Warning: spoilers ahead! Do not proceed unless you're caught up on the first nine episodes of Love Is Blind.
Amber Pike and Matthew Barnett can't wait for fans to see how their Love Is Blind journey plays out!
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Fans will have to wait until Thursday's finale to see if the two actually say "I do," but in the meantime, ET exclusively spoke with them about how the Netflix experiment worked and what really went down behind the scenes.
If you've been binge-watching the dating series, then you already know that Barnett made two other connections in the pods, with Lauren Chamblin "LC" and Jessica Batten (who later got engaged to Mark Anthony Cuevas). Amber revealed to ET that she had no idea just how much Jessica was gunning for Barnett, however, until after she watched the show.
"Looking back at it, it's hilarious because a lot of people were saying, 'Wow, you really held your cool when she was throwing herself at your fiancé,' but I had no idea. What she was saying to Barnett, like, 'Oh my god, I would never [come between you two],' that's what I was hearing," Amber tells ET's Ash Crossan via Skype on Wednesday. "When we were in the pods, something you guys didn't get the chance to see was that on the girls' side, there was a lot of really female-centric girl power. We were all super supportive of each other and understanding of the experiment. We were really trying to be there for each other, what we were going through and being honest with each other."
"So for example, LC and I were both really honest with each other and supportive that we both had feelings for Barnett at the time. Since we respected each other, we kept our distance and didn't want to hear about each other's dates and hurt each other's feelings," Amber continues. "So to see that Jessica was coming out of left field, playing it as shady as she was, I was really offended that she disrespected me. I thought that we had a rapport, and I thought we were at least some type of friends. I had no idea. I thought maybe she had a crush on him, which I was trying to be understanding of. But it's a process and it was an experiment and for anyone that was on the show, I think we were all just trying to learn from it and grow from it. I really hope she grows from that, like, a lot of growing can be done."
Barnett echoed Amber's sentiments, telling ET that while they were filming, he didn't know he and Jessica "had any issues."
"I think we were all in our own little world, me and Amber were, so I didn't really focus on other people's relationships that much," he explains. "I know that Amber had talked to Mark a couple of times and I had a couple of conversations with Jessica -- obviously, as you saw -- but I never thought of it as anything other than a friendly conversation. Like, we were friends because we did have a pretty strong friendship that started in the pods."
Barnett continued on, agreeing, however, that Jessica certainly doesn't "deserve all the flak" she's receiving from viewers on social media. He also shared that he hasn't spoken to Jessica since filming wrapped in November 2018.
Perhaps that will change during the reunion special (airing Thursday, March 5 on Netflix's YouTube channel) when Amber, Barnett, Jessica, Mark and more couples from the show will all see each other again face-to-face.
"I think the reunion will be interesting for everybody to see," Amber teases. "I personally got closure from that, so take from that what you will."
"It will be fun times. I got closure too," Barnett jokingly adds. "I got closure too. No, I loved everybody on the show. I didn't need any closure."
Drama with Jessica aside, Amber also wanted to clear the air about her financial situation, which producers seemed to put a lot of emphasis on during the editing process. Fans learned from the show that the former tank mechanic dropped out of school, had an abortion due to a complicated situation and was over $20,000 in debt that she had not been paying off. But there's so much more to the story that viewers didn't get to see on camera.
"I think people absolutely got the wrong idea because there was a limited conversation that they were able to be privy to. As far as the debt that I had at the time, Matt also had student loans and credit cards that he was paying off," Amber shares. "I had not been paying on my student loans, as previously mentioned. After my abortion, I had fallen into depression and dropped out of school. My mental health was more of a priority for me and I was slowly building my life together when I got the opportunity to be on this show."
"I think people have extremely, like, just completely missed the fact that I was working on bettering myself; not expecting someone else to make me better. Matt and I were and always had agreed to be in a partnership where we both put in work and build together," she continues. "The stay-at-home mom thing is a goal, not an expectation. There are a lot of people saying that I expect that as an easy way out. I don't know if you guys have met this man [Barnett], but if he has children, they are going to be more than two handfuls. So, not an easy job I would be undertaking here."
Barnett also joked about the idea of having kids one day, telling ET, "I always wanted to be a stay-at-home dad. They didn't [show] that."
The Love Is Blind finale will be released on Netflix on Thursday, Feb. 27, with the reunion special to follow one week later. In the meantime, hear more on another fan-favorite couple -- Cameron and Lauren -- in the video below!
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