After a week of waiting for the highly-anticipated season three finale of Love Is Blind, viewers have finally learned which couples said “I do” and which couples didn’t get their happy ending.
The third season of Netflix’s popular dating series premiered on 19 October. Much like the last two seasons, Love Is Blind season three followed a group of singles as they attempted to determine whether love really is blind. As contestants go on blind dates in small rooms known as “pods”, they are given just 10 days to make a lasting emotional connection and propose to one another, sight unseen.
This season, five couples left the pods engaged: Alexa Alfia and Brennon Lemieux, Nancy Rodriguez and Bartise Bowden, Raven Ross and SK Alagbada, Zanab Jaffrey and Cole Barnett, and Matt Bolton and Colleen Reed. By the season finale, only two couples tied the knot while the remaining couples called it quits at the altar.
Now, months after filming has wrapped, the cast members have reunited for a dramatic reunion special that is full of both heartwarming moments and tearful apologies.
Spoiler warning: Here are the most shocking revelations from the Love Is Blind season three reunion.
#PoolGate
The first moment of the season to be discussed during the reunion special was the infamous pool party scene between Cole Barnett and Colleen Reed. In the pods, Cole Barnett had a strong connection with both Zanab Jaffrey and Reed, but he ultimately proposed to Jaffrey. While at a pool party in Malibu with the other engaged couples, Barnett told Reed he was physically attracted to her and that she was more his type than Jaffrey.
During the reunion, Reed apologised to Jaffrey for entertaining the poolside conversation with Barnett. She also extended the apology to her now-husband, Matt Bolton, for disrespecting their relationship. But for Barnett, he insisted that he had apologised to Jaffrey at that moment, although she recalled it was weeks later when they discussed the pool party.
“That’s, like, insane because I talked to Matt a couple of days later about it,” Barnett told Jaffrey, but Brennon Lemieux refused to stay silent and called out Barnett for using the word “insane” to describe his former fiancée.
“Cole just continually disrespected his fiancée,” Lemieux said. “I can’t imagine. When I got down on a knee and proposed to [Alexa Alfia], that’s promising your life to that other person. So, basically what that tells me is, not only is he disrespectful to Zanab, but now your word isn’t worth anything at this point.”
The moment received praise from Love Is Blind fans, as viewers applauded Lemieux for standing up for the women on the show.
Raven Ross and SK Alagbada give an update on their relationship status
While SK Alagbada rejected Raven Ross at the altar, that didn’t stop this couple from building a relationship after their wedding that never was.
Ross, 29, and Alagbada, 34, revealed they’ve been in a long-distance relationship since season three wrapped production. Although Alagbada is pursuing his Master’s degree in California, and Ross is working as a pilates instructor in Texas, she explained that their relationship has never been better.
“Our communication, I think I can speak for both of us, we’ve never been on this level in any other relationship,” Ross told co-host Vanessa Lachey. “Every time, I feel like we reach a new level.”
“Nothing is perfect, but we’ve grown so much from this experiment. From what we went through, from being apart, it makes it so much better when we’re together,” she added. “Of course, I would prefer to be with him every day, but we’ve grown so much from it and it’s really beautiful to do that.”
Matt Bolton and Colleen Reed still don’t live together
Matt Bolton and Colleen Reed were just one out of the two couples to get married during the season three finale. Despite their nuptials, the couple revealed that they still don’t live together one year later.
“We actually do not live together yet. I know it sounds crazy but it’s really just doing it on our own time,” Bolton said.
“We’re very much on the same page. Logistics-wise and money-wise, we weren’t there,” added Reed. “As soon as the wedding, the next day, we weren’t money-wise ready to give up on our leases.”
The 28-year-old sales executive explained how one of them would need to cancel their lease in order to move in together, while the 26-year-old ballet dancer said that she would’ve “screwed over” her roommates if she tried to move in with Bolton right away.
“We got married in an unorthodox way, so we’re doing marriage in an unorthodox way,” she said, before Bolton added that they spend seven days a week with each other
But that doesn’t mean this couple will never live together. They revealed that they plan on moving in together in a couple months, once their leases end. “I can’t wait to move in with him. I’m going to spend the rest of my life with him,” Reed said.
Bartise Bowden and Cole Barnett were supposedly up to no good once cameras were down
Perhaps one of the most shocking revelations from the season three reunion was when Nancy Rodriguez revealed Bartise Bowden was caught with a “tall blonde” just days after he rejected his former fiancée at the altar.
The 32-year-old speech pathologist explained how she saw a video of Bowden with a “tall blonde by his side” three days after their wedding. “I just saw some things on social media,” she revealed. “It was someone posting a video of the scene and then you caught Bartise and this tall blonde next to him, and then that same tall blonde over the weekend…on his lap, all over him.”
The 27-year-old senior analyst defended his actions by admitting that it was a coping mechanism for him to be with another woman just days after Rodriguez ended their relationship. “The timing of it, I can see it being wrong, and I’m sorry for that,” Bowden said.
Bartise Bowden wasn’t the only Love Is Blind contestant to be called out for flirting with other women. Later on in the reunion special, the female cast members claimed Cole Barnett tried to get another girl’s number during the men’s bachelor party at the rodeo.
However, Barnett seemed caught off guard by the accusation. “Wait, what? I got a girl’s number at the bachelor party?” he said, surprised.
“Cole, you told me that the night before our wedding,” Jaffrey revealed. “I saw you before the wedding and you told me. You said, ‘I do have something to tell you. I tried to kiss a girl at the bachelorette party…I’m engaged to get married and I just want to kiss one more girl.’”
The 27-year-old realtor maintained that he never tried to kiss someone else, and told Jaffrey she was making up the story.
Zanab Jaffrey claimed Cole Barnett tried to control her eating habits
Another upsetting moment from the reunion special came when Zanab Jaffrey said her former fiancé monitored her eating habits, made comments about her body, and diminished her self-confidence.
While speaking about footage that didn’t make the final cut, the 32-year-old flight attendant listed moments from her relationship with Barnett that weren’t shown on screen. “The pushing food away from me, asking if I’m gonna eat that, trying to get me to order a salad, the daily comments about my face and my body were not used,” she claimed. “And that’s great, because it really did protect you.”
“And you are now denying it and calling me a liar in front of all these people,” Jaffrey added.
Then, Love Is Blind producers pulled out the receipts by including unaired footage of Barnett and Jaffrey at the end of the episode.
“Are you about to eat two of those?” he asked in the clip, as Jaffrey peeled a tangerine.
“Maybe. That’s a serving,” Jaffrey replied. “You ok with that?”
He said: “You better save your ‘appetito.’”
The third season of Love Is Blind was a rollercoaster of emotions. Ultimately, the social experiment proved successful for two couples. But if there’s anything viewers have learned from the past two seasons of Love Is Blind, it’s that happily ever after didn’t last for some contestants – like Iyanna McNeely and Jarrette Jones, and Danielle Ruhl and Nick Thompson, who announced they were separating after less than a year of marriage.
Find out which couples from season two are still together here.
