Instagram user noticed that Lauren shared a post on the platform last February in honour of her 30th birthday.

“Wait, I’m terribly confused, weren’t you like 26 on the show?,” the wrote in the comments. In response, Pounds clarified that her age listed on The Ultimatum was a “lie”.

“They lied about my age,” she wrote. “We can’t figure out if it was intentional or not”.

In a since-expired Instagram story, Pounds posted a screenshot of the comment about her age, along with a screenshot of herself on the Netflix show where she’s identified as “Lauren, 26”.

She noted how it was “beyond interesting” that she labelled as 26 instead of 30. She also called it a double standard, as she appears to reference how Ruggles is 30 and was listed as such on the show.

“BEYOND INTERESTING,” she wrote in the caption, via BuzzFeed. “So it’s okay for a man on TV to be 30, but we have to lie about age if the woman is?”

She later thanked her followers for so many “positive messages” in a since-expired Instagram story.

“I just want y’all to know that I’m so thankful for the outpour of positive messages. I swear one positive message makes up for ten negative ones,” she wrote. “Please remember that every single cast member from this show has been through a lot. I respect each and every one of them, and at the end of the day, we’re all human beings with feelings.”

At the start of the series, Ruggles wanted to get married and have children, while Pounds did not. However, in the third episode, he got down on one knee and proposed, saying that he realised through the experience that he didn’t need a family as long as he had Pounds. She accepted the proposal.

The couple revealed at the reunion episode that they are still engaged and had since been to a lot of therapy. They also came to an agreement about children, as Pounds said that they want to have one child.

Speaking to The Independent, a representative for Netflix said that Lauren’s age on the show is being corrected.

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