Brian Dawe saw this coming: After exclusively speaking to us about the relationship he faked with Farrah Abraham for the sake of Couples Therapy, there’s been a good deal of backlash.
“I believe that this situation is embarrassing for Farrah, and for the producers, who knew the relationship was a lie before the participants moved into the house where the show was to be filmed,” Brian said of the reaction to his interview with us.
One of the swiftest responses to our original article was from Couples Therapy counselor Dr. Jenn Berman, who told The TV Page that Farrah’s relationship with Brian was presented to her as “authentic,” despite the fact our story included an email Brian sent to Couples Therapy producers before taping that explained he and Farrah weren’t legitimate.
“Neither I nor my producers would ever allow anyone on Couples Therapy that we did not believe was a legitimate couple. This relationship was presented to me as an authentic short-term relationship,” Dr. Jenn said on Tuesday. “I have worked with other short term relationships on the show and have done very meaningful work with those couples.”
Farrah followed yesterday with a not-so-subtle subtweet: “F**k loser boyfriends who use me! & can’t face the truth!! I can face the music WATCH! NEW SEASON #4 of @VH1 @CouplesTherapyV @DrJennQuote”
Despite the denials of “relationship fraud” from Farrah and Dr. Jenn, Brian followed up with us to provide more evidence he and Farrah were never romantic.
“Farrah and I never had any kind of a relationship other than a professional one,” Brian exclusively told us. “I actually had a girlfriend at the time Farrah approached me to be in a fake relationship and am still currently dating her.”
Brian added his girlfriend, Victoria (shown above), was “reluctantly supportive” of the scheme.
“(She) understood that it would not be real, and that I would be acting out the part of Farrah’s boyfriend,” Brian said of his true love. “She is very supportive of my career in the entertainment industry and extremely patient to have dealt with this scenario.”
In reality, Brian said his communications with Farrah only consisted of text messages and phone calls to cook up their “relationship history.”
“We discussed how we met, places we had been together, how we hid our relationship from the public, fights that we had been in, and all of it was obviously false,” Brian said. “The whole task of it all was absolutely ridiculous and I felt a huge amount of guilt agreeing to live out these lies on national television.”
He also provided us the text messages between him and Farrah during the week of Oct. 13 through Oct. 18. The conversations were purely about show logistics, not anything that would indicate they were romantic (or even knew each other outside of a professional capacity).
By exposing the truth about his faux-relationship, Brian said he didn’t intend to hurt Farrah.
“I hope she understands that she has been exploited since she was a teenager, and that the best thing she can do is to be honest to herself, and the public. My only purpose for coming out with my story is to clear my name, and to take a public stance against the culture of exploiting people through reality television and the media,” Brian said, adding he will tune into Couples Therapy solely to see what lies are spread about his character. “If they are, which I suspect they will be, I will continue to expose them and tell the truth.”
Couples Therapy premieres on VH1 tonight at 9/8c
