A Mystery Man Appeared in One of Dolores Catania's Instagram Stories — Who Is He?

The trailer for Season 12 of The Real Housewives of New Jersey came out on Monday, Dec. 20, 2021, teasing the explosive drama awaiting loyal fans of the show. Brutal quarrels, a trip to Nashville, Tenn., and a fast-escalating food fight between Teresa Giudice and Margaret Josephs have all made the cut. Season 12 will likely touch on the latest developments in Dolores Catania's love life as well. Will we get to see her with a new boyfriend? What happened to David Principe?

Fans started speculating about Dolores's breakup with her boyfriend of four years, David Principe, a while ago. According to Screen Rant, a person who said they were working in the same office as David sent a message about the supposed breakup to a fan account on Instagram — which is how the rumors first started to spread. Dolores frequently uses Instagram to share updates with her 787,000 followers, yet she kept mostly quiet about the ostensible split.

Dolores dropped at least one major hint about a new man in her life. She made things Instagram official-ish with Paul G Connell via a picture included in her Instagram story on Monday, Dec. 19, 2021. The photograph was taken during a beach hangout. In it, Dolores strikes a proud pose, while her shirtless beau is standing in the background.

"My favorite lifeguard," Dolores captioned the pic.

Paul's impeccable build has already impressed RHONJ fans. Unfortunately, Dolores has yet to divulge further information about how she met him and how long they have been dating. To make matters worse, Paul seems to have either changed his handle or deactivated his Instagram account since Dolores's Instagram story has gone out. Details about Paul's occupation and family background have yet to emerge.

Previous episodes of RHONJ have already touched on the complications Dolores and David, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist, had to face during their 4-year relationship. Dolores's friends and fans have long worried that David might prefer to treat the relationship less seriously, postponing the engagement proposal for as long as he could.

In the end, the different expectations might have brought about the end of the relationship. According to reports, Dolores and David split up in the summer of 2021. "Dolores and David broke up this past summer. There was no bad blood between them," a source told Us Weekly.

"She gave her all but didn’t get the same from David,” the insider told the outlet. "He was non-existent in her social life and rarely made appearances at events with her. They just had different lives and weren’t able to make it work. She wasn’t happy in the inside and, for a while, she hid her true feelings from friends."

Season 12 of RHONJ kicks off with a brand new episode on Feb. 1, 2022, at 8 p.m. EST on Bravo.