Warning: Major spoilers ahead! Do not proceed unless you’ve watched all episodes from Seasons 1, 2, 3 and 4 of “Love Is Blind.”
Love may be blind, but it doesn’t always last.
“Love Is Blind,” hosted by real-life married couple, Nick and Vanessa Lachey, debuted in 2020 with a simple idea. Singles hoping to be loved for who they are and not what they look like, signed up for a less conventional approach to modern dating.
Throughout 10 addictive episodes, the hit Netflix reality dating series followed these romantic hopefuls as they dated and became engaged sight unseen, based only on an emotional connection created in pods.
Once united, cameras followed the newly engaged couples throughout the season as they enjoyed a honeymoon period in Mexico, moved in together, planned a wedding and explored their physical connection.
Over the past four seasons, 20 couples have gotten engaged — yet only seven couples are still together.
Most recently, it was announced that controversial season 4 couple, Jackelina “Jackie” Bonds and Josh Demas, called it quits shortly after the “Love Is Blind: After the Altar” special aired on Netflix. The 27-year-old dental assistant shared the news during an Instagram Live session. Bonds blamed the split on Demas, saying that the engineer went behind her back and had a conversation with his ex-fiancée, Monica Rodriguez.
“[I’m] still sick about it low-key. I love that man,” she said in a video captured by RealityAshley. “I was like, ‘Damn, I had all these life plans with you, you know? And then you just don’t even care,’ and I’m like, that’s crazy, over a conversation with somebody? — It don’t matter.”
With Season 5 of “Love Is Blind” premiering on September 22, we are taking a look back at all the couples that meant it when they said “I do.”
Lauren Speed and Cameron Hamilton
He felt the need, the need for speed.
Speed and Hamilton are perhaps the most popular couple to have been created from the dating series. Their romance seemed destined from the start and they became the first couple to become engaged during the show’s inaugural season. “I don’t think that I ever could have met someone like Cameron any other way,” Speed said of their whirlwind romance on her wedding day.
Although Speed expressed a few doubts during their relationship, especially in regards to their interracial pairing, they are still together. Not only do they have a YouTube Channel called “Hanging With the Hamiltons,” in 2021 they co-wrote a book titled “Leap of Faith: Finding Love the Modern Way.”
Last November, Speed celebrated their fourth anniversary with a sweet post on Instagram. “4 years into forever with you Mr. Hamilton,” she wrote. “❤️ I’m so much better because of it! I love you to the moon and back! Forever my Clyde #MinusThePowPow Happy Anniversary Baby! 🎉🍾💍”
Amber Pike and Matt Barnett
Unlike the Hamiltons, Pike and Barnett experienced quite a few ups and downs during Season 2. Fans wondered if the two would actually walk down the aisle after expressing that they had cold feet on their wedding. But against all odds Pike and Barnett walked down the aisle and they continue to beat the odds.
“I know a lot of people have their opinions about Matt and I and how we live our life… but looking back at this past year only solidifies that… IDGAF,” Amber wrote via Instagram in December 2021. “Every human being, no matter how caught up they get with society’s expectations, has their own unique desire for what they want their life to be and the life I dreamed about was based off of my own expectations and nobody else’s,” Amber wrote via Instagram in December 2021.
She added: “I have been nothing less than blessed to find a partner that looks at life the same way that I do, as an adventure meant to be lived out instead of just dreamt about. We have a full life that we get to share with each other and our family and friends, and if we had nothing else at the end of the day besides that, I would still say we have a life that’s good.”
Barnett also took a moment to show off his strong bond with Pike in a post he shared in November 2022 to commemorate their fourth anniversary. “4 years of being married to the hottest wife ever!” he wrote. “Here’s to at least 80 more anniversaries.”
Despite divorce rumors, the couple have continued to make it work.
Alexa Alfia and Brennon Lemieux
Alfia quickly became a breakout star during her season. First bonding over a common shard love of shakshuka, the couple held a traditional Jewish wedding ceremony on the season finale.
“While Brennon never converted to Judaism, he did convert me to that country livin,” she wrote on Instagram in November 2022. “We’ve spent the last year and a half going to football games on the weekends, spending time with family and friends, and falling even more in love.”
She continued: “This man has changed the way I look at life and shown me what truly matters. He’s taught me how to love and how to not take life so seriously. I love you so much my cowboy❤️.”
Colleen Reed and Matt Bolton
Reed and Bolton shared their fair share of fireworks in and out of the pod during Season 3, and despite a couple of arguments, the ballet dancer and her business beau tied the knot.
“Just because we got married doesn’t mean that all those issues that we were having were all of a sudden going to be resolved and we weren’t going to have them anymore,” she revealed in an interview with Women’s Health. “So, for some time, we were still working on those issues. But it was very nice not to do in front of cameras.”
The couple made headlines more recently when it was revealed at the reunion that they were not living together for financial reasons.
