- Before the show, she had 1,000 Instagram followers. Now it’s up to 790,000 and growing.
- In addition to Lexi Goldberg’s main role on the show, her parents Michael and Alison also appeared in two episodes.
If you watched Netflix’s “The Ultimatum: Queer Love,” you know who Lexi Goldberg is.
She’s the busty blonde bombshell breakthrough star of the show, who went from 1,000 to 790,000 followers on Instagram, now has 538,000 followers on TikTok and even shares spicier content on her own OnlyFans page.
But left unsaid on the show is that she’s a Delaware native who grew up in Talleyville, went to Ursuline Academy and whose father owns a business in ritzy Greenville, located only a couple of miles from President Joe Biden’s home.
Goldberg, 26, left Delaware for college in 2015, earning a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance and then a master’s degree in business taxation, both at the University of Southern California.
But it was in 2021 when she was cast on the recently aired reality dating show and she’s never looked back. In fact, she left her job as mergers and acquisitions senior consultant at international accounting giant KPMG before the show aired.
The show, which aired its final episode last month, is a whopper. Five couples are contestants and each has one person who wants to get married and another who is not so sure. They then end up having a three-week “trial marriage” with another contestant to see if it changes their feelings about their partner.
They can either decide to marry the person they came with, marry the other person they meet or break up with both for good. And that’s with plenty of reality show-constructed drama thrown in there for good measure, of course.
The Delaware connection
Goldberg is the daughter of Michael and Alison Goldberg: Michael owns and operates Indulgence Jewelers at Greenville Crossing on Kennett Pike and Alison owns and operates wedding planning business Events by AFG.
“It’s a miracle I ended up on a TV show about weddings,” cracks Lexi Goldberg during an interview with Delaware Online/The News Journal earlier this week.
Goldberg graduated from Wilmington’s private, Catholic Ursuline Academy in 2015 where she was student body president, a mock trial team member and played four years of lacrosse before heading to USC.
Even though she still lives out west for the most part, she comes home to visit family and friends occasionally and still has a 302 area code on her cellphone, eight years after leaving the First State.
When she’s in town, you’ll likely find her grabbing lunch at Lucky’s Coffee Shop on Concord Pike or PureBread Deli, located a few doors down from her father’s jewelry store. She stops in there, as well, “to conveniently gift myself jewelry because why not?” she says.
The backstory of Lexi and her TV ultimatum
Goldberg and her now-ex-girlfriend Raelyn Cheung-Sutton were together for three years when their relationship collided with the Netflix reality dating show.
Goldberg wanted to get married. Cheung-Sutton wasn’t quite there yet. So it made them perfect for “The Ultimatum: Queer Love,” an all-queer spinoff of the all-straight 2022 show “The Ultimatum.” This time it featured only women and nonbinary contestants.
“I want to get married to this person. I want to bring children into the world with this person. I’m ready but she’s not,” Goldberg said in the first episode of the show, which wrapped up its 10-episode run in early June.
On the other hand, Cheung-Sutton said, “We grow up this picturesque running down the street screaming, ‘I love you,’ but I don’t know if that exists for me.” Later she added, “Forever is hard for me.”
So how did the two meet?
Goldberg and Cheung-Sutton broke it down on the show. Cheung-Sutton, a “bit of a boobs girl,” first reached out to Goldberg on an “attempted booty call” and then a relationship developed.
When Goldberg’s social media caught the attention of the show’s casting department, it sparked plenty of conversations not only between Goldberg and Cheung-Sutton about whether to participate, but also Goldberg’s parents.
“My family has always lived a quaint and quiet life and there was talk of them coming out on the show, talk about my coming out story and things like whether their businesses would be affected,” she says. “I’m a reflection of my family and you never know what is going to happen on a show like this.”
With the support of her parents, Goldberg and Cheung-Sutton applied for the show and got the call they were in while visiting the Goldbergs on the Jersey Shore. They filmed for eight weeks near San Diego in the fall of 2021 when Goldberg was 24.
Lexi’s Netflix ‘trial marriage’
The show’s structure has each contestant separated from their partner and sent on a date with eight of the other contestants with each one eventually choosing a new partner for a three-week “trial marriage.” Afterward, the original couples reunite for three weeks to see if the experience has changed any minds, perhaps leading to some engagements.
