I stared at my phone in disbelief. I’d been sent my recent ex’s Bumble profile via a friend of a friend and at the very top of his bio it read: ‘Dad to be’.
We’d only broken up about four months ago, and granted it was my decision to end the relationship, but it seemed so soon.
At just 20 years old I thought it surely had to be a joke. So, my curiosity got the better of me and I dropped him a message and straight up asked him if it was true.
Yes it is, he wrote. He went on to tell me that in his ‘rebound’ relationship after me, he’d only been using ‘the pullout’ method, and it hadn’t gone to plan.
The real shocker? This happened about two weeks after we’d broken up.
The woman, who was a few years older than him had decided to keep the baby, even though it was clear they weren’t going to stay together. Honestly, all power to her.
This was why he was on Bumble looking for his forever person, and in fairness, I saluted him for being upfront about his situation.
He was also still being very supportive to the mother of his child and is, to this day, from what I can see from sporadic Facebook posts, a great dad.
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To my shock, he asked if I’d ever be willing to get back together and be a stepmother to his kid, but as I’d barely entered my twenties, I didn’t feel that was the path for me – plus none of the reasons we’d broken up had changed.
Why am I telling you this story? Well, it came up in the ever hot topic of dating apps in the latest episode of Metro’s sex and relationships podcast: Just Between Us.
Our caller had met her long distance boyfriend-to-be (hopefully) on Hinge, which my co-host Diana Vickers and I agreed is the most relationship friendly app of the bunch.
I met my long-term partner Sam on Hinge after coming across his dreamy blue eyes and making the first move, and nearly two years in, it’s been my best decision to date.
But with the benefits of dating apps come the downsides too – one of them being that cheating has become much easier.
This is something both our caller Rebecca and I had experienced, and it really does suck. In fact, this negative experience gave us both a form of anxious attachment – but you can learn more about that in the episode.
Before the apps, you had to actively go out and look for someone to cheat with, but in the age of Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, Feeld and more, the temptation is just a tap or two away.
Being scorned does feel like a pretty universal experience too, with YouGov stats indicating that 48% of Brits have been cheated on. Furthermore, 33% admit to cheating on their partner.
Diana had a similar experience when she realised she’d nearly become The Other Woman.
I let a professional roaster tear apart my dating profile – and this is what I learnt
For most stand up comedians their arena is a stadium. For Ted Pullin, it’s his kitchen table and a microphone wedged on the end of a wooden spoon.
His quintessentially brutal British humour has exploded in popularity on TikTok, where he roasts people’s dating profiles – no holds barred.
The videos show screenshots of someone’s dating profile and he then savagely picks them apart in excruciating detail, commenting on facial expressions, poses, outfit choices and poor chat.
So I sent mine in to be roasted. Questioning which online persona from my profile would actually turn up on a date, he said: ‘Will it be the f**k-off-face dog-thief or will it be the melanin intolerant Brit abroad?’
Honestly, who knows?
I got called out for attempting to flex my celebrity following, but upon hearing it consists of John Cena, Ted said: ‘If I was a nine-year-old boy, that would get me really excited.’
Want to see what else was wrong with my profile? Read more here.
‘There was a guy and we were chatting online but he wouldn’t meet me again and I didn’t understand why,’ she says on the podcast.
‘Then I saw he’d posted a picture of him and his partner that moved in with him… I don’t know if it worked out because he’s been trying to reach out again.’
But our caller Rebecca’s story is proof that dating apps do still work in 2025, despite claims that they’re dying. You’ve just got to have your red flag radar on in your search for The One.
Listen to the full story at Just Between Us now, available wherever you get your podcasts.
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