“Me and Matt are going to move in together in the next two weeks. We don’t have the finances to buy, by any means, but we’re going to rent in Dallas and then that gives us time to really find the perfect home for what works for us,” Colleen shared.
“We practically live together already. He basically stays at my place because it’s closer to work,” Colleen explained. “I don’t think he’s gone to his place once in the past month. So I’m excited to live with him outside of a studio. I mean, if I can live with this man in a studio, then I can live with him wherever because I can’t get away from him in these four walls.”
In June 2022, after being married for two years, the couple finally moved in together, announcing the milestone in a post on Instagram.
“Reed captioned a series of snaps of herself with Bolton, looking cozy in their new white kitchen with three distinct words: “Honey I’m Home.”
Bolton shared one of the same photos with the caption, “WE did it OUR way.”
Tiffany Pennywell and Brett Brown
Pennywell famously fell asleep mid-date (almost ruining her romance with Brown), but she was wide awake when he proposed. They went on to settle down in Portland, Washington, after their picturesque wedding.
“We had no hiccups,” Pennywell told Women’s Health of her and Brown’s journey. “It was too perfect for me.”
The couple celebrated their first anniversary in May 2023. While marking the happy occasion, Brett shared a lengthy and emotional post to his Instagram grid, featuring a stunning photo of the pair in matching white garb from their wedding day.
“5/7/2022 🥂. Yesterday Tiffany and I celebrated 1 year of marriage! It’s so surreal to even type that considering just 7 weeks prior I was a single man,” the Nike design director wrote. “When I left to film the show, I totally expected to get sent home in the first week or so but there was a greater hand at play. I’m 100% certain Tiff and I never would’ve crossed paths had it not been for LIB.”
“It had to happen this way and I’m grateful I took a gamble and it paid off,” he continued. “All my past experiences prepared me to fully embrace the experiment and to allow myself to be vulnerable enough to fall in love in such a short time frame.”
He concluded the tribute, writing: “To my beautiful wife @tcpenny , cheers to 1 year in the books! To all my fam and friends that supported us from the jump, thank you!! We’re just getting started and I can’t wait to see where this next year takes us 🚀.”
Chelsea Griffin and Kwame Appiah
Appiah and Griffin made it down the aisle despite having to overcome two huge hurdles. The couple argued over whether they would reside in Chelsea’s native Seattle or Kwame’s home base of Portland, and when it was time to meet each other’s families. Appiah’s mother was absent from their nuptials because she didn’t approve of the wedding.
Still, the couple have thrived and celebrated their one-year anniversary in May 2023.
“It has been an amazing year. It feels like five, when you go at hyper-speed,” Griffin gushed to People. “We get married and we move in the next day. A lot happens, and we have grown together. We’re creating memories and traditions, and there’s a lot still that we want to do.”
Griffin also revealed that she had finally met the other most important person in Appiah’s life.
“I have met Kwame’s mother, and it was a beautiful first experience,” Griffin said. “There’s room to grow. We’ve had to give our families and friends grace with wherever they stand with us. How we met and got married was incredibly unique and nontraditional. But it’s ours, and we own it. And I’m excited for the future.”
Zack Goytowski and Bliss Poureetezadi
Zack almost left “Love Is Blind” without finding his bliss.
One of the most beloved couples of the franchise almost never happened when Goytowski originally proposed to season villain Irina Solomonova, even after Poureetezadi made him cupcakes for his birthday. After a dumpster fire of a fight in Mexico, the couple called it quits.
“I would say I made a mistake with not picking Bliss [in the first place], and I think that was the real mistake,” Zack told Us. “I knew that when I ended it [with Irina] and was kind of dealing with that. I don’t know how much you could see of the turmoil that I was going through, but when I did end it, then my very first thing was I wanted to go and tell [producers] to bring [Bliss] back and that I had made the wrong choice, but I knew I had to live with the decision.”
After producers brought back Poureetezadi, Goytowski spent the rest of the season trying to win her back — and he succeeded.
“I just want to be with you. I just want to spend time with you. I believe there’s nobody in this world who I’m meant to be with more than you,” Goytowski said as he proposed to Poureetezadi on a small yacht. “No matter what I did. No matter how stupid I was, we were always gonna end up here. I found my person.”
The couple celebrated their one-year anniversary in May 2023. Zack marked the occasion with an adorable post on his Instagram.
“A year ago today when I uttered those two words, I do, I was already in awe of Bliss,” he wrote. “She embodied everything I had ever wished for in a wife. But over the next year I would learn she is so much more than I ever could have imagined. She always finds beauty and meaning in the smallest things, like the sigh a puppy makes when it’s overwhelmed with happiness. She never gives up on her goals, no matter how hard they are.”
“Her resilience and tenacity is enough to break the best team of car salesman,” he continued. “She would buy plane tickets and fly across the country to meet with her family if they needed her without even asking a question. Her compassionate and nurturing heart leaves me in awe. She is everything I was looking for and things I didn’t even know I should have been looking for.”
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