Some of the dates occur within view of their original partners, meaning Cheung-Sutton watched some of Goldberg’s meet-ups by a pool, admittedly wearing her best bikini to get some attention.
“Lexi knew what she was doing picking the bikini she picked. I don’t even know if people are going to be talking to her or talking to them,” Cheung-Sutton joked.
Goldberg spent three weeks with 36-year-old Mal Wright and the two hit it off, seemingly matching up well. Goldberg’s parents appeared in a pair of episodes, one for lunch with Wright and another with Cheung-Sutton.
At the meeting with Wright, Goldberg declares Wright will be “part of my life forever” before Goldberg’s seemingly concerned mother gives some advice.
“We’re scared because I think you guys may be rushing into it if you think you’re going to be able to get married after this. That’s a lot,” she said, before adding, “The most important thing for us is we want Lex to be happy.”
Goldberg’s father chimes in as well, bringing up his decades as owner of Indulgence Jewelers, noting some couples had known each other for five days and others for 10 years when they arrive to buy engagement rings. “And it’s always interesting to me because sometimes the least likely couples make it and sometimes the most likely couples fizzle quickly. There’s no rhyme or reason,” he said.
Cheung-Sutton’s trial marriage pick was Vanessa Papa, who already told Goldberg on their date that she was not interested in marrying anyone, angering Goldberg because it’s a main part of the show. Goldberg accused her of being on the program just to get famous.
“What the f–k did you come on here for?” she told her before labeling her an “atomic bomb.”
Goldberg warned Cheung-Sutton about Papa, but Cheung-Sutton chose Goldberg’s rival for her “trail marriage” anyway, saying she wouldn’t get sexual with Papa. But she did. And Goldberg fumed. Especially during their lunch with her parents while in near tears.
She told Cheung-Sutton she felt betrayed as Michael and Alison Goldberg looked on and the camera rolled in a restaurant: “It doesn’t feel like the same person I gave an ultimatum to.”
In the end, Goldberg and Cheung-Sutton stayed together and picked each other. Cheung-Sutton proposed to Goldberg on her knee and then Goldberg did the same.
Lexi gives Delaware Online/The News Journal the latest scoop
Happily ever after for those two, right?
It seemed that was the case on the show’s final reunion episode. While other couples had fights and cried about their relationship issues, Goldberg and Cheung-Sutton were all smiles, talking about how they had set a date for their marriage with a location to be chosen soon.
But then as the episode ended, a shocking message was flashed on the screen: “Shortly after filming the reunion, Lexi and Rae chose to end their relationship. The wedding has been called off.” Then the credits rolled.
After the reunion episode was shot in January, the engagement fell apart soon after, Goldberg tells Delaware Online/The News Journal.
The end of their relationship was multifaceted: “The show exploits the problems that exist in your day-to-day life. Whether that’s trust, honesty, values, goals or jealousy. The way it’s set up, it exploits those concerns and brings them to the front.”
As you may have expected, the show played a part in the demise of the relationship, especially when it was time for it to air in homes around the world. That’s when Goldberg says Cheung-Sutton opened up to her more about what occurred, not knowing what footage could make the cut.
“There was more crap that I wasn’t told the truth about,” she adds without going into detail.
But have no fear. Goldberg is not alone somewhere broken-hearted. It turns out she has a new girlfriend, photographer Kristin “Zanc” Zancanelli. The pair were first good friends and roommates before romance struck this spring. The pair now split their time between Los Angeles and Miami.
“All of this got me to where I want to be in life,” Goldberg says, noting her happy relationship with Zancanelli and platonic friendship with Wright, which is still going strong.
These days, she focuses on capitalizing off her newly found fame and social media success through appearances and ongoing talks with brands about possible partnerships, happy to leave her 12-hour work days in accounting behind her for now.
Even better, she can now say she starred on the first queer reality marriage show, giving an underserved community a new dash of representation in pop culture minus much of the clichéd stereotypes.
“Let queer people be messy. Let queer people be honest. Let us be received in a way that is normal because we are,” she says, adding that there should be more of it on TV. “There’s no reason that for every crappy-ass dating reality show on Hulu, Paramount Plus, NBC or ABC that they shouldn’t be trying to create and equally crappy queer one.”
Have a story idea? Contact Ryan Cormier of Delaware Online/The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier) and Twitter (@ryancormier).
