It all started in quarantine. Kristen Doute and Alex Menache knew each other from running in the same friend circles, but their relationship blossomed into a romance at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic before ultimately calling it quits in 2022.
The couple first made headlines in April 2020 when Us Weekly confirmed the Vanderpump Rules alum and the California native were officially an item.
As their romance continued to heat up, Doute revealed more details about what brought them together. “It was just someone that I had been friends with, and it was kind of like a drunken night and I was like, ‘Hey, we’ve been friends and you’re hot. We should probably make out,’” the He’s Making You Crazy author shared on the May 3, 2020, episode of Lindsey Metselaar’s podcast “We Met at Acme.”
Although their relationship may have begun in a casual manner, Menache showed up for his lady in earnest when she was fired from Vanderpump Rules over accusations of racism.
“This woman has been put thru the ringer [sic] these last few weeks and has taken it like a champ,” the real estate mogul wrote via Instagram in June 2020, sharing a photo of Doute sticking out her tongue as he kissed her on the cheek. “Anyone that knows you knows your heart is pure and kind.”
The two were smitten with each other, but Doute noted she didn’t “feel the need to rush” into marriage with her new boyfriend. “I think Alex and I are just doing it the way that’s right for us,” the James Mae CEO told Life & Style in August of that year.
“We’ve had that conversation, of course,” she added. “I think we’re both in the right place at the right time of our lives and if it happens, it happens.”
Although they didn’t tie the knot during their run together, Doute and Menache were getting serious about babies at the beginning of 2021. In a January Instagram Story, the Michigan native admitted she was “really nervous” about her “really off cycles” due to her age (37 at the time), wondering if that would negatively affect her ability to get pregnant.
“Going into [the gynecologist], we were not able to do the tests we were hoping for so it really stressed me out and kind of broke my f–king heart, but we did the best we could with what we could do,” she shared at the time. “Good news on those fronts, and we’re just gonna keep track of what we need to keep track of and catch up again in a couple months.”
Later that year, the couple hit their first public breakup rumor hiccup when Doute unfollowed her beau on Instagram, per Reality Blurb. Menache broke his silence by writing in the comments section of the @blockedbyjax account: “Haha no. Kristen threw a fit the other night and hastily blocked me. I didn’t even know it until now and we forgot to follow back. Everything is good, calm down bored ladies.”
The dust seemed to settle between them as they ultimately moved into a “fixer upper” together at the end of the year after Doute sold her Valley Village abode for $1.3 million.
“I’m so happy Alex and I finally moved in together even though it feels like we’ve lived together for the last two years,” the former reality star said in a series of videos shared via her Instagram Stories in December 2021.
Perhaps moving in together was the death knell for their relationship, as rumors began to swirl in June 2022 that they had called it quits when the former Bravo personality shared numerous Instagram Stories of her moving out of the house they shared together.
Doute also uploaded a photo of herself standing in front of a mirror. “Bye beautiful home,” she wrote. “We had so many awesome memories… as heavy as it is, my current mood is gratitude.”
The former SUR employee confirmed the split by responding to fan comments on her social media page, writing that their relationship simply “didn’t work out.”
Scroll down to relive some of the highs and lows and Doute and Menache’s two-year romance.