‘Love Is Blind’ Star Cole Barnett Says Zanab Jaffrey ‘100% Played Me’
If you’re in the market for some drama this holiday season, Love Is Blind Season 3 is the gift that keeps on giving. The popular Netflix reality show featured a new cast of singles looking to find love, but several of those relationships crashed and burned. One of the most shocking moments of the season showed Zanab Jaffrey reading her fiancè Cole Barnett the riot act at the altar. Zanab claimed Cole constantly body-shamed her throughout the production of season 3, but a deleted scene made fans think otherwise. Now, Cole has opened up about his relationship with Zanab.
Cole says he’s ‘thankful’ producers played the Cuties scene
During the reunion, Zanab alleged Cole made disparaging remarks about her physical appearance. While fans saw Cole make some thoughtless remarks (remember when he rated Zanab as a 9/10?) in Love Is Blind Season 3, Zanab claimed producers did Cole a favor with the way they edited the show.
In one example, Zanab said, “The Cuties story that didn’t make the cut was one day, it was 2 p.m., and we were still filming. I hadn’t had a chance to eat so I grabbed two Cuties. He looked at me and said, ‘Are you gonna eat both of those?’ I said, ‘Well, yeah, that’s a serving.’ And he said, ‘Well, we’re going out to eat later so maybe you should save your appetite.’”
Producers aired the deleted scene during the reunion’s end credits. Cole’s response in the scene didn’t line up with Zanab’s claims that Cole controlled what she ate. At that moment, he seemed more concerned than anything about the lack of nutrients she’d consumed that day.
Cole recently appeared as a guest on the Lauren Interviews podcast. He explained, “To me, I’m just so thankful that they played the Cuties scene, because I don’t know why you’d say I was body shaming you as well. I wasn’t body-shaming you. I was just asking and saying, ‘Hey, we planned this big dinner.’ I was just speaking to it and being myself.”
Cole believes Zanab ‘100% played him’
Fans didn’t envision Cole and Zanab truly living happily ever after. However, no one expected Zanab to blow up at Cole like she did at the altar.
“The last two months have not been picture-perfect,” Zanab began while holding Cole’s hands. “You have disrespected me; you have insulted me; you have critiqued me. And for what it is worth, you have single-handedly shattered my self-confidence. And I hate that you have had that kind of effect on me.”
She continued, “And the messed up thing is, I know I love you. But everything in me, and the logical part of my brain, tells me that love shouldn’t feel this way. Love shouldn’t hurt like this. I can’t marry you, and I don’t.”
Cole seemed completely blindsided by Zanab’s speech, and he eventually shed several tears over what just transpired.
During the podcast, Cole said, “She played me, 100 percent she played me. She told me that there was a chance that we were getting married. She said she was 100 or 1,000 percent ready to marry me at that last date and then we talked off-camera and I let her know I wasn’t ready to get married.”
Cole claims he and Zanab agreed on not having any drama at the wedding
Part of the reason Cole seemed so shocked was that he says he and Zanab agreed to no dramatic moments during their wedding. He also said that he and Zanab both wanted to continue their relationship at a slower pace after filming ended.
Cole continued, “She verbatim told me, ‘I don’t want any drama at the wedding,’ and then she did what she did at the wedding. So yeah, I got totally played and it was scripted. And it’s just a lie for her at the reunion to say that she was still trying to decide on wedding day whether or not she was ready to marry me. It’s like, ‘Yo, if that was true then how the hell do you say what you said about me?'”
This is the first time Cole’s gone into this much detail regarding his relationship with Zanab. However, Zanab’s addressed the backlash she received from fans via an Instagram post in November.
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