We Need To Talk with Paul C. Brunson - Talia Mar, YUNGBLUD,⁩ & Jordan Stephens on Love & Dating | We’re Talking: Love Stories

Episode Date: August 21, 2025

Talia Mar reveals how she met Simon Minter (Miniminter), the bold social media move that caught his attention, and the truth about their first date. She shares what made Simon so attractive and why their relationship works. Yungblud opens up about his sexuality, why his relationship with Jessie Jo Stark ended, and whether he’s still in love with her today. He also reflects on self-love, identity, and what real intimacy means in relationships. Jordan Stephens shares his love story with Jayde, from their first date to overcoming intimacy issues, and how his attitude towards saying “I love you” has completely changed. Follow me here: https://www.instagram.com/needtotalk https://www.tiktok.com/@weneedtotalkpod (00:00) Intro (00:27) How Talia Met Simon Minter (02:51) What Talia Did on Social Media to Get Simon's Attention (05:04) Talia and Simon's First Date (09:12) What Was It About Simon That Was So Attractive? (11:14) Love Better Tour Ad (12:24) Yungblud's Attitude Towards His Sexuality (13:39) Why Yungblud Can't Be in a Relationship With Jessie Jo Stark (15:11) Is Yungblud Still in Love With Jessie Jo? (18:02) Does Yungblud Love Himself Today? (19:35) How Jordan Met Jayde (22:06) Jordan and Jade's First Date (24:33) How Jordan Navigated His Intimacy Issues With Jade (25:40) Jordan's Changed Attitude Towards Saying 'I Love You' to Jade (27:23) Jordan and Jade's First Date Get Your Tickets to the Love Better Tour: https://bit.ly/lovebetter-YT Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You said this place was steps from the water. We just haven't found the steps yet. How much did we save? Enough. Enough to get lost. Or you could book a stay with Hilton. Welcome to your ocean front room. Just steps from the water.

The Hilton sale is on now. Book on Hilton.com or the Hilton app and save up to 20% to get the stay you expected. When you want savings, not surprises. It matters where you stay. Hilton for the stay. This week, we're talking love. Whether it's the first kiss, first date or first anniversary,

the beginning of a relationship is an exciting and memorable time. So let's take a look back at some incredible love stories from Talia Mar, Youngblood, and Jordan Stevens. Can we talk about a boy? Mm. All right. So you were how old when you met your first boyfriend? My husband was my first boyfriend, so 20. there you go

yeah so then what turns it all around when you met Simon I don't know but it was just different like I pointed him out to my friends

across the festival which I've never done before like they all looked to me and they were like all right well okay why don't you go talk to him then babe because this is new for you

and I was like absolutely not I'm not gonna go and speak to a boy no can you even back up a little bit because this has never happened to you no so this is big yeah this is big so you're at a festival yeah you spot him yeah

and when you see what's the feeling that comes over you when you see him I just was excited I was like he's cute I like him I just I want him oh that one yeah I don't know it was just like a I just had a positive feeling and I was like I just really want to talk to him like he looks cool he looks

interesting like and then later on maybe an hour later a friend of mine came over and went oh my god like hey like bumped into us let me introduce you to my friends and pointed over to the group and I was like you're friends with the boy you're friends with the boy um so introduced us and I just remember thinking I'm really struggling to make eye contact I was literally like looking like this it's like hey you're right and I'm yeah I'm good how are you I was like oh my god it's all of the masking suddenly was just like I'd lost any ability to do it um and yeah we then spent the rest of the festival together like as a group and what about the emotion made you want to go forward because sometimes when people experience these things for the first time they retreat oh no I was the

opposite. I suddenly turned into this like very confident, persistent human being. Okay. I think I was just so shocked that I was capable of feeling this that I was like, this has to mean something. And so I followed him on Twitter. Okay. And made like a tweet that was clearly he would know was about him, but no one else would know. Okay. What was the tweet? It was something like, it was no, it was the day after. It was something.

like, oh, I was meant to wear these shoes today, but someone last night told me it wasn't a good idea, and now I'm regretting it. So it was, he would know, literally no one else in the world would know. Okay. So, all right. Can I get into the mind of Talia? Oh, again, strategic. Yes, I'm going to say, you were plotting this out. Yeah. So you probably even plotted to follow him at a certain time. Yes. Yeah, 100%. Okay. So what was two, what was the right time? So, well, in my head, I was like, well, I know he had like, I don't know, three million followers or something at the time. I had 100,000.

