Is Millionaire Match Legit
Millionaire Match has the reputation of being a legitimate dating website full of authentic people seeking a real relationship, which can be a rare commodity online. MillionaireMatch celebrates and embraces successful people. They are admired and appreciated here much more than other sites. Once you have achieved a certain level of success, it can be harder than ever to find someone interested in you for who you are and not what you have.
Despite its name, most of us realize that reality TV usually isn't grounded in reality. Still, there are some basic aspects of reality shows that we believe to be true: the Kardashians are, in fact, related to one another, Gordon Ramsay is a pretty good cook, and everyone on The Bachelor really is desperate for attention and love. That said, Millionaire Matchmaker is particularly deceptive to audiences. Here are just a few ways the series, as well as Patti Stanger, are cloaking the truth from viewers in a big way.
Her matchmaking team is made of actors
Stanger's partners in matchmaking, Dustin Pfaff and Rachel Federoff, are actors. Stanger's former partner and Millionaire Matchmaker regular Chelsea Autumn dished, 'It was just her and I for so many years. Dustin and Rachel just came on for the reality show, along with an office primarily used for TV filming. There were so many times Patti handed her clients off to me because she was so focused on the show.'
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Autumn's boyfriend and business partner Wesley Ryan added, 'Chelsea was doing all the work and it was time for her to leave and start her own business.'
The millionaires may not be millionaires after all
Onetime on-air 'millionaire' David Yontef revealed to Guest of a Guest that there is only a slim chance the 'millionaires' are worth even close to the titular sum. 'They did not check any bank accounts at all whatsoever,' Yontef said. 'You have to fill out an application and a general background check, like, 'Have you ever killed someone? Have you ever committed a crime?' Stuff like that. But stuff like 'Are you a millionaire? How much money do you really have?' is not checked.' He added, 'I honestly think that if you portray yourself as wonderful and fabulous and wealthy, I think you could get on this show even if you are completely not a millionaire.'
When asked which Millionaire Matchmaker millionaires probably weren't millionaires, Yontef replied, 'You're really gonna go there and ask me who I don't think is a millionaire?' He listed Stacy Kessler, Doug Kepanis, Robin Kassner, and Jason Teich as alleged fakes, adding, 'There's a lot of people who are really struggling right now, which may be a sign of the times and the current economy, but I would say knowing every other 'millionaire' that's been on the show this season, I would say at least 50 percent are not really millionaires.'
Kassner rebutted, 'On paper, I am a millionaire. I have a million dollars in two funds and I own my apartment with no mortgage. I don't count the value of my PR firm, Haute PR. But in reality, as you know, having a million dollars living in Manhattan does not make you rich. I am definitely pretty average for the Upper East Side. I live a fabulous lifestyle because I am a fun girl. However, I don't regularly bathe in hundred dollar bills and [throw] money up in the air a la Scrooge McDuck.'
And actual millionaires don't want publicity
Stanger admitted to The Fashion Spot that her actual millionaire clients wouldn't dare appear on television, meaning all the millionaire matchmaking on Millionaire Matchmaker is far from her usual work. 'My clients would never go on the show,' she revealed. 'They're more discreet, living in places like Aspen and Monaco and want to remain private.'
Some of her clients are criminals
Former on-air 'millionaire' Michael Leslie Bernback was arrested in August 2015 for allegedly raping three women in California. Entertainment Tonight reports that Bernback was released on $300,000 bail and added that locals in his area said they often saw him with two or three women each night. The Toronto Sun reported in November 2015 that Bernback, who said on the show he was worth $8 million and owned 10 homes, later pleaded not guilty.
Stanger wasn't a fan of Bernback, writing in her Bravo blog in November 2011 that the 'obnoxious' businessman 'invented some review that was a ripoff of Chippendale's...He made his money that way. Now he's trying to be a fledgling songwriter. Not so cool with what he does.'
Bernback wasn't the only bad apple in the Millionaire bunch. Michael Prozer, who appeared on season two, was arrested for fraud in August 2012. Prozer claimed on the show to be worth $400 million as the founder of 'the South American PayPal.' However, it was a front for his real business: Using wire, bank, and mail fraud to swindle a bank out of more than $3 million. The Daily Mail reports that Prozer, who used his appearance on the show to convince his victims he was a legitimate businessman, was sentenced to eight years behind bars after pleading guilty.
One of her clients is a pig
UFC fighter Luke Rockhold was on Millionaire Matchmaker in 2015, and he showed that money can't buy class when he asked his date a very vulgar question that we're too classy to repeat here. Stanger reprimanded him afterward, when he put the moves on her assistant. However, Rockhold later told TMZ, 'I was just having fun on the show, trying to have a good time, but they ended making me look pretty bad. But any PR is good PR, right?' He added, 'What they didn't show? I hooked up with a co-host! They chopped it up pretty good, editing is a b— sometimes. It's reality TV! I'm just having fun. I was disappointed in what we had [for dates], so I ended up taking a bartender.'
