🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐

A Love Is Blind reunion is like bringing up politics at Thanksgiving — it can’t help but be explosive. The season-ending cast get-togethers have, in fact, made somewhat of a tradition out of airing dirty laundry and painstakingly reliving the highs and lows of everyone’s romances. But the Season 3 reunion shocks viewers with one final twist: the “Cuties Story” footage, as it’s called in the episode. The scene reveals a conversation between now-exes Zanab and Cole about a pair of clementines, which Zanab mentions during the reunion to explain her mindset during filming. For the first time, Zanab is speaking out publicly about the release of the footage. 

“I think it confirms everything I said [at the reunion] that happened in that scene,” Zanab tells Tudum. 

During the reunion, Zanab says that dating Cole greatly changed her relationship with food. She says she “stopped eating” and with the filming schedule would often only have time to eat a banana and peanut butter. “The [footage of you] pushing food away from me, asking me ‘if I’m going to eat that,’ trying to get me to order a salad, the daily comments about my face and body were not [aired],” she tells Cole. 

Sara Mally/Netflix

As an example of her perspective, she mentions the “Cuties Story.” According to Zanab, she once grabbed two Cutie clementines to eat and Cole asked, “Are you going to eat both of those?” When Zanab responded that she would, Cole allegedly reminded her she should “save her appetite” before going out to eat later. Zanab tells Cole he has been able to save face because Love Is Blind didn’t use the footage. Cole, on his end, “can’t believe [she] would say that” and urges the show to roll the tape.

Little do they know, however, that Love Is Blind has the receipts. As we see in the scene, Zanab picks up two clementines and Cole asks, “Are you about to eat two of those?” When Zanab says that number is a serving — and asks “Are you okay with that?” — Cole recommends “saving” her “appetito” because they’re going to “eat a big ol’ sucker tonight.” But Cole also appears to look surprised to hear that Zanab hasn’t eaten anything other than a banana all day, reminding her that he’d offered her a poke bowl that she declined. When he asks her why that’s all she’d eaten, she just answers, "I could definitely could tell you but I probably shouldn't." The conversation ends with Cole asking his fiancée if she is “getting wedding dress bod” before their nuptials as a possible reason. “Something like that,” she responds.  

Zanab now says she “didn't plan on” bringing this encounter up at the reunion. “But I was honest and the video confirms that,” she continues. “I understand people feel differently.”   

Despite the internet critics, Zanab is confident she prioritized the truth throughout her entire Love Is Blind journey — down to sharing her most personal insecurities with the world during the reunion. “I had my heart on my sleeve for the duration of the experiment,” she says. “I will always be open and honest about struggles. If it made one person feel less alone or validated, then I did what I was meant to do.”  

Ultimately, the flight attendant hopes being honest about something as private as “shattered” self-confidence and food-related issues helps viewers understand they’re never “alone.” 

“There are people to support and love you through standing up for yourself. Saving yourself will always be more important than saving the relationship.”

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