‘Married at First Sight’: Katie Gets Jealous Of Derek’s Romantic Past
Katie Conrad and Derek Sherman had a strong start to their marriage on Lifetime’s Married at First Sight Season 10. But as soon as the young couple, both 26, returned from their honeymoon in Panama, their relationship went downhill fast.
Derek admitted he wouldn’t be able to fall in love with Katie for at least six months to a year. Meanwhile, Katie was worried that Derek wasn’t ready for the serious commitment of marriage, especially because he’d never been in love before. She also believed his dreams for the future were unrealistic, leading her to suspect he wasn’t mature enough for a long-term relationship and children.
On the Mar. 25 episode of Married at First Sight, “Secrets and Lies,” Katie and Derek struggled yet again when they headed over to Derek’s garage to look through some of his childhood belongings. Derek hoped the activity would help his wife feel more bonded to him, but jealousy reared its ugly head instead.
Katie read Derek’s old love poetry during a ‘blast from the past’ date
At first, Katie and Derek’s dig through his old belongings was light-hearted and fun. But things took a turn after Katie discovered a love poem Derek wrote as a young teen.
“Did you write this?” she gasped excitedly as she pulled out a multi-page poem.
“That was my first poem,” Derek told his wife. “I wrote this freshman, sophomore year in high school.”
The Married at First Sight star read his verses aloud as Katie looked on in shock. The angsty-teen poem included lines like, “There was a time/when I knew everything would be fine/because I knew you’d be mine/and I’d be yours/but now everything’s changed/like my whole life story/has just been torn/except for one page.”
Notably, the poem also included the words “I love you,” which made Katie raise an eyebrow.
The ‘Married at First Sight’ star wondered if Derek had really never been in love
When Derek finished reading the poem, Katie exclaimed in surprise, “What the f***? You sound like someone who’s been in intense love before. I’m shocked right now.”
The 26-year-old admitted she felt insecure after hearing her husband’s poetry, as he’d never expressed such intense sentiments to her. “The poem is probably the deepest I’ve seen Derek be,” Katie told Lifetime producers. “I don’t even know how to feel about it. I’m a little bit uncomfortable. You say you’ve never been in love, but I feel like you need to feel this a little bit in order to write about it.”
The Married at First Sight star wondered how Derek could write such heart-wrenching poetry without ever having been in love himself. “I don’t even know what to say about you right now. That’s unreal,” she told Derek. “You’ve never been in love, and you were a freshman when you wrote that.”
But Derek said it was all fantasy and hope. “I’m a dreamer,” he told Katie. “I’m a hopeless romantic.”
“How did you do that?” Katie wondered.
“You visualize what could be,” Derek told his wife. “I feel like I know what love should feel like, so I just used that.”
Derek told Lifetime producers that Katie sometimes underestimated how deeply he could feel about things. “I wasn’t surprised that Katie was surprised,” he confessed. “Because I know she sometimes feels that, since I haven’t felt these things, how can I relate to it? But that wasn’t about any particular person, and I don’t think I’ve been in love before. I think I would know.”
Derek’s description of a college date also upset his wife
The Married at First Sight couple’s trip down memory lane got even more uncomfortable when Katie discovered a frat cooler designed by Derek’s college fling.
“Nice frat cooler. What girl made you this?” Katie wondered.
“Her name was Monica,” Derek admitted.
“Oh. Thanks, Monica. Nice frat cooler, Monica,” Katie sassed back sarcastically, clearly a bit jealous. “Take that to the beach.”
When Katie discovered Derek’s bucket list from college, she discovered another mention of a woman from his past. “Throw a big beach party, banger,” she read from the list. “Touch an elephant. Take a hot date to formal. So there’s a check next to it. I’m guessing she was the hot date.”
Derek admitted that Monica was the date in question. “And then we snuck into the circus after hours and pet the elephants as well,” the Married at First Sight star revealed.
“That’s what you do on your dates? You sneak into the circus to pet elephants on your dates?” Katie wondered, shocked by her husband yet again.
Katie admitted she had ‘doubts’ because of what she found during her look into Derek’s past
The mental health professional told Lifetime producers that Derek hadn’t done anything so adventurous with her, making her feel a little left out of his life.
“I don’t know if it’s jealousy or if it’s annoyance that I’m seeing these things in him that I haven’t seen from him in our relationship,” she lamented. “It’s making me have more doubts when I really wanted to be having less doubts at this point. I don’t know how to feel about it.”
Clearly uncomfortable, Katie admitted that she hadn’t quite enjoyed getting a glimpse of Derek’s past. “I’m kinda speechless,” she said.
“I was gonna pull up the elephant photo, but we can let it be,” Derek replied.
“Yeah, we can just skip over the hot date with Monica,” Katie joked bitterly. “It sounds pretty amazing.”
Derek admitted that he was disappointed in Katie’s reaction. While he was trying to show her that he could be the man she wanted him to be, he didn’t feel like he could completely be himself with his wife yet.
“I think Katie was first startled, and I think near the end of it, she got jealous that I went on a date like that and haven’t really done one with her,” he told Married at First Sight producers. “Kind of a hard position to be in, because I’m trying to make things good. I’m trying to show her that I can do these things. She wants me to be in love, but she seems upset that I can visualize what love is.”
