5 Facts About Dr. Pepper Schwartz
The couples may change, but the experts stay (mostly) the same. The Married at First Sight Season 16 Matchmaking Special, which airs Dec. 28, will see the show’s resident relationship gurus pairing up hopeful Nashville singles for the upcoming season of the Lifetime reality show. Pastor Cal Roberson and Dr. Pepper Schwartz will interview potential cast members to find the 10 people who will get a chance at happily ever after with a spouse hand-picked for them. But who are the show’s experts? Here are five things to know about Dr. Pepper.
Dr. Pepper Schwartz joined ‘Married at First Sight’ in season 1
Dr. Pepper has been part of the Married at First Sight cast since the show’s inception. She’s appeared on all 15 seasons of the reality series. Since season 4, she’s been joined by her fellow expert Pastor Cal, along with a rotating cast of other experts, including Rachel DeAlto (seasons 4-5), Dr. Jessica Griffin (seasons 6-8), and Dr. Viviana Coles (season 9-14).
When Married at First Sight debuted on FYI in 2014 (it later move to Lifetime), many were skeptical that marrying a total stranger on TV could lead to a lasting relationship. But Dr. Pepper defended the idea of using a matchmaker to find “the one.”
“Singles need some sort of method of narrowing down the options,” she told New York Jewish Week. “For some, a matchmaker could be the answer.”
The ‘Married at First Sight’ cast member has a Ph.D. and has written multiple best-selling books on relationships
So, what makes Dr. Pepper qualified to help singles find their perfect match? While she’s not a professional matchmaker or a therapist, she has spent a lot of time studying what makes couples tick.
Schwartz has a B.A. and M.A. from Washington University and a Ph.D. in sociology from Yale. She is a professor of sociology at the University of Washington, where she’s taught classes on the sociology of gender and sexuality and intimate relationships (though she recently retired from teaching). Over the years, she’s drawn on her academic expertise in sexuality to write numerous relationship books, including two New York Times bestsellers: The Normal Bar: The Surprising Secrets of Happy Couples and American Couples.
She started studying sexuality because the existing research was so bad
When Schwartz arrived at Yale as a graduate student in the late 1960s, she wasn’t planning to study sexuality. Instead, she was interested in sociology and the law. But she found herself interested in gender issues as well, and she signed up as a TA for an undergraduate class on sexuality. It changed her path in life.
“Some of the reading assigned to the students made me nuts,” she told the New York Times in 2007. “There was all this double-standard stuff about ‘bad girls’ and ‘good girls.’ When I scanned the professional literature for alternatives, I couldn’t find much. I thought: ‘I have to deal with this. This is an area I need to contribute to.’”
Dr. Pepper is married – but she doesn’t live with her husband
On Married at First Sight, many newly-married couples hit it off on the honeymoon only to struggle when they move in together. Dr. Pepper knows how difficult it can be to merge your life with a spouse’s. In fact, when she married her husband Fred, they decided to keep living in separate households.
“I’ve been with my guy, Fred Kaseburg, for more than nine years now,” she told AARP in 2015. “But unless you count shared vacations or running back and forth between our two houses … the two of use have never lived together.”
Dr. Pepper knows that living apart from her husband sounds weird to many people. But she says it works for them. Both have homes they love, and there are lifestyle issues that would make cohabitating difficult, including her three dogs and live-in assistant.
“Some couples have defined marriage a bit differently from the start, and they see no reason to change now,” she said.
When interviewing potential ‘MAFS’ cast members, she’s looking for 1 red flag
Schwartz has spent more than a decade on Married at First Sight. Over the years, she’s gotten better at knowing what makes a person a good candidate for the show. She’s also become more skilled at spotting certain red flags in the interview process.
The MAFS expert is looking for people who are “willing to take advice,” she told E! News, as well as those who are “earnest and kind.” But if she suspects someone is interested in using the show to boost their follower count, she prefers to pass.
Her biggest red flag is if someone is “looking for some fame of some sort,” she said. “For somebody who really thinks this is a way to some kind of career path, I think there are easier and less risky ways!”
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