At least one client is a player
Real Housewives Of Atlanta star Kenya Moore revealed to Extra that the beau she met on Millionaire Matchmaker was married. 'Unfortunately, I just learned today that the man I met and fell in love with from Millionaire Matchmaker was married a week after the show aired,' she fumed in May 2015, noting that she believes the real estate hottie, James Freeman, was seeing his now-wife at the same time that he dated her. 'We did the show in November and there's evidence of me being out, and [having] birthday dinners together. My birthday was at the end of January, so that's pretty clear, but it is what it is.'
Stanger defended Freeman. 'He was single when he shot [the show], which was in November. They basically dated, they broke up, he did not date his old girlfriend and marry her,' she said. 'He met a new girl in January, and he ended up marrying her, it was very fast. Bottom line is long distance relationships are tough.'
One client is a real cad
Dr. Emil Chynn was on Millionaire Matchmaker in 2014 and claims Stanger set him up to fail. He told Radar Online, 'When I first met her, she was screaming on her phone, ripping the person and tearing them a new a–hole—and there weren't even cameras around. I thought she had a schtick for the show, but that's her real personality. There is a difference between being honest and flat out mean. She wanted me to argue with her on camera. They wanted me to look bad.'
One of the ways he claims Stanger set him up was casting outside his age range of 28 to 34; the oldest woman in his mixer was 27. 'I told the producers they cast way outside my age requirements. And of course, Patti started yelling at me for picking a 25-year-old,' Chynn fumed. 'I told her it wasn't my fault she casted everyone so young. Of course, they have the power of the edit and cut my side out.' He added that he and his date had no chemistry. 'That was one of the most painful dates of my life. It was horrible,' he said. 'Of course, they tried to paint me like I'm too cerebral to find love and connect with a woman.'
Still, Chynn sounds like a bit of a cad himself: The New York Post reports that he sent out a networking email offering free cosmetic services in exchange for someone hooking him up with a woman who is 'very skinny (dress size 0-2), white, aged 27-35, graduate of an Ivy League school, 'Type B' personality, 8 or 9 on a 1-to-10 attractiveness scale.' That isn't even the creepiest thing he's ever done. Good luck, bruh.
The editing makes everyone look awful
Former Millionaire Matchmaker clients complained to the New York Post that appearing on the show cost them dates and cash. Long Island divorce lawyer Doug Kepanis claimed he was fired from a legal analyst position on TruTV after the show made him look sexist, and says he also lost legal clients. 'I haven't gotten any calls since my appearance,' he said. 'I have a lot of female clients—it may have turned them away.'
He's not alone. Jason Teich griped, 'Producers fed me drinks and then Patti yelled at me for being an alcoholic.' Stanger called David Vroubel 'creepy' eight times in the show, which he said was edited to make him look, well, creepy. He told Page Six, 'They backed a bus over me and then ran it over again.'
They audition actresses, not matches
One would-be mixer girl from the show told Hello Giggles that she was scouted in a club and that most of the other dates found out about the audition through LA Casting—no one was looking for love, but everyone was looking for fame and money. She also realized she was cast just to be dismissed, calling herself 'the William Hung of Millionaire Matchmaker.'
Patti was difficult to work with
Sources told Page Six that Stanger was difficult with Bravo brass and threatened to leave more than once. 'She thinks they aren't giving her the respect she deserves and she's telling friends that she's shopping her show to other networks,' a source said. 'But Bravo is tired of her antics, insists it owns Millionaire Matchmaker and wants to continue the show with a different matchmaker.'
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Sources echoed the sentiment to People once Stanger announced her official exit in July 2015. 'She was impossible to work with—demanding and horribly difficult, plus the show was expensive to produce, and it never did well in the ratings.' TMZ obtained audio of Stanger flipping out at a stylist before a shoot, and, well, the tabloids probably aren't lying if this is any indication of her attitude.
Her success rate isn't anything to boast about
As far as the public knows, only one marriage developed from a match on Millionaire Matchmaker. On her Bravo blog, Stanger reported that former NFL star Mitch Berger married the model with whom Stanger matched him, Bambi Lashell, in 2014. Cute! But, uh, that's it?
Is Millionaire Match Legitimate
Patti Stanger can't keep a man
Maybe before hooking up rich singles, Stanger should focus on her own love life. She and her boyfriend of three years, David Krause, split in June 2015, and her reasoning wasn't entirely rational. She wrote on her blog, 'It's unfortunate for a million and one reasons and obviously hard and sad for both of us. Parts of me wish neither of us had to go through this. At the same time, I realize that this relationship and breakup had to happen because I needed to learn a lot of lessons I never would have been able to learn without dating David.' That's fine, right? Except the lessons were predominantly about astrology. 'I'm a Gemini and David's a Virgo,' she wrote. 'While the two signs have a lot of chemistry between them, with a Virgo comes a lot of criticism and it's the sign of the bachelor. Commitment is hard for them. Plus, Geminis just aren't as grounded as Virgos are and when it comes to how to live a life, that's a big divide. For my next guy, I'm looking at our charts right away and believing what I see.'
Before Krause, Stanger was engaged to Andy Friedman, who she dated for seven years but never married.