There’s a new dating angle on TikTok that has fans rooting for a love triangle between three content creators.
The love triangle first started in December when influencer Ayamé Ponder posted a video asking her followers to guess where she was before immediately announcing that she’s simply “in a hotel.”
In January, creator Yuval Ben-Hayun — who is known on the platform for correctly finding out whatever information influencers are trying to hide — discovered Ponder was staying at the Grosvenor House in London based on the design of the room service plates and the headboard in the hotel room.
Ponder told NBC News that she first saw Ben-Hayun’s video when her now-ex-boyfriend sent it to her, concerned that she was being stalked.
“My first initial reaction was a mix of fear and confusion,” Ponder shared, but after doing a deep dive on Ben-Hayun’s page and seeing that this is something he does to many people, she felt better.
A couple of months later, in March, Ponder decided to have some fun with it and challenged Ben-Hayun to find her in a new location.
“Disclaimer: By the time this is posted, I have left the hotel,” Ponder said in a new video. “So try and find me.”
And he did, discovering she was in The SoHo Hotel in London.
“Goddamit I have enough on my plate Ayamé,” Ben-Hayun commented on the video, to which Ponder responded, “I’m not sure I like your tone.”
This is when followers started to suspect there was something more flirty going on between the two creators.
“Something tells me he’s flirting with me…” Ponder captioned her reaction video to Ben-Hayun’s discovery.
Ben-Hayun stitched yet another video of Ponder asking him to guess where she is, and someone commented, “Yuval, She doesn’t want you to find her, She wants you to go and ‘find’ her!!! Even I realize that!” The comment received 44,400 likes.
“I decided to flirt with him,” Ponder told NBC. “I consider myself quite a confident babe. So if you’re trying to find me, you’re obviously in love.”
Ben-Hayun even made his videos with Ponder into a series on his TikTok page called “finding her” — but things started to get spicy when a third influencer, Oliver Mills, entered the picture.
Mills and Ponder met on set for an Audible ad, and she posted a video with the caption, “hard launch coming soon.”
“Where’s yuval,” a sad fan asked.
“This is Yuvals villain origin story,” another wrote.
Though Ponder said Mills was initially confused by the comments, he’s since gotten in on the game.
He posted a video declaring his love for Ponder, saying, “Yuval, you may have her attention but you will never have her heart.”
Ben-Hayun responded by posting a video about Mills with nothing more than the lyrics to “Euphoria” by Kendrick Lamar — Lamar’s diss track about Drake. He also shared that he was able to find Mills’ address and sent him roses.
“This series is free. i love tiktok,” someone commented.
“Bridgerton who? I’m here for this love triangle,” another quipped.
However, some people started to question whether this so-called love triangle was part of the Audible campaign all along, but one person, who says to be the owner of a social media agency, said she doesn’t think it has to do with Audible because some posts are tagged as sponsored while others aren’t.
And while it might not be for audible, there’s a possibility that it’s not real — which may be part of the appeal to viewers, Brooke Erin Duffy, a professor at Cornell University who studies the social media industry, explained to NBC.
“Another thing that is striking is the parasocial dynamic really playing into what social media culture does, which is encourage people to think of creators as relatable,” Duffy said. “This could be your best pal who is trying to solicit relationship advice.”
As for Ponder, she claimed that “all of it has been very much destiny.”
In a statement from Ben-Hayun given to NBC by Ponder’s agent, he said the relationship was “100% organic.”
“I’m really proud of us for taking advantage of the momentum we’ve had to do some actual good.”
In her most recent video about Ben-Hayun, Ponder tagged him and said “Hello my darling… hope you haven’t forgotten about me.”
He responded, “I never forget” — and the official Audible account chimed in as well, writing, “So casual, and yet so full of anticipation.”
Ponder and Ben-Hayun have yet to meet in person, but he told her in a note that he promised to visit by June 21.
“When I do see him, I will fall in love even more so,” Ponder admitted. “Quite scared about that.”
