I went on 212 dates – now I finally met my soul mate and wrote a novel about romantic disasters
I went on 212 dates – now I finally met my soul mate and wrote a novel about romantic disasters
A man who went on 212 dates for about eight years has released a crime novel inspired by his romantic disasters, revealing he was “addicted” to matchmaking apps and meeting new potential lovers up to three times a week.
Luke Chilton wrote Don’t Swipe Right during the pandemic – and when he was about to delete all Tinders, Hinges and Bumbles from his phone, he happened upon one last match, who is now his ‘soul mate’, with the lucky couple moving in here week.
The London-based author admits there was a time when he focused his entire schedule on finding love.
“I kind of got hooked on dating apps,” he told Holly Willoughby and Craig Doyle on This Morning.
‘I had them all. [I had] just got out of a long term relationship so i was like “wow you can get on with dating apps now”.’
The London-based author admits there was a time when he focused his entire schedule on finding love
Luke said that for about eight years, while occasionally single, he would spend much of the week getting ready to go out after work to enjoy “rock climbing and salsa dancing and bowling and all those crazy dates ‘.
He met “a lot of brilliant people,” but after some time felt he was becoming a “dating zombie.”
“You go on all these dates and there’s always another game right around the corner,” he explained.
“You always get a notification because you have all six of them on your phone and I was really looking for that one so I got a ping on my phone… the next”.
“So you’d end up on this conveyor belt of dating that’s hard to get off.”
Luke revealed that while he had some dating blunders — in one instance, a West End producer claimed she received a phone call from Hollywood A-lister Jake Gyllenhaal just as their pizza arrived and never returned — his fictional novel explores a much darker story.
Don’t Swipe Right follows a woman who endures “terrible dates” with “toxic men” – who suddenly drop dead after seeing them, forcing her to investigate why they’re being targeted.
“Luckily that didn’t happen to me, but it does have flashbacks of all her horrible dates, these toxic men,” he said.
A man who went on 212 dates has released a crime novel inspired by his romantic disasters, revealing he was ‘addicted’ to matchmaking apps
Luke said that for about eight years, since he was occasionally single, he would spend much of the week getting ready to go out
“And some of the things that happened to me I could use.”
“I think there are a lot worse men on dating apps than women,” he added.
“And I find it very refreshing to have a crime book where all the victims are men and not women for a change.”
Luke also admitted that the novel’s writing process helped with a lot of self-reflection.
“You have to get used to a little bit of rejection and I wasn’t perfect on these dates at all,” he said.
And that’s kind of what I learned writing the book is that people are worth more than a handful of pictures on a dating app or their likes and dislikes and when I sat down to write it and I already pouring my dating disasters into the book, I sort of realized that maybe I was the problem.”
But it looks like all that fieldwork has paid off – as Luke is happily in love now.
“I said, ‘That’s it, this is too much, I’m hooked,’ but when I went to delete the last one, I saw one last match and it was her,” he said.
“I thought why don’t I roll the dice again, try it and… she was the one.”