You don’t should scroll too far on TikTok to find how grim the present online dating scene is. The horror stories are relentless: People are reportedly ghosting mid-vacation, lying about their identities, and exhibiting straight-up rude or sketchy behavior—which, when you’re single, could make it impossibly hard to imagine that swiping right will ever work in your favor.
Sure, most individuals would probably prefer an IRL meet-cute (who wouldn’t?), but there are occasions when it’s price pushing through the awkwardness and logging in, yet again, for an additional probability at love. It might sound corny, but that’s exactly what the people below did—and it paid off. Despite running into some very weird vibes along the best way, they stuck it out on the apps and ultimately met their match.
So to clear the fog of jadedness from modern singlehood, if only just somewhat, we asked eight people to share their online dating success stories—from bad beginnings to very comfortable endings.
I believed I used to be going to pass out.
“We went to get a coffee. He kept asking weird questions and then decided it would be nice to go for a walk. We live in Australia and it was summer, so I thought, Okay, it’ll just be a nice little stroll. Nope! I think we walked for three hours in the blazing sun. I thought I was going to pass out. I kept asking if we could sit down, and we would for, like, three minutes and then he’d be like, ‘Come on, let’s keep walking.’ Eventually, we got back to where we started. I was dripping in sweat and had a headache. I immediately ordered an Uber and ended up having to drink a heap of Hydralyte when I got home because I was throwing up from heat exhaustion.
On another bad date, the guy seemed normal when we were chatting online, but I met him and he was an absolute creep. He just gave me bad vibes and kept getting handsy in the restaurant. I was so uncomfortable. Then he said he couldn’t pay, so I got stuck with a $90 bill.
A year ago, I met my current partner, Chris, on Tinder. I used the app on and off, and we already matched a few times but never made plans to meet up, mostly because he lived 45 minutes away. I had just ended a situationship and completely stopped dating, but I kept thinking of Chris, so I paid the $14 to get unlimited swipes, narrowed down my search, and spent the next three days swiping like it was my job. We matched, he invited me to a rugby game, and we’ve spent as much time together as possible ever since. I can’t believe how lucky I got. We’re closer than ever and I’m still absolutely smitten.” —Leteisha, 31, Brisbane, Australia
He didn’t imagine in sunscreen.
“It was summer 2019. My date asked me to try his seafood, and I teased him for ordering it because we don’t live in a coastal state. He pressed, so I played along and took a bite, after which we each got food poisoning and have become violently in poor health. On date three, while playing mini golf at night, he said he didn’t think anyone had gone to the moon. In the summer of 2021, I got ice cream with a distinct man who told me five minutes into the date that he didn’t imagine in sunscreen. Later, the subject of tattoos got here up, and I dropped the bomb that my tattoo is a melanoma ribbon in honor of my dad, who died from skin cancer.
