In the special episode of the Netflix reality series, things are intense between the former couple as Zanab accuses his ex-fiance of body-shaming her on and off camera.
- Nov 10, 2022
AceShowbiz - "Love Is Blind" season 3 aired its reunion special on Wednesday, November 9. In the episode, things were intense between exes Zanab Jaffrey and Cole Barnett as Zanab accused her former fiance of body-shaming her.
With the help of her female co-stars, Zanab dropped a series of allegations about him that didn't air on the Netflix series. "I think so many things happened off camera. He's, like, likable when you're watching it and just knowing what I know … it's hard because I think Zay is such an incredible, incredible woman," Alexa Alfia said.
Detailing how Cole allegedly body-shamed her, Zanab shared, "The pushing food away from me, the asking me if I'm going to eat that, trying to get me to order a salad, the daily comments about my face and my body were not used." Zanab added, "I stopped eating. I was eating, like, a banana and a teaspoon of peanut butter just so I wouldn't pass out on the long days we were filming."
"One day, it was like 2 P.M., and we were still filming. I hadn't had a chance to eat, so I grabbed two cuties - like two little oranges that fit in the palm of your hand. And he looked at me and goes, 'Are you gonna eat both of those?' " she told co-host Vanessa Lachey (Vanessa Minnillo). "And I said, 'Well, yeah, that's a serving.' And he goes, 'Well, we're going out to eat later, like maybe save your appetite.' "
She continued, "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." Baffled, Cole asked production to "please air it" if they had the footage and the show did.
The clip saw Cole asking Zanab if she was going to eat two clementines ahead of their dinner reservation. "That's a serving, are you OK with that?" she asked. "You better save your [appetite] … I'm talking, [big] supper tonight. Oh, are you getting wedding dress bod?" he said, to which Zanab replied, "Something like that."
During the reunion, Cole also tried to deny that he was cheating on her at the bachelor party. Zanab fired back, "You're the one who told me that the night before our wedding." She continued, "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 bachelor party.' "
"You said, 'I'm engaged to get married and I just want to kiss one more girl,' " Zanab recalled. "That is direct from Cole's mouth, telling me that he tried to kiss a girl and got her number at his bachelor party."
Cole insisted that the men didn't see any women at their bachelor party at the rodeo, but Nancy Rodriguez and Brennon Lemieux noted that the guys went somewhere after the cameras stopped rolling. As for Zanab, she said the fact that some of their scenes ended up being cut from the final product was Cole's "saving grace."
That aside, the reunion saw Cole and Colleen Reed apologizing after he hit on the latter in the pool after the reveals and engagements. "It stung. I knew it existed, but getting to see it firsthand was really something," Zanab said. Meanwhile, Colleen's husband Matt Bolton praised his wife for being honest about the moment.
It was also revealed that Raven Ross and Sikiru Alagbada are still together and hooking up even though he said "I don't" on their wedding day. The pair shared that they have "grown so much" from long-distance dating.
