Love Is Blind star Raven Ross has apologized to fellow contestant Bartise Bowden over a viral moment from the third season. While Bowden poured his heart out and made an emotional confession from his pod, Ross was shown exercising and ignoring him. Netflix released the scene as a preview before the first episodes of Season 3 were released on Oct. 19.
In the clip, Bowden is shown sharing a story about how his parents’ relationship fell apart. As he sits cross-legged on the floor in his pod, emotional music is playing over the scene. Meanwhile, Ross is shown in her pod doing a full exercise routine, including jumping jacks and push-ups. She is even reading from a book while doing one exercise. At the end of the clip, Ross thanked Bowden for opening up to her, even as she did more jumping jacks.
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The clip quickly went viral, with fans calling out Ross on Twitter. Ross later told E! News she was “traumatized” watching the scene and wanted to apologize to Bowden. “In the words of Keke Palmer, ‘I am sorry to that man,’” Ross said. “I really am sorry to that man.”
Ross admitted that the timing of her workout was “inappropriate” and she took “ownership” of that. However, she claimed the moment came after an hours-long conversation with Bowden. “I can totally see where people are coming from,” she said. “But for me, you’re in the pods for hours, you don’t get to see every moment that we’re in there, because we’re in there for days on end. And so sometimes you just need a little bit of pep in your step, mental health check.”
Ross’ co-star Alexa Alfia told E! News that Ross has “hip problems.” Another co-star, Zanab Jaffrey, asked viewers to “let her live.” Ross further explained that she was stretching out a “bad hip.”
The jumping jacks moment was not the only bizarre scene from the first group of Season 3 episodes. Contestant Andrew Liu was seen putting in eye drops to simulate crying after Nancy Rodriguez dumped him. Jaffrey told E! News Liu’s actions were “trash,” while Alfia dismissed him as a “clout chaser.” Ross called him a “weirdo.”
Rodriguez even came close to accepting Liu’s proposal. “I think it’s one thing to say, like, ‘Through a wall, there’s something. You’re deceitful, you’re too cool, calm, and collected. Like, something is up,’” she said. “Your senses go up. I think it was a complete depiction of what I was feeling through a wall. This guy’s up to something.”
Love Is Blind Season 3 will be released in four batches, with the second three episodes coming on Oct. 26. The next three will be released on Nov. 2. The finale follows on Nov. 9.
