Love Is Blind star Bliss Poureetezadi has opened up about the “heartbreaking” moment she watched Zack Goytowski propose to Irina Solomonova over her in the pods.
The second installment of Love Is Blind season four dropped on Netflix on Friday 31 March. Episodes six through eight followed the five engaged couples as they returned home to Seattle from their post-pod retreat in Mexico, where they tried to navigate life together in the real world before saying “I do” in just a matter of days.
Spoilers ahead for Love Is Blind season four.
This season, Brett Brown and Tiffany Pennywell were the first couple to get engaged in the pods, followed by Micah Lussier and Paul Peden. Kwame Appiah and Chelsea Griffin were also engaged in the pods, along with Marshall Glaze and Jackelina Bonds, and Zack Goytowski and Irina Solomonova.
Zack Goytowski, a 31-year-old criminal defense attorney, was torn between two women in the pods: Irina Solomonova, a 26-year-old business owner; and Bliss Poureetezadi, a 33-year-old senior program manager. Despite sparking an emotional and intellectual connection with both contestants, he chose Solomonova over Poureetezadi – a decision that he soon regretted.
Following the release of Love Is Blind season four, Bliss Poureetezadi spoke with Entertainment Weekly about watching the moment she was rejected by Goytowski nearly one year after filming ended. When asked what her reaction was when she learned Goytowski chose Solomonova over her, the senior program manager said she was “surprised” because the two had built such a strong connection.
“I was surprised, honestly,” she said. “Zack and I had built such a strong connection and I feel like I knew that he was my person. I felt like I had this knowing that this is my match, so I definitely was surprised.”
Although Poureetezadi said she felt in her heart that Goytowski was making the wrong decision, she decided that she “needed to let him go and do his thing.”
“I’m going to choose to be okay with this,” she told herself at the time. “If this is the journey that he needs to take, I’m going to be okay with that and I will be okay too. I’m not going to try to force anything or try to convince someone.”
In episode five, Goytowski and Solomonova traveled to Mexico with the rest of the engaged couples for a post-pod retreat. However, the pair quickly called things off and Goytowski returned to Seattle where he told Poureetezadi that he made a mistake by dumping her. When season four premiered last week, Poureetezadi watched along with the rest of the world. But as she saw the former engaged couple breakup in Mexico, the senior program manager said it was “heartbreaking” to watch Goytowski and Solomonova call it quits.
“Even though Zack and I had ended things in the pods, I still believe he’s such a good person and seeing it just was really heartbreaking and it made me feel really bad for him,” she explained. “No matter what, people don’t deserve to be treated so poorly.”
Solomonova and Poureetezadi didn’t exactly get along in the pods, and the 26-year-old business owner told Goytowski that there was “tension” between the two women in the living quarters. At one point, Poureetezadi baked cupcakes for Goytowski on his birthday, but Solomonova forgot about the special occasion and asked to borrow one of her birthday candles.
The senior program manager explained how she tried to “take the high road” in her interactions with Solomonova.
“It was really an opportunity for me to practice what I preach,” she told the outlet. “Even off-camera, we had multiple conversations about not talking about him and just respecting each other because that creates more chaos and drama and feelings start coming up. I really tried to draw those boundaries and when things would happen, I tried to remember, ‘What am I here for? This is not a competition. This is about what I want and exploring what I want.’”
Episodes six through eight followed Bliss Poureetezadi and Zack Goytowski as they worked to build their relationship together out of the pods. The next three episodes of Love Is Blind season four will drop on 7 April, followed by the season finale on 14 April.
