Entertainment

Does 'Friends to Lovers?' Actually Work?

Bravo is finally answering the question that we've all asked at some point or another: Can friends become lovers, and actually have a successful romantic relationship? We've seen just about every scripted show or movie test the waters, but it's the new Friends to Lovers? social experiment that Bravo has created that could finally give us a definitive answer. Darion Lowenstein and Charley Walters had mixed feelings about that age old-question before they filmed the show, which airs Jan. 12 p.m. ET/PT, and tried it themselves. "Before the show, I would have said, 'Yeah, it's possible, but is it worth risking the friendship?'" Darion says in an interview with Bustle.

That's probably the most common thought when the question gets asked: why ruin a friendship over a relationship that may not work out? "When I first heard the concept, my first instinct was, 'Well, that doesn't really ever happen. I've never heard before of people who are friends then take it to the next level,'" Charley says. "But since we've finished, there's been so many of my friends who have been in the situation... I think it's been a trend lately."

Despite his reservations about the transition from friends to lovers, it was actually Charley who approached Darion with the question of moving forward with the relationship. "It's been on my mind for a while. But I had a feeling, just an instinct, that Darion was a little bit on the same page as I was on," Charley explains.

But obviously the "risk" is still very much present, despite these two being close friends for five years. "I had a lot of worries going into it," Darion says about pursuing a romantic relationship, "We had so much going for us." Charley had been in a long-term relationship for the entire duration of his friendship with Darion, but had recently gotten out of it, so Darion was "worried about the timing."

Charley, who "popped the question" about bringing their friendship to a new level, also had worries though. "I think you're always nervous when you're asking anybody out for the first time. In this case, it did feel like the stakes are a little bit higher," Charley says about bringing up his feelings to Darion. "But on the same level, this was somebody that I felt so comfortable with, and that I know so well. It was kind of a silly, fun, butterflies in my stomach nervous."

While we'll have to wait to find out if anything comes from Friends to Lovers? for these two, Darion does say, "At the end of the day, if you can't be in a relationship with your best friend, that's what everybody wants, but very few attain." Let's hope Darion and Charley can attain that kind of relationship with some help of Bravo.

Images: Paul Drinkwater/Robert Ascroft/Andrew Eccles, Andrew Eccles/Bravo