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Multiple couples fall in love “sight unseen” every year on Love Is Blind — and some are so unseen that their stories don’t even make it to Netflix.
The reality TV dating experiment dropped season 1 in February 2020, following six couples who fell in love behind a wall, got engaged and then said “I do” or “I don’t” at the altar. The show was so popular that Netflix has aired seven more seasons in five years (and already renewed the series for seasons 9 and 10).
Prior to the season 8 finale, Us calculated that there was a success rate of about 25 percent — but that’s strictly from the couples that the cameras followed from start to finish. As it turns out, there are almost always several duos who get engaged on the experiment that fans don’t see.
“Each season, there are lots of stories that we don’t tell, regardless of whether couples get engaged or not. Some of them even, we will follow for a little bit and not show their story on the show,” creator Chris Coelen told Variety in 2023. “It’s a little bit of a judgement call.”
In a separate interview with People that same year, Coelen explained: “I think really what it comes down to is how people get there in the first place. We’re looking to tell the most genuine, most authentic stories that we can and that’s really the criteria by which we judge what stories we’re going to follow, and the stories we’re going to then tell on the program. That is the No. 1 organizing principle of what we do.”
Keep scrolling for a breakdown of the couples left on the cutting room floor every season:
Season 1
Rory Newbrough and Danielle Drouin
Rory told People in 2020 that eight couples got engaged, which the show wasn’t expecting for season 1. “We got our phones back. They thanked us graciously and said, ‘Sorry, we just don’t have enough to cover everybody,’” he recalled.
The twosome went on their own trip to Miami after the pods but split shortly after. Danielle went on to see another season 1 contestant Matt Thomas, but later married a man named Kerrington Sky in 2022. She is due to give birth to their first baby in March 2025.
Westley Baer and Lexie Skipper
Westley was upset about not being able to go on the cast trip with Lexie. “I didn’t know why,” he told People at the time. “I believe one person said, ‘We don’t want to mess up your relationship.’ It was a bummer. We were both like, “We cannot wait for this trip. It’s going to be amazing.’ And then, the next day [we were told], ‘Unfortunately we can’t follow your journey.’ I don’t know the reasoning, but I’m glad I was able to connect with somebody, at least.”
While Westley and Lexie continued to date after the pods, they ended things after about three months.
In 2022, Lexie confirmed that they are still friends. “We talk every day and are definitely in a good place. We watched a lot of Love Is Blind together, and I wish more of our journey was shown,” she said. “We’ve talked through a lot of what ifs – if we went to Mexico, would we be married now? Would we be together? Our lives changed completely because of the show, but maybe they would have changed even more.”
Season 2
Caitlin McKee and Joey Miller
Caitlin and Joey got engaged and stayed together for several months after making their own travel plans when Netflix opted not to film their journey. “[We] had an amazing summer and fall with the opportunity to travel, meet each other’s families, and build a genuine relationship without the cameras and crew. Although we ultimately chose to go our separate ways recently, we are choosing to remain friends and he will always hold a special place in my heart,” Caitlin wrote via instagram in February 2022.
She added: “I will be forever grateful for this experience. I made genuine connections with friends that will be in my life forever, laughed harder than I have in years, cried more than I probably should have, but most importantly I learned a heck of a lot about myself and who I am and want to be as a person.”
Joey has been dating a woman named Jessie Kopp since 2023.
Jason Beaumont and Kara Williams
The pair stayed together for several months post-show, but called it quits before the 2022 premiere.
“Kara, has been one of the most charismatic, loving, & supportive people I’ve ever met, she is hands down one of the strongest women I’ve ever been around,” Jason wrote via Instagram at the time. “Getting to see her on the red carpet was without a doubt the best feeling I’ve ever had in my entire life, it’s gives me goosebumps just thinking about how beautiful she looked.”
Kara announced her engagement to a man named Kyle Hundelt in December 2024, with plans to wed in 2026.
