Woman says she caught cheating boyfriend on new season of ‘Love is Blind.’ Is it true?
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In Charlotte, ‘Love is Blind’
The newest season of “Love is Blind” set in Charlotte has been released. Here’s everything you need to know about the hometown singles.
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This season of “Love is Blind” is drawing attention to Charlotte off screen after a social media post that’s gone viral from someone saying she was dating one of the contestants and caught off guard by seeing him on the reality TV show.
Three days after the newest season of the hit dating show premiered on Netflix, Tiktok user Ryann Stringfellow (@ryannstrngflw) posted a video about how shocked she was to see her boyfriend taking part in the dating experiment.
“I feel like I’m experiencing such a wide range of emotions: heartbreak, jealousy, shock,” she said in the video posted Friday, Feb. 16. “Obviously I’m not gonna tell you who it is. I still think he’s the love of my life and we can work past this.”
“As an avid reality TV watcher, I see this happen all the time with girls where they’re like, ‘That’s my man on TV. How did this happen?’ and I’m like, ‘Well that’s kind of embarrassing. How did you not know?’ and now it’s happening to me,” she said. “Where he’s in the pods talking to beautiful women …”
Although the dating experiment is four weeks long, she said she thought he was on a business trip.
“He couldn’t talk to me ‘cause he was working. Come to find out, you’re dating other people,” she went on. “He’s talking to this woman who has a child. I can’t compete with that, and she’s stunning.”
[RELATED: Meet the Charlotte singles starring in the new season of ‘Love is Blind’ on Netflix]
Though she didn’t reveal which contestant she is allegedly dating, a lot of other online users speculate that it’s Jimmy Presnell — who got engaged to Chelsea Blackwell but also had a strong connection with Jess Vestal, another contestant who has a 10-year-old daughter.
“Oh this so has Jimmy written ALL over it,” one comment says.
Another agreed saying, “You should contact the casting director to get on the next season. Don’t let Jimmy know. let him find out the same way.”
But others are a little skeptical, saying they don’t believe there’s any truth to her claims, especially since the cast is announced ahead of the premiere.
“WORK PAST THIS??? girl. this can’t be real,” one comment said.
Similar to a lot of others on the video, another person said, “I feel like this is a skit or something.”
Another popular Tiktoker is even going viral for trying to debunk Stringfellow’s claims.
Yuval Ben-Hayun (@yuvaltheterrible), known for exposing the truth behind viral videos, dug through some of Stringfellow’s other social media pages and believes she doesn’t even have a boyfriend at all.
“I checked the Instagram accounts of all the ‘Love is Blind’ contestants and not only did they all have promotion materials posted on January 17th or 18th, they also had photos posted years earlier, which means these were their real Instagram accounts,” he said.
“If you were dating any of them, you would’ve noticed them posting that promotional material one month ago and therefore wouldn’t have been surprised when they appeared on the show. Unless of course you’re about to suggest that not only did they hide the fact that they’re on the show, but they also hid their Instagram accounts from you for years and years for no apparent reason.”
[READ MORE: How was filming ‘Love is Blind’ in Charlotte? Local stars reveal best and worst moments]
Not only does he believe that she’s lying about having a boyfriend, Ben-Hayun thinks she posted the video to get paid.
“Since this video is over a minute long, she’s gonna make money off of this,” he explained. “It’s at 8 million views at the time I’m recording, which means already this video has clocked in thousands of dollars.”
Update: On Sunday, Feb. 18, Presnell even took to Instagram and TikTok that, if there are any contestants dating Stringfellow, it’s not him.
“I don’t know this woman. Never met this woman. It’s not true. I gotta give it to her. It’s an incredible marketing ploy. She is getting so many clicks, and she’s making so much money off my name. It’s insane. She doesn’t say it’s me, but she’s definitely insinuating it’s your boy,” he said in a TikTok video. “Just know there’s two sides to every story.”
Several commenters told Presnell he missed the joke. “Jimmy why does everyone trick you? This is obviously a joke,” posted one viewer. “I mean, she might be legit... she looks just like Megan Fox!” wrote another, referring to a scene in the pods in which Presnell’s fiancée Blackwell said people have told her that she looks like Fox.
After his response, Stringfellow followed up with another video stitched to his TikTok with the caption “Two sides to every story…right?”
CharlotteFive has reached out to Stringfellow and Netflix for comment, but has yet to hear back. Keep your eyes on this space, and we’ll continue to update as we learn more.
This story was originally published February 20, 2024 at 10:54 AM.
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