‘Love Is Blind’: Here’s How Barnett’s Family Really Felt About Amber
The world is enamored with Netflix reality show Love Is Blind, thanks to its unconventional concept of getting people to fall in love without laying eyes on each other. One of the fan-favorite couples, Amber and Barnett, who were also embroiled in a bit of drama, opened up about what actually went on behind the scenes.
[Spoiler alert: Spoilers ahead for Love Is Blind Season 1.]
Barnett said Amber meeting his family wasn’t as bad as it looked
Fans have mixed feelings about Matt Barnett and Amber Pike, but the two were one of the only couples to actually tie the knot and are still together today. And though they had to deal with some drama involving Jessica Batten, the series also made Amber’s first meeting with Barnett’s family look unpleasant. However, that wasn’t the case.
“Looking back at it, it didn’t feel that awkward or uncomfortable,” Barnett told the Los Angeles Times on Feb. 29. “Yeah, Amber came in and was nervous, but overall, my family was pretty chill and actually my dad had a beer with her. It wasn’t that big of a deal.”
Barnett revealed that his brother was a bit more protective, which viewers did see on the show, but that’s just how he is. Barnett said his brother just wanted to make sure they were doing it for the right reasons.
The show also made Amber’s financial situation look worse than it was
Another factor the show exaggerated (or audiences just misunderstood) was Amber’s financial situation. She expressed to Barnett that she “works to live” not “lives to work” and had a lot of debt. Some took it that she wanted to live off of him, but that’s not the case.
“That was a piece of a much larger conversation, most of which Matt and I had in private,” Amber said about what the audience didn’t see. “And, yeah, I had student debts at the time, but so did Matt.”
She then said it was “a little unfortunate” that viewers could only see so much of their story and conversations because it wasn’t always the full truth.
“Like I said, I didn’t want to have any kind of false advertising or anything hidden,” Amber said. “I wanted to be accepted fully. Matt knew pretty much all of my skeletons when [we] got married.”
She pointed out that any haters who want to come after her for the financial conversations can keep it to themselves. “Our money is our problem,” Amber said.
Netflix randomly selected its contestants on Instagram
If you’re wondering how these contestants were cast for the show, Amber and Barnett said they received random DMs. “I got a random message request on Instagram from somebody who was like, ‘How would you feel about being on TV?’ And I was a little sketched out,” she said.
They still aren’t 100 percent sure how they were discovered, though they think it has to do with Atlanta hashtags. “I don’t know how they found me because my Instagram is private,” Barnett said. “I got lucky, I guess.”
Considering they still seem happy, those Instagram requests were likely the most life-changing ones they ever received.