Okay. And so I was like, well, if I follow him, he's not going to see it. So I have to wait until like middle of the day when there's like, he's not asleep, followed, tweeted. Immediately. Yeah. So he gets the notification from both. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Immediate followback and response. And I was like, I'm in. I've done it. Oh, man. You're OG out here. Tired. Oh gee, man. So what was the response?

The response was like, he the sent to me in my DMs and was like, oh, we blaming me for this or something like that. Like he clearly knew the tweet was about him. He took the bait. He did. He took the bait. He did. All right. Yeah.

So, okay, so he took the bait. So now what's the next move? So now, this is when I suddenly became this confident human being that I'd never been before. And I essentially was like, I, I think. think I was the one that said, like, are you going to take my number? When are we going to go out? Or something like that. It was like, when are you going to teach me FIFA?

I think I said something like that. Like, so cringe. We also have no interest in learning FIFA whatsoever. And it kind of, we just spoke from every day. From that moment on, we spoke every single day. Every day. Every single day. All right.

Yeah. Can I ask this too? This is very important. I'm tracking this. This is an internal study. Yeah. Okay. Your first date was where?

I don't know if you class it as a date. Okay. But we'll go for it. Yeah, first time that you saw each other after the festival. Yeah, so we had a mutual friend's birthday that he was like, why don't you come to ours before? I'll pick you up from the station or we can go together to this party. Okay.

And I was like, okay. Let's do it. Yeah? Do you know what? Part of me thought it was it. Genuinely. What was it? As in like that I was like, this is, this is, I found him.

I'm like, I found him. This is the one. This is the, this is end game. From day one. From day one. Because I had no experienced it before. I remember I came home and I said to my mom, I was like, I've met a boy and she, her jaw hit the floor. She literally was like, what have you just said to me?

Like, there's no way these words are coming out you out. If you'd have told me to bet one way or the other, I'd have probably bet on it. That you knew. Yeah. He was the one. Yeah. All right. So here's the million pound question. Yes.

All right. How long did you anticipate you would be together that day, that first day, versus how long did you end up staying together? Oh, that's a good question. I thought we'd just go to the party and I'd go home. Okay. Because, one, I didn't want to give any impressions that anything was going to happen because I was big, no, no.

But I stayed over. And it wasn't anything like that. literally like this next to him fully clothed like oh my god it's terrified like please this is not why I'm here I just don't want to leave but yeah

we spoke the whole party and then the whole until the next day until I think I think we went to sleep at 8 a.m. So you were with each so you thought you would be together for a few hours yeah you were with each other for a day plus

yeah all right Talia this you've I got scared for a second And I thought you were going to break my study. You have supported a study that I've been doing, just personally, where 100% of couples who have met the person they think is going to be their partner and then end up in a committed relationship, marriage, etc. They completely entirely break the rules on that first day together.

Entirely. My wife and I did it too. We thought we'd be together for a few hours. It was a day plus. and the reason why is because of what you said is that I just don't want to leave your side we don't have to do anything I just so adore

being with you that I don't want to be with anyone else cute okay love that but this is what you're saying that's so interesting yeah yeah that's literally what happened I thought it would just be a party I'll go home so so there you are together lay in there like literally like a sardine terrified like just so you know nothing is happening

Can we explore this a little bit? Yeah. Because I would imagine you've not had sex. No. Okay. So here you are. First time with the boy you like. Yeah.

At his place. Yeah. In his bed. I know. This is why I kept my clothes on fully. And I don't think I'd told him at this point. Okay. I hadn't said that I was, well, not that I wasn't interested,

but I hadn't even alluded to the fact that I might not have had sex. for. So I was just laying there literally like, just I want this to be clear on top of the covers. Of course. So you have to stay on top of the covers. On top of the covers. Yes. Trousers, long sleeve t-shirt. Like literally I am making it so clear that nothing is happening because I was just not terrified, but I was like, I don't want to leave. He clearly is fine with me staying. Like it also made sense like it was late. I was tired. Not that like we chatted until like 8 a.m. like I said. Yeah.

