The season 2 alums talked about the co-host's faux pas during the reunion special and the petition to have them removed.
The Love Is Blind family is weighing in on the criticism surrounding co-hosts Nick and Vanessa Lachey. The couple has come under fire for their line of questioning during the recent season 4 reunion, leading to a surge in signatures for a Change.org petition requesting that they be removed from the show.
As of publication time, the petition has reached more than 40,000 signatures. On the latest episode of their podcast, Out of the Pods, season 2 alums Deepti Vempati and Natalie Lee gave their candid reaction to the petition and to how the couple handled the reunion.
"Not Mom and Dad!" Deepti quipped, when first mentioning the petition.
"Look, I know we're biased because of course we know Vanessa and Nick. We really considered them as Mom and Dad during filming," Natalie explained. "They played this role of mentors to us, providing advice as we were making our decision to say 'I do' or 'I don't' on our wedding day. I also agree with the criticism, but I also think it's unfair as well with how much backlash she's getting. It feels like a dog pile."
The two former contestants on the Netflix reality series attended the official watch party for the reunion, saying that people weren't reacting to the Lacheys in-person the way they have since been acting online.
"People are being almost overly critical and she's taking so much heat that I'm like, I don't know that it's deserved," Natalie said.
"Not to say that there weren't certain moments that we disagreed with, but I think it's being pushed too far," Deepti agreed.
"It's tough to watch because Nick and Vanessa are just really, really nice, great people," Natalie added.
"And they really do care about you," Deepti said.
Despite their support of the Lacheys, Natalie and Deepti also gave their candid thoughts on the reunion, noting that it wasn't as interesting as they'd hoped.
"There was a lot of moments that [Vanessa] would cut certain things off, and I'd be like, 'I really want to know more,'" Deepti said.
"It was missed opportunities to ask the right questions. And I don't know if that was a miss from Vanessa's part or if she was just trying to keep things along because they were going over time," Natalie added, noting the time constraints on the reunion, which was originally supposed to take place live.
As for the main criticism of Vanessa -- over her line of questioning as to which Love Is Blind contestants were planning to have a baby first -- the former co-stars agreed that it was inappropriate.
"I do agree that's really inappropriate to ask, especially in this day and age when there are couples who don't want to have kids or can't have kids," Natalie said. "I couldn't tell if it was a subject that was being pushed by Vanessa or just the show itself."
Natalie added of the baby talk, "Hopefully it's a learning lesson for the Love Is Blind franchise, don't ask over and over again if someone's having kids."
But not all LIB stars are Team Lachey. Following the reunion taping, season 4 contestant Paul Peden spoke with ET about Vanessa's line of questioning surrounding his altar decision to say no to ex Micah Lussier.
"I was like, 'F**k, man.' They kept drilling, drilling it down on me," Paul told ET in the aftermath of the taping. "I think I said my piece. I think Vanessa might have had a little bit of personal bias in that scenario or at least I kind of detected that. I don't know. But that's just my assumption based on how she continued to drill into it after I gave my full rationale for why I felt the way that I did."
Nick and Vanessa have not publicly commented on the fan criticism in the wake of the reunion.
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