She said no. While in the pods, Love Is Blind‘s Natalie Lee received a proposal from another contestant before getting engaged to Shayne Jansen.
“There was another guy who – very, very early on – was really interested in Natalie and basically proposed to her,” the show’s creator, Chris Coelen, told MetroUK on Monday, February 28. “It was very out of the blue but he just felt like he knew [she was The One], and she was like, ‘This is just weird.'”
The contestant had “developed very significant feelings” for the 29-year-old during their short time together on the show, but Natalie was not on the same page. “She said no and he left, and that was that,” Coelen recalled. “It was like, ‘Why is this guy doing this?’ versus ‘Oh, my God, I really have serious feelings for him.'”
However, viewers never got to see another man attempt to win Natalie’s heart because the producers felt it wasn’t an important part of her journey. “You only have so much bandwidth within a show and I think it’s a fascinating story, but because we’re focused on more of her story … I think for her it was less significant,” the producer added. “To tell that story properly would have taken up a lot of time that we didn’t have.”
Natalie ultimately left the pods with Shayne, 32, before deciding to break up with him at the altar. “It was easily the best time of my life and I would do it all over again knowing I get to spend more time with you,” the real estate agent wrote to his former fiancée via Instagram on Monday, February 28. “You are the most beautiful soul and you really brought out the best in me as a man.”
Shayne continued: “As a man watching our story over again I’m remorseful for my actions and all I can do is learn from them to be a better man. I’m proud of being vulnerable and being as genuine as possible. I don’t know what’s next for us but I do know that I will never stop loving you.”
Natalie echoed those sentiments in a social media post of her own, telling Shayne that she “couldn’t have asked for a better partner” to navigate the social experiment with. “We may have had our ups and downs, but you have always protected me and had my back. And thank you for loving me for ME, and always encouraging me to embrace and love my flaws,” she wrote the same day. “Even if I did this experiment a thousand times knowing the outcome, I would have always chosen you.
The consultant’s unlucky suitor isn’t the only plotline that got left on the cutting room floor. “We had eight engagements in the season, we chose to follow — just like in season 1 — six of them, because you only have so much bandwidth,” Coelen told Variety last month. “We didn’t even begin to tell the stories of the other engagements that happened or lots of the other really fascinating, multi-layer relationships that went on.”
He continued: “It’s a lot of guesswork, to be honest. We don’t know what’s gonna happen.”
Both seasons of Love is Blind are currently streaming on Netflix. Season 2’s reunion special, After the Altar, will be released on Friday, March 4.
