Jacqueline 'Jax' Guelli has explained why she abruptly left the latest season of Love Is Blind after meeting her partner Scott 'Stew' Stewart for the first time.
Season 11 of the Netflix dating experiment is now streaming, featuring 30 singles from Boston who enter the pods hoping to find 'The One'. Guelli and Stewart were among the couples who agreed to marry sight unseen after building a strong connection during the blind dating phase.
Face-to-face reveal changed everything
Things turned sour when the pair finally met in person, and Guelli, 31, did not feel the same spark. "I don't wanna be mean," she told producers shortly after meeting Stewart. She added: "It wasn't romantic for me. I think I should go home."
The business owner even refused to see Stewart again, telling producers: "I can't meet with him." Fans speculated that Guelli was not physically attracted to her partner, since she had been ready to marry him just hours before the reveal.
Jax explains her change of heart
Speaking to Tudum, Guelli said she was already questioning the relationship after Stewart's proposal. "It was weird," she said. "I would've hoped that he was up all night writing, but it felt like he was just winging it." She added: "It wasn't about me at all. I was bummed, and I couldn't comprehend it at the time, because you want to be happy."
Despite the "superficial" proposal, Guelli decided to trust the process. However, the face-to-face reveal confirmed her fears about their compatibility. "He just seemed really cocky in a way, and I was like, 'OK, this is not what I was expecting'. He was like, 'So what do you think about me?' It felt douchey," she said. "The walls did not come down for me. I was like, 'This is not romantic at all.'"
"Nothing to do with his looks"
Although Guelli admits she did not take time to process her decision to leave, she insists her choice "had nothing to do" with Stewart's appearance or personality. "What I felt was real at that time. The good and unfortunately the bad was real too, and it had nothing to do with him or his looks," she shared. "It was the moment, and it was way too much for me."
Stewart remembers the reveal as an "uncomfortable blur" and does not fault himself or Guelli for their "awkward" encounter. "You are just talking on autopilot. 90% of my mental energy was thinking, like, 'Holy s***, is this the person that I'm going to be marrying?'" he recalled. "It was both of us mentally feeling each other out and being like, 'Is this real? Do I feel anything? What should I be feeling? Have I been struck by Cupid's arrows? Is there nothing here at all? Are we just good friends?'"
Stew went on to admit: "It was incredibly awkward. I'm not faulting her. I'm not faulting myself. I think the scenario is so impossible to prepare for, and you have such a short window of time." Love Is Blind is streaming on Netflix.
