Contestants claim the reality of the show is a long way from the glossy fantasy presented on Netflix
It’s the ultimate social experiment – testing to see if two people can fall for one another through a wall, where they cannot see the person on the other side.
Now the Mail can reveal the behind-the-scenes secrets of the UK version of Netflix hit Love Is Blind, as disgruntled former contestants reveal they wouldn’t do the programme again, while others felt it was a ‘competition’ with a financial incentive rather than a quest to find true love.
Contestants Freddie Powell, Demi Brown, Tom Stroud, Catherine Richards, Steven Smith, Nicole Stevens, Ollie Sutherland, Maria Benkhamaraz, Benaiah Warrilow, Jasmine Chamberlain, Bobby Johnson and Sabrina Egerton attend the Love Is Blind grand finale screening in London
Former UK contestant Jordan Baker, 32, tells the Mail: ‘You’re trying to get as many connections with people as possible because you’ve got more of a chance to stay on the show and get a free holiday. So, it turned into a competition rather than an experiment in finding love. We knew it was a big show in the US, so the opportunities afterwards are huge.’
The 30 contestants were met at the airport, had their phones taken away from them and asked to sign NDAs before being flown out to Sweden to begin filming.
Jordan was one of the contestants who barely featured in the final edit despite getting engaged on the show.
The fashion tech founder told the Mail: ‘People quit their jobs to go on the show. The longer you’re on it for, the more you get paid. And if you make it to the final edit then you’ve most likely got a career out of it. But we got paid pennies while actually on the show; it wasn’t enough to cover my rent in London.
‘They kept telling us they were on such a tight budget and that’s why they only took a certain number of people through to the final stages – while we had to pay for our flights home.’
Gym worker Steven Smith, 38, and Sabrina Vittoria, 36, who was a director in marketing and communications, say they both quit their jobs to appear on the show for ‘the chance to find love’. The pair, who married on the show, are now getting an annulment.
Sabrina Vittoria prepares to get married to Steven Smith on Love Is Blind. The pair have since split up
Priyanka Grewal, who didn’t make it to the final edit, said she was ‘lucky’ to have been granted a sabbatical from her job as a procurement manager.
The 38-year-old tells the Mail: ‘It was really difficult to obtain because it was so early on into my time at the job, but eventually they did give me one. But that was a sacrifice I made. Equally, there have been other cast members that didn’t have the same luxury that I did, and actually had to hand in their resignations or be told that they wouldn’t be welcomed back.’
Recruiters began finding singles for the show in February 2023 using an Instagram account under the name ‘loveisblindukcasting’, which sent a blanket message: ‘I am on the casting team for Netflix’s Love Is Blind UK and came across your page.
‘We are looking for singles to take part in the ultimate modern dating social experiment. If this is something you might be interested in, let me know, as I’d love to tell you all about the show and how you can get involved!’
After multiple video calls, in-person auditions and even ring-sizing appointments, the final 30 contestants were selected – with several ‘put on hold’ in case others got cold feet.
For around ten days, contestants are placed in small rooms – dubbed ‘pods’ – where they speed date through a dividing wall with the aim of finding someone to marry without ever seeing them.
After agreeing to get wed and seeing each other for the first time, couples are sent on a luxury Greek island retreat and then into the ‘real world’ to put their relationship to the test.
They must then decide whether or not they’ll officially tie the knot or walk away.
The first four episodes were set in male and female ‘living quarters’ where they eat, sleep and, most importantly, date.
Contestants from each of the separate quarters gathered in a cosy lounge, which included velvet sofas, a pool table and a kitchen, after their dates.
The female contestants of Love Is Blind gather in the lounge
The show appeared to follow the Big Brother format, with fly-on-the-wall cameras, and contact with the outside world was limited to visits from the show’s hosts Matt Willis, 41, and his wife Emma, 48.
The former contestants reveal that the living quarters were actually in an ‘absolutely boiling’ makeshift film set located in an abandoned ice rink two hours outside Stockholm, which they were escorted to every morning from the local hotel they were staying in.
Dental nurse Catherine Richards, 30, told Bailiwick Podcasts: ‘We stayed in a hotel. It’s filmed in a massive studio in Sweden and when you walk in it’s really weird, like a movie set.
‘There’s a boys’ lounge and a girls’ lounge but you get taken over and enter as if we live there.
‘Because the boys are on the other side, you can hear them but you can’t see them and, even if you need to go to the toilet or want fresh air, you’re escorted.’
Jordan stayed in a hotel room next to fan favourite Freddie Powell, 32, telling the Mail: ‘We were supposed to hang out all day in the lounge during the pod dating stage but the air con wasn’t working so we all took it in turns to go outside and get some air.’
