Love Is Blind's Zanab Jaffrey responds to Reunion and 'cuties story' backlash

If you watched the Love Is Blind Reunion and then went anywhere near social media today, it's fair to say a certain scene between Zanab Jaffrey and Cole Barnett has divided the internet. Now, Zanab has spoken out about the reaction in an interview with Cosmopolitan UK.

As well as the final weddings episode, Netflix dropped the Love Is Blind Reunion today [9 November], which features all five couples from season three looking back at their time in the experiment. First viewers discovered SK and Raven are giving things another go, before attention turned towards Cole and Zanab. The pair discussed why she said no to him at the altar, with Zanab insisting she hadn't revealed her decision to any friends or family beforehand.

"People had known things that had happened," she told hosts Nick and Vanessa. "Like the trying to control what I ate and me trying to change my eating habits. People… a couple of my friends knew."

Cole replies, "That’s hilarious. I never once cared what you ate. What are you talking about?"

Zanab then said, "The 'cuties [tangerines] story' that didn’t make the cut. It was like 2pm, we were still filming, so I grabbed two cuties, like the little tiny oranges that fit in the palm of your hand. He looked at me and he goes, 'Are you going to eat both of those?' And I said, 'Yeah that’s a serving.'

"And he goes, 'Well, we’re going out to eat later, maybe you should save your appetite.'"

When the Reunion episode ended, the 'cuties clip' then played. It went a little like this:

Since the episode aired, some people have taken to social media to show their support for Zanab, while others have accused her of throwing the story out of proportion and potentially painting Cole in a bad light on purpose.

In response, Zanab told Cosmopolitan UK, "The internet has two sides. People feel strongly about it, and that’s the pitfall of going on reality TV and falling in love and not having it work out. [I've read] that I’m a liar, and that I'm evil and deceitful and mean and need to work on myself."

On bringing up the 'cuties clip', she continues, "I stand by what I said - I’m someone that chooses their words very carefully. I said what I said for a reason. I think people saw the ‘cuties clip’ different[ly] than how it made me feel. That’s why I brought it up.

"People are already saying it makes it seem like I’m a liar. I hate that it looks like I don’t have credibility there. [But] I wouldn’t have brought it up if it wasn’t important [to me] or wasn’t part of why I said what I said at the wedding. People know they shouldn’t make comments on what a woman is eating, period."

Regardless of what you think, it's important to remember Love Is Blind only gives us a small insight into the couples' relationships, and we don't really know the ins and outs of what's going on behind closed doors.

Zanab later took to Instagram to share more of her side of the story. She wrote:

Love Is Blind is now streaming on Netflix.

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