But yeah, no, I was like, absolutely not. I'm not doing that right now. No, mm-mm-mm. But he respected that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It wasn't even a question. Wasn't even a question. All right.

So what was it about Simon in those first few interactions, those first few days, that led you to truly fall in love with him? I never talk about this kind of thing. There was something about the way that he was. was my little quirks that people would laugh at me for were coming out and I had absolutely no control about it but I also didn't mind and at no point did he make me feel weird or like I was different and if if he did it was in a good way it was like I love the fact that you do that or like it was the little thing that people picked on me for that he was like I think it's funny I like it

so would you say that you felt safe with him yeah oh yeah immediately yeah and like especially being 20, him not trying to physically pursue me immediately when he could tell I was a bit closed off was really nice because I'd never experienced that. Every single boy I'd ever spoken to was always immediately on that and I was like, oh, please leave me alone. Okay, okay. I think this is very insightful because there's so many people

who wonder, am I with a good one? Mm-hmm. Right? And how do I distinguish if they're a good one or not? Yeah. And from what I hear you saying, what Simon did is, one is he showed you respect consistently. It wasn't an on-off respect. Yeah, no, no.

He made you feel safe. Yeah. And he affirmed you, you know, that's what I hear. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I think with the respect as well, I could tell it wasn't forced. He wasn't trying to respect me. He just was respecting me. Because I think there is also a difference.

Like sometimes I can see people make, like, fighting their almost like, inner demons. Yes. There was none of that. It was just like, okay, well, if you don't want to do that, cool, we try to do that. Like, it's not even a second thought. Gotcha. Let me ask you something.

When was the last time you really thought about how you love? Not who, but how? Most of us don't. We're moving fast, doing life, hoping love just shows up and sticks. But that's not how real connection works. So I've created something different. It's called love better. And I'm taking it on tour.

A live experience for anyone who wants to build deeper, more meaningful connection. We'll unpack the lessons from the couples you've seen me coach. I'll share stories I've never told on camera, and you'll walk away with tools you could use right away. This isn't a show you just sit back and watch. It's a night of honesty, insight, music, and connection designed to make you walk away with something real. Come solo, bring a partner, bring your crew,

everyone's welcome. But seats are limited and they will go. Tickets are on sale right now at livenation.co.com. I can't wait to see you there. Not loving your AT&T or T Mobile Bill. Yeah, we've been hearing that a lot. Good news. Bring your AT&T or T Mobile Bill to Verizon and we'll give you a better deal. So get away from that unfortunate phone bill and get to Verizon. Run, ride, canoe. Whatever it takes, we'll be here. Bring your AT&T or T Mobile Bill to a Verizon store today and we'll give you a better deal on the best network. A better deal. No surprises. That's Verizon. Best Network based on Route Metrics, best overall mobile network performance U.S.

second half 2025. All rights reserved. It must provide a recent consumer mobile bill in the name of the person reguming me the deal. Additional terms, conditions and restrictions apply. How many discounts does USAA auto insurance offer? Too many to say here. Multi-vehicle discount. Safe driver discount. New vehicle discount. Storage discount. How many discounts will you stack up? Tap the banner or visit usaa.com slash auto discounts. Restrictions apply. Youngblood. Can we talk about love?

Yeah, we can talk about love. Yeah. Yeah. You've had some, I'll say, notable... Yes. I have. Girlfriends. I have.

Yep. But I'd love to talk about your identity. Yeah. You know? How, at what point did you feel like you were firm in your identity and sexuality? I think really when I came to London, you know, I think, like, I came to London at 15. and I think I had loads of questions

you know I had loads of like I went on loads of adventures with me I really felt about like whatever it is I'm into it but I couldn't really no one really got that up north

I was like what or then I was almost forced to be like well what are you right what are you I'm like I'm a viber you know what I mean like whatever you are like if I like you

then I might fancy you or I might have sex for you I might like if we vibe out together then that's that's the way I see things I love human beings I love human beings I'm like whatever it is

I'm down if it's a vibe right and this year has been such a strange thing for me because it's the first time that probably the biggest love of my life I've taken space from and I've asked for space last year

I was really having problems with myself and it was all the me problem and I think I think I her name's Jesse Joe basically probably no Jessie Joe Stark was probably the most incredible person

I've ever met and she's my best friend and I feel so lucky to be in her orbit because I got to talk this through with her and she understood and she needed a moment. We talk every Sunday.

