Paul Peden Admits He Dated WHO From the Pods After Love Is Blind
These contestants are opening their eyes to another shot at love.
While fans are still reeling from the Love Is Blind season four reunion two months ago, Netflix unveiled the first look at Love Is Blind season five, which premieres in September. The June 17 trailer teased one couple’s potential journey to the altar that wouldn’t be their first.
“I have a track record of crappy relationships, and I just haven’t found the right person,” one woman tells her date in the pods, before he replies, “It doesn’t freak me out. It doesn’t scare me at all.”
In fact, he confesses he was previously engaged, leading her to admit, “I haven’t told anyone else here this, but I’ve actually been married once before.”
Through the wall, he offers reassurance. “If me and you can potentially get married, you’re not gonna hold anything back from me,” he says. “I’m not gonna hold anything back from you.”
After declaring her love to him, she shares in a confessional why it’s difficult to accept his kind words.
“My mom says like, ‘Maybe you’re not meant to be in a relationship,'” she recalls through tears. “I’m definitely not a perfect person. But I know I deserve love.”
Find out what happens next when Love Is Blind drops in September.
Netflix
Can’t wait that long? Catch up on E! News’ exclusive interviews with season four stars Paul Peden, Micah Lussier, Marshall Glaze and Chelsea Griffin—or keep scrolling to get your Love Is Blind fix by diving into all the romances that happened off-camera.
Netflix
Marshall Glaze and Kacia Clark
After his engagement to Jackie Bonds ended early in season four—and his ex-fiancée immediately moved on by dating her other pod connection, Josh Demas—Marshall exclusively revealed to E! News that he tried rebounding with another cast mate he connected with in the pods.
“I actually reached out to Kacia,” Marshall told E! News’ Erin Lim Rhodes. “We tried.” Kacia didn’t receive much screen time on the show, but made a lasting impression on Marshall. Alas, he explained that he was still too hung up on his failed relationship with Jackie to make anything work.
“I wanted to just distance myself from all of that, from that experience,” Marshall admitted. “It was going to be difficult to try to make a relationship with Kacia.” He added that ending things with Kacia was “rough” and he stills feels “apologetic about starting something and getting her hopes up with me going back in my shell like, ‘This isn’t really the time or the place.'”
Netflix
Jackie Bonds and Josh Demas
Technically, viewers did get to see the start of Jackie and Josh’s controversial relationship happen, though Jackie fired back at claims that they began dating before she broke up with Marshall. Taking to Instagram April 10 to “speak the truth,” Jackie clarified the timeline and denied cheating on her former fiancée.
“Marshall and I were broken up before I saw Josh at the coffee shop. I am wearing different clothes, my hair is styled different and at the end of the video I say ‘I DON’T KNOW IF I AM GOING TO BE WITH JOSH,'” she wrote. “I am not sure what the reason is for playing the coffee shop date before the break up.”
During the live reunion, Jackie revealed she and Josh have been dating since the show ended and recently moved in together. After the special aired, Jackie posted a tribute to her boyfriend on social media. “A year of standing side by side with my other half. Our journey to find each other was not easy but it was worth it,” she captioned a series of photos of her with Josh. “Thank you for loving me, standing by me and protecting me. I love you forever and through every realm.”
Netflix
Paul Peden and Wendi Kong
Torn between Micah Lussier and Amber Wilder in the pods, Paul ultimately chose to propose to Micah, only to be the one to say no at the altar. And after filming ended for season four, Paul decided to rekindle a connection he had early on in the experiment, just not with Amber.
“There was another girl Wendi, the aerospace engineer,” Paul exclusively revealed to E! News. “I talked to her a lot. I had an insane connection with her.” While Wendi was another woman who didn’t get much airtime, Paul shared that he bonded with her in the real world. However, he clarified that they were “never exclusive, but went on dates.”
The pair were only together for a brief amount of time because, Paul explained, they were almost too compatible.
“It’s almost too much,” Paul told Lim Rhodes. “I like myself, but I don’t know if I like myself that much that I want to marry myself. We were really similar.”
Netflix
Kyle Abrams and Deepti Vempati
After months of speculation that their friendship had blossomed into a romance after their respective engagements ended, the season two duo revealed they were dating during the spinoff series Love Is Blind’s After the Altar. Too bad Kyle and Deepti had already split by the time the episodes had dropped in September of last year.
“I understand many of you are curious as to where Deepti and I stand today,” Kyle wrote in a Sept. 19 Instagram post. “Since After the Alter was filmed, we had decided to go our separate ways in early summer.”
Kyle has since moved on, exclusively confirming to E! News that he is engaged to Tania Leanos after proposing in Chicago April 11.
“After our first date, I told my mom and best friend that I found my wife and I’m going to marry her as soon as possible,” Kyle told E! News. “Tania is the perfect combination of heart, humor and brains. Her nurturing way and compassion are incomparable, and I am constantly in awe of the love she radiates.”
Netflix
Shayne Jansen and Shaina Hurley
Did they or didn’t they? After Shayne chose to propose to Natalie Lee in season two, Shaina still made her feelings for him known. And after Shayne and Natalie didn’t get married in the finale, they tried to give their relationship another shot off-camera. But Natalie revealed during Love Is Blind After the Altar that she discovered “flirtatious messages” between her boyfriend and Shaina about “what would have happened if they ended up together.” The direct messages lead to the (second) demise of their romance, with Natalie explaining, “That’s why we’re not together anymore.”
On After the Altar, Shaina insisted that it was “slander,” telling Shayne, “We’ve always been appropriate. We’ve never hung out alone.” (They, at the time, they were indeed hanging out alone.)
During an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Natalie suggested “a lot more” of Shayne and Shaina’s correspondences were left “on the cutting room floor.”
“I understand, in terms of how much you can really show in these three 45-minute-long episodes,” she said, “but what I do have is, again, text messages and emails with Shayne, talking about him unsending Instagram messages, deleting messages, and those DMs with Shaina, so that’s something that I talked about that didn’t make the cut, that I think kind of would have helped with the story.”
Mark Cuevas and Lauren “LC” Chamblin
While he initially proposed to Jessica Batten in season one, Mark also had a connection with “LC” in the pods. So, after his relationship with Jessica ended, Mark and “LC” rekindled things IRL. But their romance was shortlived, LC ended things when she learned that Mark was dating someone else.
“Mark and I were casually dating, but talked about remaining exclusive, especially because of COVID-19, but that’s over now,” LC shared in a statement to E! News in June 2020. “The main thing I learned from the show and past relationships is that I deserve to be treated like a priority, and not an option.”
In his own statement, Mark said, “I enjoyed spending time with LC for a few weeks, but at no point were we in an exclusive relationship, as LC confirmed herself. I wish her the absolute best.”
Since then, Mark found love with Aubrey Rainey, whom he married in September of last year. The couple have two sons, Ace, 2, and Axton, 13 months.
