We polled you on Twitter, Facebook and here on That’s Normal to find out everything we could think to ask Doug. From his thoughts on the show, his relationship with Jamie, his family to the lightning round and what’s next and tomorrow we find the fate of our three couples, and who stays married. Now the tricky part is to take a thirty-minute conversation and turn it into a post that doesn’t take thirty minutes to read!!
My 1 month gift to @jamienotis …. This guy!! #MarriedAtFirstSight @FYI pic.twitter.com/UVWHhcgqnp
— Doug Hehner (@DougHehner) September 3, 2014
First we let Doug know that everyone really likes him and Jamie and that they appreciate the Doug we all saw, a gentlemen and never bolting when Jamie would draw into her shell or was unable to reciprocate his kindness. Doug is a big jokester and so we thought we’d start our interview trying to get the goods on the question everyone wanted to know. If he really had his moles removed. HA! I’ve had these all my life, there can be some really shallow people who can be mean. When I took that photo I had a knife in my hand but we thought that might be too much, too morbid.
We did actually want to find out other important things like first off, why on earth Doug thought it was a good idea to do a reality romance show. This show is quite different from other shows where romance is treated like a competition. Doug was ready to be in a relationship and was ready to take a leap of faith and believed in the method of the show. MAFS wasn’t going to be your everyday reality show.
That segued into the other reality elephant in the room, we asked if he knew about Jamie’s time on the Bachelor. He told us that she shared her experiences on the show and the only thing he’s seen was that awkward kiss. Doug didn’t google her, he had the real Jamie in front in him and wanted to get to know her, not the internet’s perception of her.
Speaking of internet perception, we asked his craziest fan/viewer response, you know besides a bunch of bloggers who get wrapped up in others marriages. The Internet has a way of turning everyone into armchair therapists. Without outing anyone Doug shared that he had a few stalkers but said he didn’t block anyone on Twitter or Facebook. Everyone has advice and everyone offers their two cents about what should happen in a relationship. When you should run, when you should stay, what you should say, how to react.
Thanks for the gift @jamienotis #MarriedAtFirstSight @FYI pic.twitter.com/NNNbfffwLH
— Doug Hehner (@DougHehner) September 3, 2014
One of the big topics everyone has focused on was Jamie’s situation, and what baggage came to the relationship. We asked Doug what baggage he brought that we didn’t see? He explained how he had purchased a house but then the recession hit and now he has debt that can be very scary when entering a relationship. When the show started he was 31 and living with his parents. You always plan on things working out but you can never be certain.
baby lambs! look at that baby lamb!
We all know that a few episodes ago, the LIE that shall not be named happened and we asked if we had Doug-colored glasses or did it happen the way they showed it. He said that what we saw in the show was really, genuinely just them. The show didn’t tell us what to say, what to do. Doug doesn’t want to be defined by his bad habits but that shows how in the show, you don’t know what habits, what background a person brings that is never shown. Doug shared that tried to quit a couple of times but decided to quit cold turkey for the show. I didn’t get to ask if he felt if Jamie would have been more understanding if he had just come clean.
We Went There…
We also got deep and went there…yep, we asked about intimacy and whether or not waiting helped their relationship. And this, this is where things got interesting! Doug revealed that he’s an affectionate person (I think we could all tell) but he also shared thoughts on having sex with strangers, and how it’s really difficult to build a relationship with a stranger and basically a one-night stand. Jamie would have been uncomfortable for some time with someone she knew. Doug told us how it was more important to get to know each other than just do it because of a TV show timeline and “during the show, it wasn’t a priority.” So Nikki and I are totally reading things into this and when speaking about intimacy, who says “during the show, it wasn’t a priority”? Doesn’t that mean that outside of the show it was a priority?? Does that mean that after the show they are still together??
In the car on the way to decide? @FYI
While we know that Doug couldn’t give us any spoilers, but we did ask Doug if he consulted with his family on his final decision? Doug’s mom is very protective but it’s funny the way she was portrayed in the show. It’s difficult to explain to your mom that you’re marrying someone you’ve never met, let alone one he hasn’t met. We also asked if he and Jamie discussed their decision before going into the finale. Jamie likes an out and sees her vulnerability as a weakness. They never expressly asked or shared what they were going to decide going into the finale. Doug said they knew what the other was going to choose because it was just implied. There would be times while they were talking one of them would make a statement like well after the experiment… and they just knew. So we’ll see what happens tomorrow!
Available for Weddings
We found out on facebook Doug is an ordained minister who has performed about 10 weddings. It started when one of his best friends Tim was getting married and they wanted someone they knew to perform the ceremony. Since then Doug has been getting referrals and even offered to do the weddings on MAFS Season 2 for a good discount! This is one more reason that we know Doug is indeed a hopeless romantic!
Doug officiates a gorgeous beach wedding.
And because we are That’s Normal, we had to ask Doug what he’s obsessed with, what he nerds out over… We found out he is a huge lover of the Discovery Channel and National Geographic shows. He’ll stop and watch anything but loves Shark Week.
But he did give us a That’s Normal exclusive! He loves and completely is obsessed with Ghost Adventures!
Not sure if that’s where we’ll see him pop up next, guest ghost adventurer…?
Are you ready for Marriage?
Before concluding our call, we did ask if he’d recommend the experiment/arranged marriages to friends and family, his response? Only if you’re ready, prepared to be married. It’s not something that you can take lightly. Marriage isn’t a joke. Be ready for it.
Lightning Round
Yankees, Giants, Knicks, Vanilla. Favorite Movie: The Hunting Party and Favorite Book: Where the Red Fern Grows.
What’s Next?
So what is really next for Doug? Probably performing more marriages, He’s not quite ready for Kids at First Sight, or even Last Comic Standing. Maybe he and Jamie have a spin off that is just them together, which is what we’d all love to see.
Thanks again to everyone who tweeted, facebooked or commented us questions.
Tomorrow night we finally see who stays together!
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Unless noted, pics courtesy of Doug’s facebook, twitter and instagram
