Love Is Blind‘s Zanab Jaffrey stands by “everything” she said while telling off ex Cole Barnett on their wedding day. The Netflix star opened up to PopCulture.com about her “journey of self-love” following the dramatic end to her Love Is Blind story, during which Zanab told Cole at the altar that she wouldn’t marry him.
“You have disrespected me, you have insulted me, you have critiqued me, and for what it’s worth, you have single-handedly shattered my self-confidence,” she told Cole at the altar. “And the messed up thing is I know I love you… but love shouldn’t feel this way. I can’t marry you.” At the subsequent Love Is Blind Season 3 reunion, Zanab also accused her ex of being controlling about her eating habits and kissing another woman at his bachelor party – an accusation Cole denied.
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When it comes to her relationship with Cole today, Zanab confirmed to PopCulture that she is in “no contact” with her ex. “[Exes] don’t have a part in my life, and so much of that is out of respect for my future partner,” she explained, adding, “Of course stuff for the show, we will have to be in rooms together, and I don’t expect him not to be included just because I don’t care for him to be there.”
“Ultimately I stand by everything I said,” Zanab continued. “I’m proud of myself and I know that ultimately led me on a journey of self-love. I put in the work for that and I took everything this experiment taught me and I hope I can apply it and have a healthy relationship moving forward.” As part of that self-love journey, Zanab told PopCulture that she entered therapy to help her get her footing before her season aired.
“I left that relationship and went into therapy because I just was like, ‘What the heck just happened?’” she shared. “I’ve just taken the time to just love on myself [and] affirm myself the last year because I knew that [the show airing] had the potential of bringing up a lot of old feelings and I wanted to be prepared to handle that.”
It has been enlightening looking back on Cole’s comments about her being a “nine out of 10” and “bipolar.” “It was hurtful back then,” Zanab told PopCulture. “But I think if I would’ve been able to really take a deeper look at those conversations, I probably would’ve seen a lot more, a lot sooner.” Season 3 of Love Is Blind is now streaming on Netflix.
