Nick Lachey Reacts to Lauren Speed Accusing 'Love Is Blind' of Cutting out Black Women
Love Is Blind host Nick Lachey has a reaction to former contestant Lauren Speed-Hamilton's claim that the Netflix show is "cutting" Black women from its ongoing third season. Speed-Hamilton, who met and married husband Cameron Hamilton on Season 1 of Love Is Blind, took to Twitter last month to make note of the limited scenes in the pods with Black women during Season 3.
"'LIB' be cutting all the black women. How come they are always in the trailer but not the show," Speed-Hamilton tweeted. She added, "I know it's slim pickings but about 85% of them couples be forced (just moving forward for entertainment purposes) anyway. Y'all could at least force some more sisters to move forward throughout the show."
Lachey, who co-hosts the series with wife Vanessa Lachey, told Entertainment Tonight Thursday that Speed-Hamilton's tweet is "a fair observation" and he does "understand where she's coming from with it," but added that he's "not sure what exactly you can do about that except continue to cast with diversity, which they've done."
"People gravitate to who they gravitate to," he continued of the contestants. "That's not something that producers or anyone else can dictate or strip or have dictated or stripped. People make connections in the pods for whatever reason, and those connections are then followed through to the rest of the season."
"I think that all you can do in terms of being in the show and being in the casting department is casting fairly and with great diversity. I think that they've done a good job of trying to do that," Lachey added. "How it plays out, I can't really answer to that part of it other than I know it's not dictated or manipulated... who moves forward. It's really, truly the connections they make blindly in the pods."
Lachey said that Speed-Hamilton's own love story is the perfect example of true connection on the show. "We've seen people that have gotten together and discovered something unique about someone and fallen in love with someone on this show that they probably never in the normal, superficial dating world would've connected with," he said of the show's three seasons. "Is it enough? No. Physical definitely plays a part at some point, and that connection has to be made as well."
"Lauren is a perfect example," Lachey explained. "Lauren had never dated outside of her race in her life and met Cameron on the show, made a connection, and are happily married to this day. It kind of lays the groundwork for everything else." Love Is Blind Season 3 is streaming on Netflix.