Nick and Vanessa Lachey's job as hosts of the Netflix shows "Love Is Blind" and, more recently, "The Ultimatum," occasionally requires them to delve into their own personal history.
The Lacheys have been married since July 2011. Much of their relationship has been conducted in the public eye. In fact, they first met on-camera, when Vanessa was hosting TRL and the 98 Degree singer was a frequent guest.
In the first episode of "The Ultimatum," the Lacheys share insight into a private crossroads that ended up cementing their relationship.
On the show, six Austin-based couples at a crossroads pose an ultimatum to try and get engaged — and as it turns out, Vanessa once posed a marriage ultimatum to Nick. “I always said I was going to be that girl that would never give a man an ultimatum,” Vanessa, 41, says on the show.
Vanessa surprised herself five years into her relationship, when she initiated a conversation that ended up leading to them getting married.
“We dated for five years. So I finally said, ‘What are we doing?’ she continues.
At the time, Vanessa explains, she was living with Nick, and felt ready to start a family. “I have now moved in with him, I renovated his entire bachelor pad, there was a bar in the pool. I’m like, ‘Whatever you want!’ Now I’m like, ‘Okay, well, I want to put kids in the pool.’”
To make their decision, the Lacheys tried something that coincidentally also mimics what the participants on "The Ultimatum" do: They split up and saw other people.
“We both saw one other person and we realized that if we got out of our own way, we could be amazing together,” Vanessa says. “But it took seeing somebody else and me realizing I don’t mind the things that I thought bugged me or were holding me back. I don’t mind all that.”
“Like, the bigger picture is how I feel about this person and their values of wanting to be with me and knowing everything about me,” she says.
Nick adds, "I think we got perspective."
Vanessa's experiment worked. Today, Nick and Vanessa have three children. In addition to being the hosts of "The Ultimatum" and "Love Is Blind," gigs that occasionally involve sparring with cast members, they are authors (Vanessa wrote the book "Life from Scratch: Family Traditions That Start with You") and "Masked Singer" victors (Nick won season five, competing as "Piglet").
Will an ultimatum be similarly productive for the contestants on the Netflix show? The series will conclude on April 13, and we'll get our answer then.