And, I mean, ultimately, I think in my life, all roads lead to her because I love her. I never loved anything. Like, I love her. I love her as, I don't know, I love her as everything. I love her as if I'd love, you know what I'm saying? Water.

I need it, you know? And I think, I'd never experienced love like it because when you can be that honest with another human being, even in times when we're not technically together. Right. I was like, she's just insane. So right here where you sit. Right here where I sit.

You're still in love with her. Yeah. So why not be with her? I think at this moment in time I needed to build up a fundamental basis of a personality. I was a shell. So I didn't know what I could love. But do you fear? Yes.

that when you're ready to go back, she may no longer be available? I think that's the risk that I take. We talk every Sunday, and I look forward to every Sunday, and I get coffee out of the tea. We have coffee out of a tea cup, it's our thing. Okay.

And we communicate. Okay. It's complicated, but it's our story, and I love her. Yeah. You know what's interesting about that? Everything I got, you know what I mean? Yeah, it's like, I think that we live in a society that likes to have a definition for everything. Categorically agree with you.

The thing about it is, right, we went to Cachella together, right? Cichella's not my favorite place in the world. I'm a Donny boy in England, you know what I mean? It's not really my vibe, but I. She's a Caligal girl from Malibu, and she loves it. And I was so distracted by trying to go from place to place or meet. person to person or network or do whatever that I wanted to do it on my own and I'm like why do I not want to do it with her and now I look back on it I was like should have just

elder hand man because the memories I remember from that weekend were getting ice cream walking through the site with her yes chilling out in a pool with her it's all her yes everything's her yes but I've got to I want it I've got to get myself right I think that's it's it's so easy to be like it is easy to be like Well, you love her, so be together. I'm like, no, the timing was, we've got to figure the timing out, but I ain't letting it. You know what I mean?

But as long as we're communicating through it. As long as you're communicating. That's our thing. It is. That's our thing. And that might be like, my mom and dad met at 15. Oh, wow. And now they're still together.

And they've had the most like, again, turbulent, crazy domestically violent, probably 20s to 30s. But now I'm 55 and I've never been, like, teenagers. They figured it out. And I don't know what's going to happen. But I will love that girl until I'm dying. Right. And if that ends up, like, I would love it for one day to have loads of kids with her and vibe out and do all the, like, whatever the fairy tale thing is.

But if that doesn't happen, that doesn't happen. But that's why I got tattooed on my arm. I was like, look at that. She's there. She's always going to do. And people are you not scared if you don't get back together? I'm like, no, man, she's on my skin. She's in the same way that she's inked into my heart.

You have to love yourself in order to love another. And I didn't. Yeah. Do you today? Do you love yourself today? I think I love myself yet a lot more. I think I battle with a lot, but I've learned, again, I needed space to process it. And I think kind of what's what I think to give her a little bit of credit with Jesse Joe Wright.

I really think she needed a moment to kind of bask in her power a little bit. I don't know. I can't speak for her. I think like she's always been kind of like part of the Chrome Arts family or Youngblood's girlfriend or someone's friend when she is fucking awesome. Right. I see exactly what you're saying. You know what I mean?

And you know, and what you're saying, I don't think is so unorthodox. If you think about the whole notion of you put the oxygen mask on yourself first or you put it on the person next to you. Completely. So in a relationship, what that truly means is that, yes, you need to have a sense of self-worth, high enough self-esteem. You need to be enacting self-love. And kind of the fundamentals of been a rock star

get placed upon you and can you be a single, can you be a rock star in a relationship? Right. And then if you're a rock star, you need to either, you're either not in a relationship or you need to be with another rock star.