Season 3
Production company Kinetic confirmed in October 2022 that there were no couples who got engaged that weren’t shown in season 3.
Season 4
Jimmy Forde and Wendi Kong
The Seattle duo ended things three months after getting engaged in the pods. “Believe it or not, I wasn’t just on @loveisblindnetflix to play pool in the background … Although it wasn’t shown, Wendi and I got engaged on the show. I gave it my best shot, but our relationship didn’t work out, and that’s okay!” Jimmy wrote via Instagram in April 2023. “Wish Wendi nothing but the best in life, and future relationships. Maybe one day that story will be shown, but i’m okay with that never being the case. Overall it was a powerful experience and I ended up making some pretty awesome friends.”
Wendi went on to reconnect with contestant Paul Peden after he said “no” to Micah Lussier at the altar. “Paul and I, we had this incredible psychological connection in the pods, almost to the point where we felt a bit narcissistic because it was like, ‘Am I only feeling this because you’re like me?’” Wendi said on the “Out of the Pods” podcast in June 2023. “When [Paul] came back to Seattle, we reconnected and then we had to disconnect for a bit because his focus was on Micah and he needed to see that through. After the wedding happened, we actually reconnected again and it was just a lot of talking.”
The twosome ultimately didn’t work out either.
JP Schultz and Ava Van Jenson
After their pod proposal, JP ended things with Ava — via text message.
“I saw him at the airport and he was a completely different person,” Ava told Netflix’s Tudum in 2023. “As we were boarding the plane, I felt my phone vibrate and it pinged a bit and I looked down and he sent me a text basically ending the engagement.” JP subsequently claimed he was trying to reset the expectations in the relationships as “continuing to get married on this timeline” wasn’t a good idea. In the end, they couldn’t get on the same page.
JP married a woman named Jennifer in August 2024.
According to an interview with creator Coelen in 2023, there were actually eight engagements (the season followed 5) but it hasn’t been reported who the final couple was. “[In season 1], we had eight engagements, we followed six. In season 2, we had eight engagements, we followed six. In season 3, we only had five engagements and we followed all of them. In season 4, we had eight engagements and we followed five,” he told People in 2023.
Season 5
Paige Tillman and Josh Simmons
Paige wasn’t happy that the duo weren’t followed on season 5. “I thought, ‘Josh and I are definitely going to Mexico.’ We were the cutest couple. We were so sweet and kind to each other. We loved each other. Everyone knew we loved each other. And that’s why it was so weird,” she told Today in 2023. “We were adorable. So in love. So cute together. I don’t know who’s hitting their heads right now for not showing us.”
As they flew home to Houston, Texas, together, they spoke about how they would aim for a 2024 wedding. “It was like we were going through the process of the show but I was doing it myself,” she explained.
After five months, however, they broke up. “We had an issue about not talking about what we wanted out of life. That’s a huge thing you think we would’ve spoken about. But it’s different when it’s in person,” Paige said, revealing she wanted to move to Los Angeles to be a stylist. And while Josh offered to come with her, she didn’t think it was fair to ask him. “I would’ve rather us figure that out than get married and resent each other for making the other make choices. The way we ended was great — we had a mature conversation like, ‘This is what you want. This is what I want. Let’s move on.’”
Paige did end up moving to L.A., while Josh started a family with a woman named Samantha Cheek.
Renee Poche and Carter Wall
In a plot twist, Renee claimed to PopSugar that she and Carter were filmed — unlike the other cut couples — and found out before the show premiered that they wouldn’t be heavily featured on season 5 (where they broke up at the altar).
