Waterford man, Stan, celebrated his 86th — yes, really — birthday in the "First Dates" restaurant, with him hoping to find the love of his life on his blind date with Lorraine, who returned to the restaurant for a second shot at love.
Speaking to producers ahead of the date, Stan gave a touching opinion on love, saying: "Love is [when you’re with] someone you can sit in silence with, where you can sit in a room and not say a word. Just be happy that that other person’s there.
"Real love is rare, it’s wonderful, I’ve had it a couple of times in my life - and I’m hoping that I’ll have it again."
Originally from Essex in the UK, Stan explained that his business and marriage collapsed before he moved to Ireland in 1995, where he met his partner Bernadette, whom he called "the love of a thousand lifetimes," before she passed away 18 months before his date.
After revealing that the day of his date was actually his 86th birthday, the couple finished their meal and waited for dessert - where the "First Dates" crew appeared with a cake, candles, and sparklers - with the entire restaurant singing "Happy Birthday" to him, with him saying "oh my god, that’s the high spot of my day. Thank you all!" while maitre’d Mateo joked "Happy 50th Birthday."
@rte2 Celebrate First Dates oldest dater! 🎂 #FirstDatesIRL | Thursdays 9:30PM on @rte2
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Stan and Lorraine’s date also consisted of him reading her horoscope, saying that she’s in the third year of her sequence and that she doesn’t get into arguments "that you can’t win, or arguments that don’t go anywhere. And I’d suggest that 2025 is a memorable year for you," before reading a love poem for her from his book of poems.
When it came to the million euro question of if they’d like to see each other again, they both agreed that they would - with Lorraine saying that she’d make him lunch if he comes up to Offaly, before joking "as long as you have a good life insurance policy and don’t mind being poisoned" - to which Stan retorted "at my time of life you can’t get life insurance."
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Also on the show were 37-year-old saxophonist "Fingerz" (it’s his nickname) and 34-year-old Katrina, and, despite being enamored with Katrina’s looks and bonding over their mutual love for music, they spent a lot of their date chatting to the couples around them - including Stan and Lorraine - with Fingerz admitting that while he enjoyed himself, their lives were ‘aimed in different directions’ with him raising his 10-year-old daughter.
"I can see why we would’ve been matched, but fundamentally the energies were just [different]," Katrina added.
23-year-olds Ellis and Dearbhla hit it off during their date, with Ellis, who has ASD, saying that he usually wears an AirPod in one of his ears to help regulate sound — however, he didn’t need it at all when he was on his date with Dearbhla, who immediately shocked him when she said she’d like to see him again romantically.
"Wh-WHAT? Yer staging this, [Dearbhla’s] a crisis actor," Ellis joked, while Dearbhla said "I really really enjoyed the date, I felt it go by. [We’ve] really good chemistry."
Finally, daters Laura and Stephen immediately made a familial connection — after Stephen discovered that his uncle taught Laura French in school.
The pair said that they’d definitely like to see each other again, with Laura saying that Stephen will have to teach her to swim; with Stephen joking "I’ll have to teach myself first."
"First Dates" airs every Thursday on RTÉ 2 and the RTÉ Player at 9:30 pm [GMT].
*This article was originally published on Extra.ie.
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