The finale of the third season of the Netflix dating show “Love is Blind” is fast approaching. From November 9, fans can find out which couples say yes at the altar and who pulls out shortly before marriage. As in the previous two seasons of the popular reality show, a number of singles got to know each other “blindly”, i.e. visually isolated from each other – and got engaged before the first eye contact. Can this concept work? A look at last season’s couples doesn’t reveal a particularly good success rate…
The first season premiered in February 2020, the second two years later. Two couples are still happy from season one: Amber Pike and Matt Barnett are still a couple, as is Lauren Speed-Hamilton and Cameron Hamilton. In the second season, five couples made it from the pods – that’s what the rooms are called in which the singles get to know each other separated by a thin wall – in front of the altar. A couple, Kyle Abrams and Shaina Hurley, previously called off their engagement.
The relationship between Abhishek Chatterjee (35), who everyone calls Shake, and Deepti Vempati (31) was shaky after their time in the pods. While the couple was able to connect emotionally with a thin wall, Shake lamented the lack of a physical connection with his fiancé in the “real world.” He repeatedly emphasized this to other participants, but also to the family and friends of the couple. He paid the bill for this in front of the altar: Deepti decided against her fiancé on the planned day of the marriage. “No, I can’t marry you. I deserve someone who is sure. So I choose myself and say no,” she explained to Shake and the invited guests.
In the reunion of the show and in the special episode “Love Makes Blind – After the Altar”, which was filmed about a year after the wedding, numerous candidates opposed Shake and his behavior. In March 2022, he announced on Instagram that he was now in a relationship. He co-hosts the podcast “Life is Blurry” with his partner Emily Wilson.
Meanwhile, Deepti caused rumors of love with “Love is Blind” contestant Kyle. He originally planned to marry contestant Shaina, but the engagement was called off before the weddings were scheduled. In the two reunion episodes, Kyle confessed that he regrets not getting closer to Deepti. About a year after the (broken) wedding, Deepti and Kyle started dating. In September 2022, they announced on Instagram that they had split earlier in the summer. Deepti seems to have coped well with the breakup. “I’m doing fantastic in my life,” she told Netflix in early November. In September she published a book about her experiences on “Love Makes You Blind”.
In the pods, real estate agent Shayne Jansen, 33, and consulting executive Natalie Lee, 30, fell in love and got engaged. But during the joint Mexico vacation before the wedding, the first storm clouds moved over the happiness of love. Both quickly realized that they ticked differently in a relationship. Despite a heated argument the day before the wedding, Shanye chose Natalie at the altar. However, she did not have the heart to say yes. The couple first had to “work out some really big problems,” she told her fiancé.
Were they ultimately able to eliminate the said problems? Obviously not. In March 2022, Natalie told People that she and Shayne continued to “date” immediately after their wedding collapsed. “Maybe not directly dating – we continued our engagement. We dated for a few months,” she explained of the relationship. Ultimately, love failed. After the second season aired, the couple met again to discuss a possible love comeback. But this is now finally off the table. Both Shayne and Natalie appear to be single at the moment.
Viewers hardly suspected that this relationship would not make it into marriage. Communications manager Mallory Zapata (32) and 31-year-old executive assistant Salvador Perez, or Sal for short, hit it off right away. After the engagement, they were on cloud nine during their vacation in Mexico and found even closer to each other. On the wedding day, Sal got cold feet. After Mallory made him a declaration of love and said “yes”, he explained, “I can’t do this. I feel like I need some more time.” His fiancee was understanding. The couple agreed to stay together and continue to get to know each other off the show.
Sal and Mallory’s relationship fell apart after the show. In the reunion of “Love is Blind”, Mallory explained: “We are very different. I think the way we communicated or behaved often led to disagreements because we didn’t really talk to each other.”
Sal is now dating dancer Jessica Palkovic. In September, he wrote on Instagram that the couple had to keep their relationship a secret for “almost a year.” In “Love is Blind – After the Altar” the couple met the other former participants. There, the 31-year-old hinted that he could imagine proposing to Jessica soon. Mallory, meanwhile, was visibly struck by her ex-fiancé’s new relationship. There are currently no signs of a new relationship with her.
Danielle Ruhl (29) and Nick Thompson (36) got engaged in the first episode of the second season. There seemed to be an instant spark between the couple. Although there were some disagreements and arguments during the time together after the engagement and before the wedding, the couple always found each other again. As one of the few couples in the second season, both finally said yes at the altar.
But unfortunately there was no happy ending for Nick and Danielle either. As several US media reported, Danielle filed for divorce from husband Nick on August 15 this year in Chicago. The couple had just celebrated their one-year wedding anniversary in June. Before the breakup, Nick and Danielle had done couples therapy, they told “People” in March 2022. Apparently, the couple didn’t part well. That’s according to some of Danielle’s Instagram posts.
Project manager Jarrette Jones (32) and program coordinator Iyanna McNeely (27) had a rocky start to their love affair. Because even before Jarrette asked for Iyanna’s hand, he made an application to participant Mallory. She decided against Jarrette and for Sal. Despite Iyanna’s initial doubts, she accepted the engagement. In Mexico, Jarrette and Iyanna grew into a dream couple. The couple ultimately tied the knot in the Season 2 finale.
On August 17, just two days after Danielle and Nick, Jarrette and Iyanna McNeely announced their split on their respective Instagram channels. In a joint statement, the couple wrote: “After careful consideration, we are sad to announce that we have separated and will begin the divorce process.” The reason they gave was that their “lives would develop in different directions”. The ex-couple finally emphasized: “We don’t regret a single thing!”
