We Have the Receipts is already living up to its name. The new reality podcast, hosted by Love Is Blind alum Lauren Speed-Hamilton and podcast veteran Chris Burns, welcomed Love Is Blind Season 2 contestants Deepti Vempati and Natalie Lee as special guests for their second episode — what Chris is calling the “Boss Ladies Special.” And after an insane Season 2, the #DeepTea was, of course, piping hot.
During the episode, Deepti and Natalie played a series of games and answered tough questions from both the hosts and fans. Here’s everything we learned from their interviews, including how Natalie and ex-fiancé Shayne Jansen gave it another shot after the finale, and the many more red flags Deepti saw during her relationship with Abhishek “Shake” Chatterjee.
Lauren Speed-Hamilton says she had never seen host Nick Lachey angry before the Season 2 reunion As a Love Is Blind veteran, Lauren has had some experience with Nick Lachey’s hosting style. But while she and Chris were sharing their thoughts on the Season 2 reunion, she said she saw a vein popping out of Nick’s forehead — something she’d never seen before. “He’s such a cool, calm guy, but he got mad,” she said. “I was like, ‘Nick can even get mad? I didn’t even know!’” Clearly, couples who confront reality television villains together stay together.
Shake’s comments about weight were (obviously) not well received — by any of the women Deepti says she initially rated Shake “very low,” partially because he made “a lot of the other girls cry” during their conversations in the pods. Shake made it no secret that he preferred thin, blonde women, and asked his dates invasive questions like, “Do you like working out?” and “If we were to be at a music festival, do you like being on a guy’s shoulders?” Naturally, these comments were hurtful and confusing, especially since the experiment was designed for couples to fall in love without societal expectations around looks. “They don’t show that, but I actually had to talk to him about that,” Deepti said, calling it “a rocky step in our progression in the pods.”
Shake didn’t just hit on Vanessa during the reunion... That’s right. Deepti said Shake hit on host and married woman Vanessa during the couples’ reveal in Mexico as well. (No wonder Nick was mad.)
...and he didn’t just hit on Vanessa, either Deepti was close with her Love Is Blind castmates, but she said their group chat was “triggering” for a while after filming. “Shake was constantly in there, flirting with other women in there,” she said. “I almost left, honestly. I muted it. But then I was like, ‘I can’t let him win. These are my friends.’”
Deepti and Kyle are best friends (for now) Love Is Blind viewers everywhere had some, ahem, questions after Kyle’s bombshell admission that he should’ve proposed to Deepti. Thankfully, Lauren and Chris asked what the people want to know: What happened between Kyle and Deeps, and where do things stand now? “I was really struggling between the two,” Deepti said, sharing that Shake felt like the “stable route.” Today, she describes Kyle as her best friend — and when Lauren commented that friendship can be an amazing foundation for a relationship, Deeps was quick to agree. “That’s the best way. Build a friendship first, right?” she said. “And then let’s see where it goes.”
Shayne and Natalie gave their relationship another try after the wedding After getting in an explosive fight with Shayne the night before their nuptials, Natalie decided she couldn’t go through with the wedding — but she didn’t shut the door completely. In fact, they kept dating for several months after filming wrapped, just to see if they could make things work in the real world. Ultimately, they struggled to move on from the aftermath of their fight. “We’re very different people with very different needs and wants, at the end of the day,” Natalie said. “And we also have some communication issues, and we just couldn’t figure out a solution or resolution.”
Natalie received two proposals in the pods Before she said yes to Shayne, Natalie received another proposal. She stayed quiet about his identity, but said that he briefly appears in a “ten-second clip” on the show.
Luckily for Natalie, Shayne didn’t know what IBS was Chris and Lauren wrapped up Natalie’s interview by asking her if she was nervous to talk about her irritable bowel syndrome on camera. Her answer? Obviously, but the issue had, er, flared up. “I had so many IBS moments, like during the lounge, that I felt like I had to talk about it,” she said. “I was always running to the bathroom, or I was like, ‘I can’t eat this; it’s gonna make me gassy!’” Luckily, when she told Shayne, he wasn’t aware of the condition. He should be: As we’ve seen throughout the season, Natalie is a woman who takes no shit.
To listen to the full interviews, catch We Have the Receipts Episode 2 on Tudum.