Their filming in the pods consisted of long days, starting with a 7am wake-up call and a buffet breakfast of eggs, bacon and cereal at the hotel. They were then taken to the set, and former contestants say they sometimes did not return to their hotel rooms until 10pm due to filming late dates.
Producers’ top priority was to keep the male and female contestants from seeing each other because, if so, they would have to be eliminated from the show immediately.
Before the cameras started rolling, contestants claim they were handed notebooks with a schedule of who to date, what questions to ask and how long for.
On the first day, they were all introduced to each other on six-minute dates which became longer when producers began pairing them off.
Catherine reveals her last date with her partner, Freddie, was three hours – though viewers were only shown snippets.
Lunch and dinner were served in the studio, which Jordan claims ‘must have been ordered from a local catering company. It was delivered to the ice rink and it was foul. We sat outside or stood and ate from a takeaway pot. Most days it was tough to finish’.
Freddie Powell and Catherine Richards got married on the Netflix show
Several contestants say they felt a growing pressure over the long days to build a ‘deep’ connection quickly, to avoid getting cut from the show.
Jordan says: ‘It became more like, “I’ll make a connection with her because then I’ll get a free holiday.”’
PR consultant Tom Stroud, 38, from London, revealed on his Instagram after the show aired: ‘Being in an environment with 14 other boys was like being back at school and there were quite a lot of playground tactics. Some of the more alpha guys would come out of these dates pretty early being like “I found my girl” and it was quite intimidating.’
Catherine adds: ‘The pressure is unreal. You had to go deep with someone so quickly when you were in the pods to make that instant connection, so it’s harder to maintain when you’re on the outside. It’s not real.’
After almost two weeks of bonding and whittling down to the best connections, the participants were then told on a specific day to propose to their preferred person through the wall.
Some were left heartbroken as their strongest partner chose to propose to another, while others said ‘yes’ to someone they had never laid eyes on before.
It can now be confirmed that 11 couples were engaged but Netflix only chose six to continue the journey out in Greece – while the remainder were sent home, paying for their own flights.
On the day of the proposals, producers knocked on the contestants’ hotel rooms at midnight and informed them if they had made it through to the next round.
Jordan tells the Mail: ‘Production just come into your hotel room and say, “Sorry, we’ve decided not to follow your story.” Then that’s it, see you later.
‘Once the filming is done, you are put on a bus and you never see anyone again. You’re put on a plane and that’s it and it’s then up to you to continue a connection if you have one and they don’t help you. We didn’t get any help from production and they’ve just bombarded you into this crazy situation – no one even paid for our flights – and then you’re back to your normal job.’
On screen, successful couples appeared to have been immediately flown to Corfu for the next phase of the experiment – a romantic holiday as a newly engaged couple.
But the Mail can now reveal the couples secretly returned to the UK in between filming and were registered to marry at Kensington and Chelsea Register Office.
After spending four days in London, they jetted off to the five-star Angsana Corfu Resort and Spa.
According to hotel staff, Netflix executives also stayed at the hotel for a week, along with the show’s hosts Matt and Emma.
Love Is Blind UK is hosted by Matt and Emma Willis
Couples stayed in sea-view villas with private pools, while the production team had rooms in the hotel’s main building, which boasts a hair and beauty salon and ten luxury restaurants.
Back in the UK, many of the participants barely seen on screen are struggling to come to terms with their fate on the show.
Priyanka says the online trolling and hate she has received has been ‘hard to navigate’, and she hasn’t received enough aftercare from Netflix.
She tells the Mail: ‘I’ve had comments that said I’ve been used as clickbait, saying I was a tick box. I received hate comments because it’s not normal for a British South Asian female to appear on a mainstream show on such a big platform.
‘So it is disappointing in that aspect, because it was so heavily promoted and then I was left to navigate that and it would have been nice to have had support and be warned for what was to come. It’s still something that I’m dealing with to this day.’
Despite only just launching in the UK, Love Is Blind, which was originally an Emmy-nominated American show, has had Mexican, Swedish, German, Japanese and Brazilian versions in the past three years.
A UAE edition is set to be released later this year, and Netflix has confirmed that the UK edition is officially returning for a second season.
Applications are said to already be closed, and filming will start soon.
A spokesperson for Netflix said: ‘Cast members were not forced to form connections. At the beginning of the experiment they went on speed dates with each member of the cast and had the opportunity to spend more time with those they were developing connections with, and eventually propose before meeting.
‘Production does not interfere with this process and cast members are free to leave the experiment if they do not make connections. All contributors have bespoke, dedicated support, which includes pre-launch coping skills training with a clinical psychologist and regular check-ins – in the form of texts, phone and video calls and in-person meetings – from the welfare and programme psych team throughout filming, and pre and post-transmission.’
An earlier version of this article mistakenly claimed that Netflix would not pay for contestants to flu home from Sweden.
