Reality TV Love Triangles Over the Years

List includes Teen Mom 2 stars Briana DeJesus, Javi Marroquin and Kailyn Lowry

By Corinne Heller Oct 25, 2017 10:06 PMTags

As if couple drama wasn't enough...

Love triangles occasionally pop up on reality TV shows. The most recent example: Teen Mom 2 star Javi Marroquin says he and co-star Briana DeJesus are dating. He was previously married to cast member Kailyn Lowry and share a son, Lincoln.

"I actually don't know what their relationship status is," Lowry had previously said on E! News' Daily Pop. "And whatever it is I'm happy for them. As long as they're happy, that's fine with me."

The Bachelor and its spinoffs are ripe territory for love triangles, given the nature of the dating shows. One of the most shocking such sagas played out this past fourth season of Bachelor in Paradise between cast members Dean Unglert, Kristina Schulman and Danielle Lombard.

Teen Mom 2's Briana DeJesus, Javi Marroquin and Kailyn Lowry

Marroquin said in October he and co-star DeJesus are dating. He was previously married to fellow cast member Kailyn Lowry and share a son, Lincoln.

Bachelor in Paradise: Dean Unglert, Kristina Schulman and Danielle Lombard

Unglert strung both women along on season three in 2017 and then chose Lombard. Schulman then left the show and Ulgert ended up changing his mind, telling Lombard that he loves Schulman. He and Lombard broke up, then rekindled their romance briefly after production ended. The three all appeared together on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in September. There, Ulgert said, "I see now looking back I could have handled things much, and I did handle things pretty poorly."

Jersey Shore: Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, Sammi "Sweetheart" Giancola and Ronnie Ortiz-Magro

On episode 2 of Jersey Shore's debut season, titled "The Tanned Triangle," Mike got upset when he saw Sammi hooking up with Ronnie.

The Real Housewives of Orange County's Jo De La Rosa, Slade Smiley and Gretchen Rossi

After Smiley and De La Rosa ended their engagement, he pursued a romance with Gretchen Rossi, and De La Rosa was not having it.

Dancing With the Stars Peta Murgatroyd, Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff

In 2009, years before he dated Murgatroyd, his now-wife and mother of their son, Chmerkovskiy was engaged for nine months to fellow Dancing With the Stars pro Smirnoff. The two remain friends and the three have often starred on the show together. Smirnoff left the series in 2015.

Flavor of Love's Flavor Flav, New York and Deelishis

The rapper chose Deelishis (Chandra Davis) over New York (Tiffany Pollard) on season two of the VH1 dating show. New York then starred in her own spinoff, I Love New York.

The Real Housewives of New York City' LuAnn de Lesseps, Tom D'Agostino, Sonja Morgan and Ramona Singer

Triangle? More like a quadrangle! Before the Countess and D'Agostino got engaged (and married) in 2016, he reportedly dated her co-stars Morgan and Singer. De Lesseps and D'Agostino filed for divorce in August 2017 after seven months of marriage. His infidelity, involving other women, was a major storyline on the show.

Laguna Beach: Kristen Cavallari, Stephen Colletti and Lauren Conrad

Cavallari has said that Laguna Beach producers wanted to focus on a love triangle involving her, her boyfriend Stephen Colletti and Lauren Conrad.

The Hills: Audrina Patridge, Justin Bobby and Kristin Cavallari

Despite the drama that played out on TV, Cavallari revealed on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live in 2012 that her relationship with Justin Bobby on The Hills was fake.

Reality TV triangles can also be manufactured. Case in point: Laguna Beach's Kristin Cavallari, her high school boyfriend Stephen Colletti and Lauren Conrad.

"My boyfriend at the time would take Lauren Conrad to dinner and buy her flowers, which never would have happened if it weren't for the show and MTV," she said on Oprah: Where Are They Now? in 2014. "I felt very used and manipulated."

In her 2012 book, Balancing in Heels: My Journey to Health, Happiness, and Making It All Work, Cavallari said, "One of the most hurtful things they did was pressure Stephen to spend time with another girl from the show, Lauren, while he and I were dating. It certainly provided some juicy conflicts, but it also affected me deeply. I felt threatened. On one side, it seemed like the producers were trying to break us up, which was intimidating. On the other side, I was worried that my relationship with Stephen was becoming less stable, even though I knew if we hadn't been on television, he wouldn't have been spending time with another girl."

Cavallari was later involved in another reality TV love triangle on The Hills, along with Audrina Patridge and Justin Bobby. Cavallari revealed on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live in 2012 that her relationship with him on the show was fake, while Patridge told E! News in 2014 that producers made them argue about him. MTV has not commented.

"I actually had to leave early for another event, we were there for about three hours and they were like, 'You can't leave until you and Kristin get into a fight.' So I'm like, 'Oh my God, Kristin!' Kristin's like, 'Let's do it.' I'm like, 'OK, c'mon,'" Patridge said. "It was about Justin and we did it and we got to leave."