‘The One That Got Away’ Cast on Their Time Filming and What’s Happened Since [Exclusive]
Amazon Prime’s The One That Got Away is a reality dating show that asks the question: What if you already met the person you’re supposed to be with? TOTGA stars a group of singles — Ashley Algarin, Nigel Sydnor, Kasey Ma, Vince Xu, Jeff Perla, and Allyssa Anderson — and a rotating cast of characters from the singles’ pasts, people they met at the wrong time.
We spoke to Nigel, Allyssa, Vince, and Kasey about their time on the show, including the casting process, moments we missed, and where they are now.
[SPOILER ALERT: Major spoilers ahead for The One That Got Away.]
Married women are coming out of the woodwork to tell Nigel he’s the one that got away for them
Early on, Nigel told Alicia, one of his early and longest suitors, that he was a “mama’s boy to the core.” Fans will remember the infamous scene involving a date with Alicia and a special guest — his mother. Mama Nigel grilled Alicia pretty hard, to put it lightly. While Nigel acknowledges that his mom was in “rare form” that evening, he thinks of the scene as something special he and his mother got to share together.
“As a mama’s boy, I mean I really do love my mom,” he says. “I think that my mom has and always will have my best interest at heart. So just being able to share that moment with her was even the most precious moment of even being on the show.”
Since the show aired, Nigel says he’s received several messages from people from his past. Many of these people happen to be married.
“There have been actually quite a few messages from people who have watched the show with their husband,” he says. “Not from my past life. But they’ve watched with their husband and they said, ‘You know what? I’m really rethinking my relationship with my husband. Did things work out with you and the person you left the show with?’”
“I’ve been told that they were the one that got away in my life quite a few times,” he added.
On if he’s still with Dezi:
“Desi’s an amazing person,” he says. “She has made me happy. She makes me happy. Where things stand… only time will tell.”
Allyssa learned a lot about herself watching ‘The One That Got Away’ back
Allyssa was one of the more polarizing singles on The One That Got Away. Some viewers felt her comments were often harsh, while others loved that she always spoke her mind. Allyssa told us that she’s using this reality show experience as a growth opportunity.
“Throughout my journey on the show I was able to realize a lot of my errors,” she says. “While I will probably always be the sassy girl, I don’t think that I will always have to be too vocal about my distaste for certain things. Sometimes it’s OK to not say everything that goes into my head. It’s OK to have a filter.”
In fact, looking back, she would do a few things differently. For one: “I definitely would probably not have gone after Dylan (one of Kasey’s suitors).”
“Also I shouldn’t have called Daniel a gnome,” she adds. “I’m sure that he’s a really good man. But I was just frustrated in the moment.”
Though it wasn’t shown in the season, Allyssa says she and Kasey squashed the Dylan situation quickly and easily. Today they’re besties — “like sisters.”
As for Daniel, while Allyssa regrets her word choice to describe him, she still feels her frustration was valid.
“I was particularly the one who took this experience extremely seriously,” she says. “I went throughout the casting process genuinely believing, ‘OK, this is where I’m gonna find the one.'”
“So anybody that was coming in that was having to interview with casting, having to quarantine in a hotel for almost two weeks, having to go through this whole production, Daniel, I’m sure again, is a great guy, but that did require him to misrepresent himself and tell production that he had known me prior to him coming onto the show, which was just genuinely not true,” she explains. “I’ve never read DMs from him. I didn’t even know he was following me. He was essentially just some guy off Instagram. And that wasn’t the experiment. That was just kind of gaming the system.”
As viewers remember, Allyssa ended her time on the show with a promise ring from Adam. They are still together today.
“Over the last year, we’ve kept our promises, traveling together in support of our dreams, sharing in some of the most important moments of our lives, and loving every minute of our relationship,” she wrote on Instagram on July 11. “We’re so excited to finally be able to scream it from the rooftops: true love wins every time!”
