'It took me nine months to get over it': the stars of Love is Blind on life after the Netflix hit
Spoiler alert: do not read on unless you have watched the reunion episode of Love Is Blind
Throughout the 10-episode run of Love Is Blind – Netflix’s wildly popular dating show in which singletons commit to marry one another without even meeting face to face – hosts Nick and Vanessa Lachey reminded us that this was not simply a reality series, but an experiment in human behaviour. It was, however, also brilliant TV, with jokes, memes and commentary playing out on social media across its run, as we watched total strangers prepare to walk down the aisle … or, in some cases, away from it. While there was never any chance of a show so devoid of morals providing real insight into the human condition, it was still incredibly entertaining.
Its reunion special comes a week after a finale that featured two weddings, one runaway bride and a groom at the altar explaining calmly to his friends and family that his fiancee skedaddled at the last minute because she simply didn’t find him attractive. As everyone came back together, it was a chance to see which relationships had flourished and to find out whether the online detectives who had worked out that Lauren Speed and Cameron Hamilton were living in the same house from their Instagram stories were correct.
The episode’s big reveal was a surprise: Giannina Gibelli, who fled from her own wedding in the finale after Damian Powers said “I don’t”, is back with her man. They are still together almost a year and a half later.
Over the phone, Gibelli emphasises how difficult that day was. “It hurt so much. It took me nine months to really get over [what happened at the wedding],” she says. “We had to talk a lot and process everything with our friends and family.”
However, she adds that viewers wouldn’t be so surprised by their union if producers had shown more of their talks in the aftermath of the wedding, which progressed further than we were led to believe. “I just wish more of the conversations were shown between us, because there was a lot of anger and rejection, but there was also respect and understanding, too.”
Powers says he doesn’t regret anything, and he has forgiven her harsh words about his sexual prowess in an argument that went viral (“You know how you tell me that this is the best sex of your life?” she tells him in the clip. “Have you noticed that I don’t return the compliment?”) “It definitely hurt,” he says. “I think I’ve watched it about five or six times to come to terms with it. I wish she could have said it to me off camera. But I could see that I wasn’t being as passionate as I could be.”
For Amber Pike and Matt Barnett, who was heavily in-demand during the ‘pods’ phase, things are still ticking along, although they admit that married life is tougher than they had initially expected.
“When we were in the pods it was very ‘rose coloured glasses,’” Pike says. “Once we were married and the honeymoon phase ended, the challenges of trying to build our relationship and make it stronger became a reality, and it hasn’t always been easy.” In the reunion, she admits that she considered filing for divorce last year.The sudden fame has been equally challenging. People all over the world know the inner workings of the couple’s relationship, with strangers passing judgment about their behaviour online. Pike is coming to terms with the noise of the baying crowd, who have criticised her for admitting in the show that she is taking $20,000 (£15,000) worth of studentloans debt into the marriage, and that she wants to be a stay-at-home mum.
“There’s plenty [of criticism from social media that I’ve found upsetting],” she says. “But I’ve gotten to the point that I can never do anything right. I’ve done my best to alleviate certain people’s concerns about some things, but if they aren’t willing to listen to my truth then what’s the point of wasting my breath?”
The “keyboard warrior” issue is addressed in the reunion, too, when Carlton Morton, a bisexual contestant whose brief engagement to Diamond Jack ended after she found out that he had not been up front about his sexual orientation, reveals he has received death threats since the show launched (Jack, similarly, had received a barrage of abuse).
In a similar vein, Jessica Batten, who called off her wedding to Mark Cuevas in the finale and has been Twitter’s primary target throughout the run, shows a keen understanding of her own flaws in the programme, having been forced to relive a very bizarre period of her life in the past few weeks. (“I was drinking too much and that was really disturbing to watch play out,” she says).
The reunion is a more sober look at these people, whose apparent proximity to the edge of reason has been the meat in the Love Is Blind stew. Here, in a far more stripped-back environment, we must confront the truth: they are actually quite normal.
At the end of the reunion, Vanessa Lachey asks the contestants to raise their hand if they believe “love really can be blind” – a significant shift in wording from the title – and every single hand shoots up. Similarly, the contestants I spoke to believe the show offered them something that the outside world couldn’t. “I got everything I wanted,” Damian says.
Pike reckons that the experiment worked as it forced them all to cut the posturing of the dating game. “Going into this, everybody knew that everyone else wanted a serious relationship, so it took a lot of the pride out of the equation,” she says. “There are no games to be played, everybody’s there to be as up front as possible.” Ironically, in a “sight unseen” world, for many things were clearer than ever.
Love Is Blind: The Reunion is available on Netflix and Youtube