Lately, Netflix’s Love is Blind is under a bit of fire for their botched attempt at a live reunion, Vanessa and Nick Lachey’s mediocre hosting, and claims of mistreatment by past contestants. The latter was pretty damming — contestants complained of food, water, and sleep deprivation, as well as emotional manipulation. I’m guessing it was due to the emotional manipulation that Amber Pike, from the first season of the show, shaded the show when asked about season four by a fan. She said that she and her husband, Matt Barnett, are together “in spite of the show, not because of it.”
Amber Pike is not a fan of Love Is Blind, despite finding her husband of four years on the show.
The Atlanta-based reality star, who married Matt Barnett on season one, dissed the TV series in new comments to fans on Instagram. When one user asked if Amber has a favorite couple from Love Is Blind season four, she said, “we don’t watch LIB.”
The fan responded, “oh wow kinda surprised since that’s where you found the love of your life.”
But Amber does not attribute their long-lasting romance to the Netflix series, firing back, “we are together IN SPITE of that show not because of it.”
She also did not hold back when a separate commenter asked if she would be willing to appear on the show again if producers asked. “Did u guys argued [sic] with the Show content creators .. or ? Reunion…” the fan questioned, prompting Amber to reply, “I told them to stay away from us.”
E! News reached out to Netflix for comment but hasn’t heard back.
And while Amber doesn’t credit Love Is Blind for her relationship success story, she and Matt have proven that they’re still going strong. In November, she penned a sweet tribute to mark their 4th anniversary.
“People may think getting married the way we did is crazy,” she wrote on Instagram, “but I’ve always trusted my instincts (even the crazy ones) and they haven’t steered me wrong yet and thankfully your crazy instincts work damn near perfectly with mine.”
In fact, they’ve become one of the only couples from seasons one through three that are still married.
When fans asked more questions, Amber added that she told production to stay away from them. Strong words, but I have a guess why. Production really played up the “love triangle” with Jessica (34) during that first season. I’d say it was actually the central conflict of the show, but it did seem totally engineered and one-sided. Barnett was interested in Jessica in the pods, but it was pretty clear that he didn’t look back once he proposed to Amber, but the show kept pushing the Jessica storyline and using it to create conflict between Jessica and Mark and Jessica and Amber. They continued it throughout the series and in the post-show specials. Ostensibly, the show is about finding love and getting married, but they definitely highlight the drama and conflict to keep people watching. Anyway, Amber and Barnett were not my favorites, but they seem to have a solid relationship and they are one of the few couples from the show that have actually stayed married. If keeping their relationship away from where it started is working for them, keep doing it.
photos credit: Netflix
amber is her own worst enemy. she was incredibly immature on the show. yes the production probably tried to steer certain narratives and plied their contestants with alcohol to make them behave more reckless…but she prolonged the drama and was incredibly rude at the reunion by snubbing jessica. this doesn’t say anything except that she just wants drama and people to keep talking about her.
Or it could be that she wants nothing to do with the drama. Jessica bought Amber and Matt glasses at the reunion and I doubt she came up with that herself. I’m sure a producer suggested to her “Oh it might be nice to get them a small gift as an overture.” Luckily Barnett didn’t take the bait, I’m sure he and Amber both decided to stay away from Jessica as much as possible.
I don’t care for either of them but I can see Amber being tired of the Jessica storyline and her rudeness at the reunion is just her wanting to shut it down. They were probably contractually obligated to show up for it and that’s probably why we haven’t seen them in any kind of LIB content since then.
I wish I could stop watching the new seasons of this show, because I absolutely believe the people saying it’s exploitive. I hope that the producers change some things up for future seasons now that it’s been called out. My sister was solicited by the show people on Instagram out of the blue- she’s in D.C., and I wish she’d agreed just for the insider scoop but she’s staying far away from that mess now and I don’t blame her.
I’m filling the LiB void with another Netflix show, Indian Matchmaking. It just came out with a third season and I’m really enjoying it. It’s nice to see some women that aren’t willing to settle for the first guy put in their path while on T.V.
I enjoyed Indian Matchmaking. I found all the cultural stuff really interesting. Practically a documentary compared to some of the other reality shows. 🙂 However, did anyone else notice one of the women drank and drove after more than one date?!
Amber’s behavior wasn’t stellar. She prolonged the drama and wouldn’t let things go. She can’t put that all on production. She met him on the show so the show was good for something. This just puts emphasis on her immature behavior. They might never have met if not for the show. At least she can acknowledge that. Bit in true Amber fashion, they are together inspite of. Whatever Amber!
I actually really like Amber and Barnett together. With all that has come out about the show, I think her comments make sense. They may have met on the show but they are together now despite the messy way they got together.
I also don’t blame her for telling them to stay away from her. They have the right to move on after four years.
I’m glad Amber found somebody to pay off her student loans. (That’s all I remember from these two getting together.)
He had to sell his house in order to pay her student and credit card debts. By the time the reuinion was filmed, they were sharing an apartment with another couple. Hopefully he got his finances back on track and she’s learned a lesson in how much she can spend on makeup and clothes.
In her defense, Barnett said on IG live that he had more student loan and cc debt than she did but Netflix edited it out. He sold his house to pay off his debt too.
That production move is shady AF. They acted like she was just wholly irresponsible and he had all his financials together. Way to promote stereotypes about women…