Yeah, it's like, it's like, it's like what is, it's like these, again, these boundaries are placed upon you and you're kind of like, how do I deal with this? Jordan. All right, so then let's get to then Jade. Yes. Because Jade doesn't, she,

doesn't fit that no situation no so so so how how how is it that that that you and jade come together i had all this spare time i'm in lockdown and i was like man i fucking love little makes this is like it's always love little as a group and i had this memory of a friend of mine being like oh you'd really get along with jade so i just like texted him and was like dude is jade single like is this a vibe like what can we yeah and then me and jay started talking and i was wait wait wait wait give me some more detail so you text your friend so yeah so the story is i text my friend i said i i knew that jade was single actually and i said like can you pitch me to jade i said can i pick that that's what i said pitch me pitch me and he's just like he like screenshot that i just sent that to jane yeah and then

but then but then i get this i get this uh i get this dm out of the blue because obviously she's a lockdown doing fucking right okay how now how long how much time is going back i can't remember A couple of days? Oh, she gave it a couple days. Dude, we're in lockdown. There's nothing to deal. Oh, oh, okay, maybe not then. I don't know.

I actually can't remember the time. I can't remember the time. But, like, I just remember, like, getting this DM, you know. And she's a superstar, you know what I mean? Obviously, I'd done well, but, like, and actually, oddly, we'd almost made a song about seven years before. That's a whole other story. I'd never met her.

And she popped in and she went, what's your pitch then? Like, straight just that. What's your pitch then? Yeah, what's your pitch? Show me. And so I was like, hilarious. Firstly, hilarious. And then, so I made this PowerPoint presentation,

which was awful. Like, I meant to make it bad. See, that's not my sense of humour. You made a PowerPoint pre-spection. I made a PowerPoint straight off the bat. I was like, cool, give me a minute. So I went in, and I basically wrote, like, there's one page that was, like, reasons to like me.

And I was like, I've got more than five mates. I could definitely have more. My dog loves me. She obviously has funny. So we start talking and I'm tapping my mates. Listen, I'm chatting someone a little mix, like, but then I was like, oh, this is a buyer, you know, I said to my boy, like, yeah, you know, if I'll see how it goes, you know,

wait until these restrictions get lifted, I have a little, yeah. But then I do a couple of these Zoom dates, and I was just like, looked at this list. And I was like, oh, like, she's all these things, like, what am I going to do here? All right, I'll meet up with her in person and I'll know. And then we had this date. Can I ask before you even got to the date? Yeah. What was on the list?

Well, do I say. You know what? I can't remember the list exactly, but there were some important factors. One was actually humor, which everyone would say. It wasn't like this was separate to what I'd already experienced.

It was just like a conscious focusing on it. Okay. So like, humor was massive fun, funny. Dancing was really important to me. And this is bizarre. But like dancing, because I had started to visualize my future with, and that being such an important element of it,

you know, moments, you know, that you know you'll know this with your wife you know you go away there's music and then you want someone you could fucking dance with and it's good that it's your right yeah part of it exactly it did also help that jade herself is mixed race just because i hadn't had the ability to connect with a person in my immediate romantic space that had also had that can that complex lived experience now i don't this isn't to say again that this is that everyone should just mate with people who have this shed, you know. But for me, specifically, with my history of dating,

that was massive for me, you know. To meet her mom, her mom's black. Her mom is Yemeni Egyptian. You know, she's half Arabic and then half Georgie. She's got a wonderful father, Jimmy, who's like, Jordy. I don't know what that is Anglo-Saxon. But she had had that complexity.

She was raised in South Shields in a little town where, I mean, now in London, and she would be seen as light-skinned. In Jordyland, they were fucking signing off on her yearbook saying, like, good luck selling camels, this kind of shit. Real racist shit. Wow. So, like, so she had that understanding of just, like, the confusion of, of that.

And I felt that is, you know, it's just another value that we share. It's just another lived experience that we share. Experience, yeah. And so, yeah, so all of that kind of amounted to me, ringing my mate and being like, well, this is a bit of fun. didn't it because I fancy her she has all the qualities that I've deemed important for for me to have a loving relationship I'm definitely ready because I'd had a mature so certainly the rekindling was a mature relationship I understood boundaries I

had you know everything was in place yeah you're ready so I said to him what am I gonna like keep her at arm's length shag around and then hope that she still like no I was like fuck it and now we're almost you know five years so Jade really hasn't seen a version of me that existed before that had at times insurmountable intimacy issues she's never seen it and it was a joke early on with my close guy mate like immediate circle

that she just doesn't have no idea that there was a time where even cuddling in bed would lead to me basically vibrating like I would be so anxious I'd be so triggered by the concept of like or somebody one thing I used to hate would be like someone asked me do you love me Be like, what the fuck you're talking about?

