SPOILERS are ahead for Love Is Blind Season 3, now streaming with a Netflix subscription.
Another Love Is Blind season came to an end this week with the season finale and reunion episode and, since then, fans can’t stop talking about how things shook out with Zanab Jaffrey and Cole Barnett at the altar. They were one of the most up-and-down couples, charming fans with sweet date moments but also having us second guess them with their many arguments. Ultimately, on their wedding day, Zanab didn’t agree to a marriage with Cole, calling him out for his behavior and saying, “I can’t marry you” in front of their friends and family. So where do they stand now?
Following the twist on Love Is Blind, Cole and Zanab revealed more about their relationship during the subsequent reunion episode and, as you can imagine, there’s even more to the story. During an interview, Zanab got candid, and it would seem that she and Cole aren't on speaking terms:
I stand by everything I said. We do not speak. We didn't really leave a friendship or a mutual respect, I think, for each other to have. So there isn't communication between the two of us… Cole was my person. Cole was the only person in that experiment for me, so I am glad I chose him. I'm glad he taught me what he did, and I'm glad I got to see who he really is.
As Zanab told People, she has no regrets coming out of the top trending Netflix series, and that includes her words to Cole at the altar, where she told her fiancé that he “disrespected” her and “single-handedly shattered” her self confidence.
When it comes to something about her relationship with Cole that she thinks might have changed things, the Love Is Blind star said that having a chance to meet his parents might have made a difference. However, there was a major issue that Zanab opened up about during the reunion that certainly had a big impact on her decision to say no. She stated that her former beau took part in “body shaming” her by trying to control what she ate on the show, though Cole denied her claims.
In terms of Cole’s own update about his relationship with Zanab following Season 3, he has a conflicting response about whether they talk anymore. In his words:
Zay and I are having a lot of hard conversations and working through a lot of our baggage from our relationship. We talked a few weeks ago, and then we just recently here in the last week have been talking a lot. So we care about each other a lot, but we have a lot of pain from our past.
Once again, these two are giving us two different sides of the story. We’ll likely get an update on them during After The Altar episodes, which have typically aired around six months after the initial season. When sharing his thoughts on the aftermath of the wedding, Cole also said this:
I didn't know what to think, and that's why we didn't talk for a long time afterwards is because I didn't know how I was ever going to process that. I didn't want to talk to her because I felt betrayed and I felt like she had really duped me and brought me to that moment to do that to me... I wish we could do it over and have more conversations beforehand.
When it comes to Cole’s own thoughts on the season, the Love Is Blind star shared that it was “compatibility and personality” that ultimately caused their relationship to fall apart rather than any physical attributes. Of course, one of the most frustrating aspects of Love is Blind Season 3 occurred when Cole actually asked if Zanab was bipolar in previous episodes along with many other of their sour conversations.
As far as the other couples, Raven and SK previously updated fans on what the season didn’t show about their relationship and Bartise took to TikTok to say he made a “mess” with Nancy. While all are interesting, I'm sure most will be most eager to hear more about Cole and Zanab's statuses.
While you wait for more from the franchise, read up on the answers we've found to questions regarding how Love Is Blind is made.
