Though Christine Brown is David Woolley’s “unicorn” now, his loved ones’ initial worries she might be catfishing him was just one hurdle the pair overcame before taking their relationship public

Sister Wives’ Christine Brown and David Woolley are living happily ever after now, but that doesn’t mean their love story was a fairy tale from the start.

Chatting exclusively with PEOPLE, Christine recalls the now-newlyweds’ second date — including one rather blunt word Woolley used to describe her ex-husband Kody Brown.

“David didn’t live under a rock,” Christine told PEOPLE of her love’s awareness of her role on the TLC reality show. “He told me on our second date — I blurted out everything and I told him about the show. He was like… well, he said, ‘Kody’s a dumbass.’ So he knew of the show, yes. But he would rather not be on the show, he’d rather just be in my life.”

The second date was actually Woolley’s birthday, and Christine asked to treat him to dinner. He also added a play to the itinerary, and said that was the moment he saw the real Christine. “I watched her be so animated by the play that I went, wow, she’s really passionate about life,” he said on Sunday night’s Sister Wives: One on One episode. “That’s when it clicked.”

But David’s impression of her from Sister Wives wasn’t all the TLC star had to worry about — his own family wasn’t entirely sure he was actually dating the Christine Brown. In fact, when he told his daughter about the budding relationship, he says “she thought I was being catfished.”

Of course, David was getting the real deal in Christine. The pair are now happily married, and she posted on Instagram Sunday that her new husband “loves all my sides, because sometimes I’m brilliant, bad and a little mad.”

For his part, David called the reality start his “unicorn” in an Instagram post on Sunday where he admitted he’d been anxious to make his Sister Wives debut.

“I’ve never been in front of a camera and I was so nervous,” he wrote. “However, I was thrilled to tell everyone that I finally found my unicorn and how much I love her.” He rounded out the post with a few hashtags: #oneonone #nervous #loveofmylife #myqueen

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Sister Wives can be streamed in full on Max.