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‘The Ultimatum: Queer Love’ Star Britney Defends AJ’s Controversial Dating Period
[Warning: The below contains spoilers for The Ultimatum: Queer Love Season 2, Episodes 1-6.]
When AJ Blount and Britney Thompson decided to join the cast of The Ultimatum: Queer Love, they talked about rules and expectations. One of them was to respect the process, which included going on dates with their costars.
Even though we’re still waiting on the second half of The Ultimatum: Queer Love to drop, the first handful of episodes wasted no time in getting straight into the drama. Once the six established couples that entered the social experiment had broken up, they were charged with exploring connections with their castmates. A newly single AJ dated three of them — Marie Robertson, Marita Prodger, and Bridget Matloff — and had to narrow down which would become her “trial wife.”
AJ ultimately selected Marie as her partner, but in Episodes 2 and 3, we saw Marita and Bridget express their disapproval of how AJ handled the dating portion of the show. Bridget, for one, claimed that AJ was being inauthentic and having similar conversations with all three of them. “It was just a little bit frustrating to spend all this time and energy into our dates, trying to put aside that manufactured confidence and put-on chemistry,” she said during the choice ceremony.
AJ Blount and Bridget Matloff in episode 202 of ‘The Ultimatum: Queer Love.’ (Netflix)
Chiming in, Marita claimed that AJ “almost robbed [her] of the experience.” She added, “I was so set on the connection that I had with you. I had less dates with other people because I was just following my heart.” (In a twist of fate, Marita and Britney later became a couple by default.)
Britney defended AJ in the moment, explaining to the group that AJ’s charisma captivates people, so she wasn’t surprised by the turn of events. She then doubled down when Swooon spoke to her a day after Season 2’s premiere.
“She was single, she let the dog off the leash, she was doing her thing,” Britney, who was the one to give AJ an ultimatum, told Swooon. “She was a great representation of herself with Marie and then also with myself. So, it was just dating week. [It was] little rough, but that was what it called for.”
She added that it wasn’t too difficult to deal with AJ’s dating habits then because they discussed it after the Changeover, when they were coupled up for their own three-week trial marriage. “She explained all of that very explicitly,” Britney said. “She tried to remember everything verbatim.”
Britney Thompson and AJ Blount in Episode 207 of ‘The Ultimatum: Queer Love.’ (Netflix)
A year later, she says watching the dating episodes felt different, but only briefly. “When I watched it on screen yesterday when it came out, I was like, ‘OK, this is actually kind of hard to watch,'” Britney admitted.
When Swooon caught up with AJ in separate interview, she provided some further insight into that part of the show. “I don’t think we could ever truly blame the edit,” she began. “Those are the things I said. Those are the things that I mean, you know what I’m saying?”
However, AJ does wish that the episodes showed more of the deeper conversations that she had with her three costars. “I did truly connect with all three people, and out of the 10, they were the three that I connected the most with, and I did feel safe. I felt safe with Marie. I felt like it was wild with Marita, and I felt like Bridget was just cool and fun and groovy as a person.”
“For it to look a certain way, I mean, it’s different for me to watch,” she continued. “I know who I am as a person, but yeah, I did say those things. That’s what we saw. So I try not to dwell too much on that because that’s part of it, but that’s not all of it. We’re seeing literally like 10% of what made it.”
AJ and Britney went into The Ultimatum after having conversations about what they were and weren’t comfortable with. “I think for us, the dating… It was, ‘I want you to find what you’re looking for in this,'” she explained. “‘And if there is somebody that [connects with you] emotionally and mentally, then that’s a conversation that we can have for later.'”
She continued, “I think the most important [rule] was just generally if you do find you have a connection, I think we can talk about it. Let’s be transparent about it. At the end of the day, we have to make sure that we’re doing the process justice.”
The Ultimatum: Queer Love, Season 2, Part 1, Streaming Now, Netflix
The Ultimatum: Queer Love, Season 2, Part 2, July 2, Netflix