How Vince scored extra time with Yurika
The One That Got Away casting reached out to Vince via Bumble. And, fun fact, he actually got approached by The Bachelorette casting before TOTGA. But something about the Amazon Prime show spoke to him. After being in a relationship for so long, he wanted to explore previous missed connections.
When the show first set out to find Vince his suitors, he worried, “I don’t know if you’re gonna find anyone who wants to date me.”
“They asked me for a list of girls,” he explains. “I probably gave them a list of eight people that like, you know, I knew. None of them showed up… Then they asked my friends for lists of girls. And then they went through my social media and everything, my followers, just like dug deep and started reaching out. I remember I got DMs from girls randomly that were like, ‘Is this a scam?’”
Of course, in the end, plenty of girls wanted to re-meet Vince. Including Yurika. Vince had such a connection with Yurika that he asked TOTGA producers for extra time with her. Because he wanted to really build something.
“I was just bargaining a lot with producers to be like, ‘Hey, give me more off-camera time because I’m really starting to feel feelings for this person.’ So I probably got the most off-camera time with my person.”
One of those off-camera dates was a “game changer” for the relationship.
“We were like, ‘OK, are we leaving boyfriend, girlfriend? What’s the situation?’ We were having a really good talk, and she actually brought it up that she wanted to leave as more than just boyfriend, girlfriend. I was like, ‘Well that’s news to me,’” he says.
During another off-camera date, Vince and Yurkia swapped “I love you”s for the first time. Vince remembers “trembling because he was scared,” but thinking, “This is so real. We’re having our Notebook experience right now.”
Though they missed their first “I love you” exchange, viewers surely remember Vince proclaiming his love three times to Yurika when he proposed.
In a July 13 Instagram post, Vince updated his followers that he and Yurika are no longer together after their whirlwind romance.
“After feeling the highest of highs coming off of the show together, we were met with the lowest of lows – trying to put the broken pieces of ourselves back together while rediscovering our own identities without each other,” he wrote. “But in short, we took some time and space away from each other to focus on ourselves and our own lives. Maybe we’ll talk more in detail about this another time; but as much as we both wanted that fairy tale ending, we decided to go our separate ways.”
Kasey on where she stands with all her suitors
Kasey had a unique schedule during her time filming The One That Got Away. Most of her dates were shot between 4 and 6 AM (there’s a reason the cast isn’t allowed to have their phones, computers, or clocks).
“For the most part, nobody knew what time it was,” she says. “We just saw the sun up and the sun go down. It felt like ancient Roman times.”
Fans will remember Kasey’s longest missed connection, Dylan. In a recent Amazon Prime promo clip, Kasey described her former suitor as disingenuous.
She says the vibe between them was just too different to ignore when cameras were off and when they were on.
“He was very much a gentleman to me when the cameras were on,” she says. “He would be holding my waist, hugging me, offering me drinks, making sure I was always taken care of like a boyfriend would.” Not so much when the cameras weren’t rolling.
Then of course there was Vinny, who Kasey calls “Honestly the most genuine person that showed up for me.” She’s since moved out of the building her former neighbor lived in (and across the country). When asked if they’ve talked and are on good terms since the show aired she laughed, “I mean hell no.”
“I didn’t mean to be malicious in any way toward him at the date, it just didn’t click,” she says of their cheesy date. “And the way I deal with things that don’t work out is humor. So I hope he sees that.”
Of her final connection, Kasey wishes “Simon came through a little earlier, but he saved the day.”
Today, they are not romantically connected.
“We’re not currently dating but we did try to make things happen after the show came out,” she says.
She cites “distance reasons” for why things didn’t work out. He lives in New York and she in California.
“I’m not a big believer in long distance relationships, especially when you’re first starting out,” she says. “It doesn’t make sense to me. I need physical attraction, I need to hug you, I need to see you. So for me it was the wrong timing. And it was just too far. But we’re on good terms. When we see each other in different cities, we’ll get lunch… it’s very cordial.”
The first season of The One That Got Away is streaming on Amazon Prime.
