The season 2 alum also opened up about contestants picking partners to 'make it through to the next round.'
Love Is Blind alum Natalie Lee is sharing some insider intel on season 4 standout Micah Lussier.
Natalie appeared on season 2 of the hit Netflix dating show, where she got engaged to Shayne Jansen. The two made it to the altar, only to have Natalie turn Shayne down following a disastrous off-camera fight. Now Natalie and her co-star, Deepti Vempati, have started a new podcast, Out of the Pods, where they are discussing the newly released season of Love Is Blind.
In this week's two-episode premiere, Natalie and Deepti share their thoughts on the new singles searching for love. Natalie didn't have the best first impression of Micah based on what she referred to as "production sources" for the Netflix show.
Calling Micah "so, so manipulative" in the pods, Natalie pointed out how Micah and her fiancé, Paul Peden, agreed to "go for" one another.
"It just feels like she's trying to 'win' and move on in the process for probably more screen time," Natalie speculated. "I hate talking about that, but that is definitely a big reason for a lot of contestants who are part of the Love Is Blind experiment. They just try to partner up and make it to the next round."
Natalie even admitted that there was some of that motivation in her own love story with Shayne, saying she felt relief when Shayne told her early on that he was picking her.
"It was confirmation like, 'Hey, we're going to Mexico.' I hate admitting that because I don't want anyone to think that my connection with Shayne wasn't genuine, because it truly was," she explained. "I was head over heels for this man. I don't know how, but very much that intention was there of, 'Oh, I don't have to worry about finding anyone else. We're going to Mexico.'"
As for Micah, Natalie claimed that she had some insider knowledge that the marketing manager is not, in fact, a "genuine" person.
"I did hear from some insider sources that at least Micah isn't very genuine in terms of how her relationship with Paul and her intentions to really find a partner," Natalie said. "That's me just saying it in just the nicest way."
She also called out Paul, adding, "I don't think he's very genuine either... it seems like someone who wants to sound genuine, but they're not."
Deepti also spoke about Micah's controversial friendship with Irina Solomonova, noting, "We did hear that these two women did ruffle some feathers with the other women in the lounge."
Micah and Irina have been called out for their "mean girl" behavior in the women's lounge, and Natalie noted, "It's hard seeing really bad behavior on TV because you know that there's cameras around."
As for the future of Micah and Paul, Natalie said in the podcast's second episode that she didn't have high hopes for the couple.
"This is just now my own assumptions, but also based on what I've heard about them through my sources, I think they've decided to stay in a friendship and continue on just for screen time," she said.
Micah had a connection with both Paul and Kwame Appiah in the pods on the show. Once Micah rejected Kwame in favor of Paul, the two still had some chemistry in Mexico despite each being engaged to another person. Micah spoke with ET prior to the first five episodes dropping, explaining that though she had chemistry with Kwame, she never intended to pursue him outside of the pods.
"When I ended it with Kwame, I was done with Kwame for good," she told ET. "I think how I interact with people is a little flirty. Maybe it's because that's what I've done my whole life... but that's how I talk. It's how I interact with people. But there was no question in my mind once I chose Paul that I was with Paul and I was not going back to Kwame. But I could get how that could be confusing given our conversations."
New episodes of Love Is Blind drop Friday, March 31 on Netflix.
RELATED CONTENT:
