Warning: Spoilers from Season Five of “Love Is Blind” below...
The drama surrounding the previous relationship between “Love Is Blind” Season Five stars Uche Okoroha and Lydia Velez Gonzalez boiled over in the latest group of episodes, leading to an intense conversation between Uche and Aaliyah Cosby.
Episode Four ended on a cliffhanger as Uche discovered that Aaliyah, whom he planned to propose to, left the experiment. The new group of episodes, out Sept. 29, confirmed that Lydia and Uche’s past relationship played a role in Aaliyah choosing to quit the show.
Producers required Uche and Lydia to keep their previous romance a secret if they wanted to continue with the experiment, according to show creator Chris Coelen.
Uche asked producers in Episode Five to allow him to contact Aaliyah.
“She says that she could see herself marrying me. She can see a life with me. To just walk away without saying anything … This doesn’t make any sense,” he said before producers called Aaliyah.
She agreed to talk to Uche and told him that she chose to leave because, “There was, like, an exchange of words between Lydia and I…that didn’t really go well.”
Aaliyah, a ICU travel nurse, said she also started to question if Uche was being honest with her.
“How do you not know that when she was at your place earlier this year, she didn’t see an email and apply to be on this damn show?” she asked.
He balked at her suggestion and ended the call, telling producers he did not want to see or talk to her anymore.
Aaliyah wasn’t the only one convinced there was more to the story involving Uche and Lydia. The theory that Uche and Lydia planned to appear on the show together has been floated on social media. One person even wondered if Lydia and Aaliyah’s friendship was genuine.
“Please Aaliyah, Lydia is not your friend. She befriended you specifically for a reason. That woman is not real ok #Loveisblind,” one fan tweeted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Now, Aaliyah isn’t so certain. In an interview with TODAY.com, Aaliyah shares the new perspective she has on her interactions with Lydia in the pods.
“To this day, I don’t really know what her intentions were 100 percent,” Aaliyah says. “But I do feel like, after just having discussions with her, I understand where she may have been emotionally and what guided her decision making throughout everything — as far as just navigating having a friendship with me and having the past relationship with him.”
She adds, “I think she did her best. And I did my best in trying to grant both of them grace in that, even though I did feel a sense of a little bit of betrayal.”
The nurse says that it was a difficult and complex situation and she, Uche and Lydia tried to get through it the best they could. She believes that everyone was being “authentic” during the experiment.
In the pods, however, she had doubts about Uche and could not continue with the show after her conversation with Lydia.
Although she tells TODAY.com she does not want to specifically reveal what was said during her talk with Lydia, Aaliyah says she knew that the best decision at the moment for her and Uche was to walk away.
“Because, at that time, I was really focused on wanting to build the right kind of relationship with him,” she explains. “And if we were gonna get engaged, I wanted it to be an enjoyable engagement for the both of us.”
She says she also did not feel comfortable involving their families in the messy situation. So, Aaliyah says she made an “executive decision” to leave and hoped that they could reunite in a different environment.
At the end of Episode Six, Uche and Aaliyah met and discussed their relationship for the first time in person.
She immediately said she regretted how she walked away from him and still loved him.
“My heart is still in your hands … I would marry you,” she said.
Aaliyah told Uche she wasn’t expecting their love story to end just because she left the pods early. But, he was not interested in pursuing a relationship. He said her abrupt departure was a sign she didn’t have confidence in their connection.
“I think it’s over between us,” he said, ending their relationship.
While speaking to TODAY.com, Aaliyah says she was hoping that they would leave their sit-down with a “mutual understanding and respect for one another.”
She says she did not have any expectations about rekindling their romance.
“We were both hurt and I just wanted us to have (an) understanding for one another’s perspective,” she says.
She achieved that goal, she says, and is “at peace” with all the decisions she made on the show.
Her relationship with Uche didn't end after they seemingly went their separate ways in Episode Six. In an interview with Us Weekly, she revealed that they didn't cut ties and actually tried to date outside of the show.
"We talked almost daily for a while. We were trying to pursue a relationship," she shared.
But, they eventually realized they weren't a good match.
"It just didn't end up working out for us," she explained.
Uche has also spoken about his relationship with Aaliyah and called out the show for misrepresenting their connection in a series of Instagram stories.
On Oct. 1, the lawyer responded to multiple questions from fans about his time on "Love Is Blind." When one social media user asked why he rejected Aaliyah in Episode Six, he claimed that wasn't the case.
"The 'it's over between us' is a post-production sound byte," Uche wrote. "At lunch we both forgave each other, we held hands and shared our first kiss. Then we agreed to date outside of the show."
In response to another question about his current relationship status with Aaliyah, he replied, "We're on good terms."
Fans might be able to see Aaliyah share more about why their connection fizzled in the real world during the Season Five reunion, but it sounds like Uche won't be there to offer an explanation.
One Instagram user asked if he would participate in the reunion and the answer wasn't promising.
"When I am able, I look forward to sharing more through outlets where I can express my unfiltered opinion about all aspects of experience — such as interviews, podcasts, and and most importantly, directly through my social media," Uche said.