“We were very excited about everything, and things went really well in Mexico as well. We were always very pleasant, funny, happy, and enjoyed each other’s company. But once we got back to Houston and back to the real world, I started noticing things that I kind of ignored or blew off that were red flags I should have picked up on. And eventually I did say ‘no’ at the altar,” she said. “I got a call a couple months before the show aired, in August, to let me know that our story wasn’t going to be a big focus. What I was told was, ‘We’ll just, point blank, say that Carter was awful and we don’t want you to have to relive that. That’s just not going to be a big focus.’ They also said timing was an issue, so they decided to cut our story. That’s what I was told. I did ask for clarification because I was so confused at first. My first question was, ‘Wait, the wedding’s not going to be shown?’ She was like, ‘No, no wedding.’ So I kept asking more and she was like, ‘I think it’s going to be more like, you guys are friends from the pods.’ It was very vague, and I still thought that possibly we were going to be engaged on the show and then kind of cut down from there.”
Season 6
Brittany Wisniewski and Leo Braudy
After fans saw Brittany and Leo’s incredibly awkward post-pods engagement reveal, Netflix subsequently cut to a black screen which read: “Brittany and Leo were not one of the six couples chosen by producers to continue their journey in Mexico. They took their own trip to Mexico and broke off their engagement weeks later.”
Viewers later learned that they just decided they weren’t a match. “We stayed in a hotel, we hung on the beach all day and then we just realized that there’s a huge difference between getting engaged on the show and getting married,” Leo said. “And we had a lot of long conversations about it and we just realized that we were better as friends and we’re super good friends.”
Brittany went public with singer Mod Sun in 2024.
Season 7
Coelen confirmed again that the show has the budget for five couples — and can sometimes stretch to six — so two more couples were cut from season 7.
“When we make that decision as to who to follow, if we have more couples that got engaged, we make a decision as to which couples we think are authentic,” he told Variety in October 2024. “And when I say authentic, I mean most authentically likely to actually be at the altar and say I do. Who is really genuinely on that path? We felt, at the time, that the six couples we did end up following were the ones that felt more, on a gut level, had a real shot to say ‘I do’—that they were really invested in saying ‘I do.’”
Bohdan Olinares and Nina Zafar
Vulture reported that Nina was apprehensive about getting engaged in the pods and ultimately decided to leave together sans a ring. She later confirmed that the twosome didn’t make it very far in the real world.
“I may not have found love (or screen time lol) on Love is Blind,” she wrote on the social media app. “But I did find 13 new girlfriends, and some guy friends too, and I think that’s pretty amazing. Say what you want about reality tv and the people that go on it, but it takes A LOT of guts to put yourself out there for the world to judge. I’m so proud of my castmates for that! Cheers to season 7🥂❤️.”
Vulture revealed that Nina’s sister, Tara, was also on the show and had a match who she didn’t want to get engaged to.
“Nina’s sister Tara left on the same day, also with a guy she’d been dating in the pods, also without feeling ready to get engaged. In all, three couples left season seven without continuing production: Nina and Tara and their respective matches, and Brittany and Leo, who went through with a proposal and reveal but were not invited to the romantic getaway,” the outlet reported in 2024.
Season 8
Coelen confirmed that two couples were cut from the season of LiB that is currently airing.
Kylie Schuelke and Brian Sumption
The twosome went public after the premiere, hinting that they are still going strong with several PDA pics via Instagram.
“From the pods to reality — what a journey! Grateful for every moment, every lesson, and everyone I met along the way. Love Is Blind — you were a wild, unforgettable ride.💕 #LoveIsBlind,” they captioned a joint social media post.
Brittany Dodson and Mo Ndiaye
While fans saw Brittany’s relationship with Devin Buckley play out (and end), there are several reports that Brittany was also linked to Mo. Cosmopolitan cited a TikToker named “StorytimeWithRikkii” who alleged Mo made a “problematic” comment on the show, which he denied in a screenshot obtained by the magazine.
“Was problematic to production so they cut all his scenes? Huh?!… That is all news to me,” he wrote. “As far as who broke up with who… Well I’ll leave that one alone no need to go there. Everybody got their side but I know my truth 🤷🏿♂️ I am glad you have A LOT to say about me and my own experience though.”
