Cole Barnett and Zanab Jaffrey's messy split was a hot-button topic on season 3 of 'Love Is Blind.'
It's been several months since filming for Love Is Blind season 3 wrapped, and in that time, contestant Cole Barnett has been working on himself. The 27-year-old realtor had a fan Q&A on Thursday on Instagram, where he was candid with his fans about life after the reality show.
When one fan asked him what he's been working on since the show ended, he replied, "I've been flipping houses, representing buyers, and working on starting a podcast! Oh and some much needed therapy."
Cole, who was engaged to contestant Zanab Jaffrey before she broke up with him at the altar in a passionate speech, also opened up about the lessons he's learned from therapy.
"The best thing I've gotten from therapy so far is honestly just how helpful it is to talk about the things that have impacted you or hurt you or were traumatizing," he shared. "It's not that there's some grand thing that you need to learn, necessarily, there's a lot of things you can learn. But sometimes as a guy you just don't ever talk about emotions and feelings, you never do, so just sitting with someone and talking about those things in and of itself is freeing and liberating."
Cole and Zanab's failed romance has been a hot button topic from season 3. Though their relationship was fraught with flaws, viewers were still shocked when Zanab dumped Cole at altar, declaring that her fiancé had "shattered" her self confidence.
"I stand by everything I said," Zanab later told ET. "Everything I said had a meaning, a reason why I said it. I didn’t do it to humiliate him. It was more so just to be factual and hope that he would be a changed man for his next healthy relationship that I hope he has."
Cole, however, initially did feel that Zanab intended to humiliate him, telling ET, "I really just felt duped. I felt fooled because we hadn't spoken about those things. We had argued a lot, but she had never brought up the points that she made at the altar, which is why it just felt like it was more about her trying to hurt me than it was about just the no itself."
He added that talking with his ex after the fact cleared that up, telling ET, "Since talking with her, it wasn't her intention at all. It was like how she was really feeling, so we worked through all that."
Zanab doubled down on her criticism of her ex in the reunion special, bringing Cole to tears as she and other members of the cast called him out for his comments on her physical appearance and alleged comments he made that caused her to go to dietary extremes. Zanab also claimed that there was unaired footage of him questioning her decision to eat two Cutie clementines. Netflix later aired this footage and the clip has been a polarizing topic in the Love Is Blind fandom with many viewers saying Zanab blew Cole's comments out of proportion, unfairly villainizing him.
Zanab responded to this critique in her own Instagram post, first addressing her ex with the message, "Cole, I fought for us until I couldn’t anymore. I know you know that. I know you know why I said what I said. I know you know what you did. It’s OK if you aren’t ready to talk about that yet."
Though she later edited the second part of her message out of the post, Zanab went on to pen an "apology for the internet."
"I’m sorry you weren’t in that relationship. I’m sorry you didn’t feel what I felt. I’m sorry we don’t have the same triggers," she wrote. "I’m sorry me standing up for myself offended you so greatly. I’m sorry you didn’t see all the reasons for what I said. I’m sorry you didn’t live that with me. I’m sorry that you don’t know me."
Several of Zanab's co-stars, including Alexa Alfia, Colleen Reed, and Raven Ross, have publicly shown their support for her since the reunion. Meanwhile, co-star Bartise Bowden showed his support for Cole on TikTok, posting a shirtless video and writing, "When all the girls AGGRESSIVELY came after Cole at the reunion and nobody else wanted to stand up for him," with the audio in the background saying, "Come on, brain, think of things. Come on, brain, be so smart."
Bartise captioned the post, "I got your back @colebrennanbarnett."
ET exclusive spoke with the men from season 3 of Love Is Blind. Watch that interview below.
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