Ready to Love: Vince’s timeline raises red flags while Steven wins over Donnah’s friends

Ready to Love season 11, which premiered on Friday, December 26, 2025, on Oprah Winfrey Network, saw the women stepping up by bringing their closest friends to grill their top connections.

This episode, 8, titled "Meet the Detroit Friends," tested Donnah's connections as she introduces her close friends to her remaining connections, Vince and Steven, who are both put under the microscope.

Vince stumbled hard, dodging direct commitment talk and insisting on his own pace despite Donnah's desire for kids, sparking major red flags about mismatched timelines.

Steven, on the other hand, charmed them effortlessly with clear intentions, a two-year marriage goal, and sweet gestures like renaming his phone contact to "Donna Banks," leaving the friends impressed and him as the clear winner.

More details about the meet-up of Vince and Steven with Donnah's friends in Ready to Love, explored

The scene in Ready to Love opens on a light, slightly awkward note as Vince meets Donnah’s friends, who jumped straight into the tough stuff.

One friend said, "I personally want to talk about what it is you like about Donna." Vince laughed it off and later gave his ranking:

"This ranking is in no particular order, but I love how smart Donna is. Of course, Donna is beautiful. I'm like a 7. She brings me up to like an 8.5 if you see me with her. You know, like... upgraded."

The questions got real fast on marriage, as Donnah's one friend asked if he was ready for marriage, Vince replied,

"Um, I wouldn't say that I'm dating for marriage." She pushed: "What would you say?" He replied, "I would say I'm dating to get to know someone and get to know if we could take it to that next step." "Dating with intention?" she clarified. "Well, the intention is to get to know them," he said.

Then came the big one as Donnah's friend asked if he wanted to get married. Vince got thinking and then recovered somewhat, saying: 

"Well, I want to be married, but I'm definitely not going to force to be married."

The kids' talk exposed the cracks,

"So my hesitation is this. Donna does want to have kids. I mean, you can't really put a timeline on it, but it's kind of a timeline, don't you think?"

Vince said he didn't mind more children and pressed further, "You don't mind having more children?" he added, "No, I don't mind. I could not have them as well, and it wouldn't bother me."

But then he doubled down on his pace, saying in a confessional,

"I can't help that I met Donna at this time. I wish that it was a different time, but it's not. It's today. I can't fast-forward or move quicker in what I think that I need because of what her timeline is. It doesn't work like that. My pace is my pace, no matter who I'm speaking with."

Next, Steven entered, who introduced himself confidently and handled the interrogation easily. Donnah's friends asked him, 

"So I want to know a little bit more about you. We know you're a teacher. Do you have any children?" "No," he said.

When asked if he wants children, Steven replies, "I do want kids, at least 1." Then the topic of timelines entered the conversation. Steven was direct, noting,

"As a man, I feel like if I'm in a relationship, I think within maybe 2 years, because now I think I've learned enough. The goal is to be married. Yeah. She knows that, I know that. And if we don't see that with each other after a certain time, like, all right, cool. Like, no beef. So that is a safe feeling for me that I think in a relationship she would be very similar, where she kind of probably understands who she's dating her husband at some point like I'm beyond just a like surface level."

Donnah's friends were clearly impressed by his response, stating that's how love is defined, then Steven made the killer move, saying, 

"I'm gonna change your name on the phone, I say Donna Banks in that name." 

Stay tuned for more updates.