Longtime Vanderpump Rules viewers know how chaotic Kristen Doute’s love life was in the past. Especially in the early seasons, when she went from a toxic relationship with Tom Sandoval to an even more toxic one with James Kennedy. In 2020, she even wrote a book, He’s Making You Crazy, about her dating misadventures. Now, it seems she met her match with Luke Broderick. The two host a podcast together about relationships and everything.
Kristen and Luke are one of the central couples on The Valley. While two couples divorced after Season 1, Kristen and Luke are still going strong. In fact, after two years of dating, they’re going to walk down the aisle! We’ll have to wait until Season 2 of The Valley to see if Kristen yelled “I’m engaged!” off a balcony like her bestie Brittany Cartwright. In light of this major relationship milestone, we’re looking back at the timeline of Kristen and Luke’s romance.
Summer 2022: Kristen and Luke meet and begin dating
Kristen met Luke for the first time at her pal Rachel O’Brien’s wedding. Earlier that summer, Kristen ended her relationship with Alex Menache. So, while she wasn’t exactly looking for anything, Kristen and Luke couldn’t fight their instant attraction. After the wedding, they quickly hung out, and hooked up. To quote Kristen on The Valley, “We had sex behind a tent, and the rest is history.”
Soon enough, Kristen introduced her beau to the Vanderpump Rules friend group. For instance, Luke was Kristen’s date to Scheana Shay and Brock Davies’ wedding that August.
While Kristen didn’t disclose her relationship status, she started posting with Luke on social media. On Halloween, they dressed up as Georgie and Pennywise (I’m sure Stassi Schroeder would approve). In November, they began co-hosting a podcast, Sex, Love, and What Else Matters (since renamed Balancing Act). As Kristen would later admit, it was pretty obvious from the first episode that they were dating.
December 2022: Kristen and Luke confirm their romance
Kristen went Instagram official with Luke on December 20, 2022. Captioning a photo of them at a wedding, Kristen wrote, “he’s my babe.”
The following day, Kristen officially confirmed her relationship on their podcast, Sex, Love, and What Else Matters. The episode was appropriately titled “Okay, Fine, We Are Dating.” She admitted that, after her previous relationship ended badly, she was hesitant to jump back into dating. “I battled with being, like, your person,” Kristen told Luke. “I love you so much, but just the thought of being someone’s girlfriend again threw me through a loop because I want to be a wife and I want to be a mother.” Referencing her past, Kristen said, “I was so tired of being a girlfriend for a couple of years and then have sh-t fall apart.”
Luke felt a “spark” as soon as they met. However, he acknowledged that Kristen had her reasons to be hesitant. Between their eight-year age difference, and the distance since he lives in Colorado, there were certainly hurdles. But their feelings were so strong, they decided to work around logistics.
“You definitely never pushed anything on me,” Kristen said, “You were just persistent. You’re consistent, which is what made me fall in love with you.”
November 2023: Kristen and Luke open up about their pregnancy loss
As we saw on The Valley, Luke was completely on board with Kristen’s hopes of starting a family. He even took a couple of her pre-natal vitamins! In one episode, Kristen spoke in a confessional about their fertility journey. “Seeing a negative pregnancy test sucks,” she said, “it’s like, we did the thing, and he did the thing, now give me the thing.” Meanwhile, some of her co-stars like Jax Taylor were all too comfortable sharing their opinions about her choices. In some cases, the comments about Kristen wanting a baby were downright cruel.
Sadly, Kristen and Luke experienced pregnancy loss. Kristen discovered she was pregnant in October. At first, she was overjoyed by the news, calling it “the best f*cking day of my life.” She headed to Luke’s home state of Colorado to celebrate in person. Sadly, after three ultrasounds, her OBGYN broke the news that the pregnancy wouldn’t stick. The news was incredibly tragic and upsetting to Kristen and Luke. But despite the devastating loss, the couple vowed to keep trying for a baby.
March 2024: Luke makes his reality tv debut on The Valley
While some thought that Kristen and Luke were moving too fast, Luke won a lot of viewers over throughout his first season on reality TV. Especially after Jax tried to make him talk about Kristen with her ex, Alex. Luke refused, because he completely believed what Kristen told him about Alex, and didn’t need to hear the “other side.”
When Kristen feuded with her co-stars, Luke had her back. Along with Zack Wickham, he came to Kristen’s aide in the infamous hallway fight with Jesse Lally. He waited until it was just the two of them to talk about how she could handle situations differently. By contrast, Kristen’s past boyfriends didn’t defend her, and leaned into the “crazy Kristen” narrative. Luke also showed that he could be as messy as Kristen. He alluded to rumors about Michelle Lally’s infidelity. In fact, what set Jesse off in that hallway was Luke saying, “Your problems with your wife, talk to your wife!”
Summer 2024: Kristen and Luke move in to a house together
As we saw on The Valley, Luke was hesitant to move to LA full time. He always wanted to keep a residence in Colorado. Especially because he couldn’t exactly fish or hunt in the city. Yes, Luke’s love of hunting and fishing was very difficult for devout vegetarian Kristen to accept at first. But she learned to let that go, because if that was the worst thing about Luke, it was much better than her previous “cheating, lying, bastard piece of s—t” boyfriends. Additionally, one of the issues was that Kristen’s apartment didn’t have enough space. Especially since they were planning to have kids.
We’ll have to see whether or not Luke changed his mind about permanently living in LA. What we do know is that they officially moved in together, and into a bigger place, this summer. Kristen announced the “exciting” update in July. They hosted a housewarming party in August, and cameras were there to capture it for The Valley Season 2. On Instagram stories, Nia Sanchez posted about the party, and congratulated them on the new place.
September 2024: Kristen and Luke get engaged
Luke popped the question on The Valley’s cast trip to Maui. Announcing their engagement on Instagram, Kristen wrote, “I’m wrapped around your finger like this ring I’m wearing…out of all the fish in the sea, you chose me.” Luke also posted romantic pictures of them embracing after his proposal, and wrote, “Love you, fiance!”
Kristen’s former Pump Rules co-stars Ariana Madix, Katie Maloney, Tom Schwartz, and Dayna Kathan commented their congratulations. So did the couples’ The Valley cast mates Zack, Jasmine Goode, and Brittany. Andy Cohen wrote, “This is EXCITING!!! We need some good news and this is great!!!” The Valley’s resident sweetheart Nia devoted an Instagram post to the happy occasion. She and husband Daniel Booko were on the boat when Luke proposed, and helped him plan the special moment!
Kristen and Luke spilled some details to Us Weekly. In case it wasn’t obvious from Kristen’s expression when Luke got down on one knee, she was completely surprised! He proposed after they went on the boat to look for dolphins and watch the sunset, which sounds idyllic. The ring was, naturally, designed by Kyle Chan. In fact, it was based on a ring Kristen imagined 10 years ago! She was dating James Kennedy at the time. I think we can all agree, it’s best that Kristen got her perfect ring from her perfect guy, even if she had to wait a while.
TELL US – DO YOU THINK KRISTEN DOUTE FINALLY MET HER PERFECT MATCH IN FIANCE LUKE BRODERICK?