Like, we're in a relationship. Is that not enough? Right. I mean, this is before I've listened to six-hour fucking audio books about safety questions and attachment theory. And yes, I understand that in that moment, is it really much of a compromise for me to just tell the person and assure them that it's not them asking, it's the child. I get it. Yes. I get it now.

But it's what's so interesting is I thought about that. I thought now in my relationship, Jade tells me, she loves me all the time. And I fucking love it. It's like, it's like, it's the most, the best comfort food, but with no health risks. There's no, is, you know what I mean? No sugar. It's just, no cut. Yeah.

Oh, and I'm just like, and I just felt so grateful. And I was just, I think I was just about to leave somewhere. And she was away already. And she just sent me a text that I love you for no reason. And I was just like, fucking, I felt so grateful. And this is a lot of the reason, Paul, I speak about men and young boys. Because I never knew I could feel like this. I never knew that there's a.

safety in somebody with such a she's so willing to just express it and i listen i've been parted to that i've made sure this is years of trust that's been built up and i get that now and now i'm understanding partnership more and communication and now the things that used to stress me out about like communication that doesn't even exist anymore because we just trust each other right if i fall asleep i forget to say good night i love you which i like doing she's not going to be annoyed she's going to assume i fell asleep because we trust you know yes so there's those things that shifted but I used to think I used to have this ardent view you know I tell you I love you sparingly because then it has more value I bet you hear this all the time absolutely like

when I say I love you that's that the well the time will stop cars will pause right you will feel it and you cannot demand this of me you can't say do you love me right I used to think that whereas I've moved away from this idea that love needs to be something that's short on supply like what the fuck like i want to tell jade i love her all the time i want her to tell me she loves me all the time because it's just great it is like it's just great it is what was your first date with jade where was it on zoom oh yeah that's true sorry in person physical it was in grisage park yeah it was in greenwich park and yeah i just wanted to see if i liked that i was i just wanted to see what the vibe was and we were both nervous and it was difficult because there were like

restrictions at the time it was just out the just the one side of lockdown so but we were there for eight hours for eight hours yeah how long did you plan to be there before but this this is important yeah this is important so when there's nothing else going on there's nothing but but you but i'm sure you weren't thinking you would be there for eight hours right i had i you know what i really had no expectations i didn't want to fold into the immediate experience of love of lust and desire that high. Yes. Which leads to what the failing of 70, 80% of

relationships because eventually the chemical stops and you know who the fuck is this person I don't even like them, get out my life. Three months and most relationships end. I was painfully aware that I'd experienced that four times in my life, four times, you know, convinced this person would be, so when I knew

I liked her, I said respectfully, I'm not going to say I love you the first time until I I am not high. High on. Oxy-tocin. Yeah, yeah, true.

So you're not in the state of limerence. The bonding chemical. Dude, it's the whole thing of like, we will surf over red flags in those initial stages because we just want to fucking eat this person. And so I knew that was coming. So I was saying,

so I was literally using all of my energy. I was offsetting my opinion of Jade on my best friends, for a start. So I was relaying everything to them and I got them to meet her as quick as possible. Wow. You're doing it all right.

Dude, you're doing it all right? Because I didn't want to fuck up. It doesn't matter whether you're going to the cinema, a party, or a restaurant. One thing is always true when it comes to first dates. If the date goes on, way past the agreed time slot, then you're probably on to a good thing. Hey, Mama. Thanks for making all my favorite recipes. Hi, Ma.

Thanks for your unfiltered advice. Hi, Mom. Thanks for always being by the phone. Hey, Mom. When you ship UPS Air at the UPS store, your items arrive on time or your money back. Guaranteed at no extra cost, exclusively at the UPS store UPS store U.S. retail locations. Visit the UPS store.com slash air shipping for full details. Terms and conditions apply.

Send your Mother's Day gifts at the UPS store and we'll get your gratitude there on time. Spring just slid into your DMs. Grab that boho look for that rooftop dinner, those sandals that can keep up with you, and hang some string lights to give your patio a glow up. Spring's calling. Ross, work your magic.