Love Is Blind season 5: Uche reveals his and Aaliyah’s break-up was fake

Uche has proven to be one of the most controversial figures in Love Is Blind history, especially on Love Is Blind season 5, a season already rife with…interesting cast members. There have been several heavily discussed moments in season 5 already, from the big reveal that Uche and Lydia dated before the show to when Uche and Aaliyah met up for the first time after the pods to clear the air.

Except, now Uche is claiming that what viewers saw depicted on the show is only a version of the truth. According to him, he and Aaliyah never broke up on camera and actually decided to date each other outside of the show. He says they even shared a kiss that was cut from the final edit.

Now that the majority of Love Is Blind season 5 has aired, Uche has taken to his Instagram, @imabovethelaw, to disclose some behind-the-scenes secrets from his season on Netflix’s hit dating series. He dropped several bombshells in his impromptu Q&A, but one of the most surprising is the detail about his and Aaliyah’s relationship.

Someone asked him why he ended things with her and Uche said the moment he said, “it’s over between us,” was actually just “a post-production sound byte [sic].” He said they forgave each other during that lunch, kissed, and agreed to keep seeing one another outside of the show.

Are Aaliyah and Uche still together?

Even though it sounds like Aaliyah and Uche did get the chance to date off-camera, it’s unclear if they’re still together or not, though it seems likely that they aren’t. Uche probably isn’t allowed to say the exact nature of their relationship yet because there will probably be a reunion episode in which he’ll discuss this (I’m speculating here, as Netflix hasn’t released their plans for a reunion yet).

But he keeps his response to the question, “What is your current relationship with Aaliyah?” vague, only saying, “we’re on good terms,” which could be interpreted in a myriad of different ways.

Uche says its ‘100% confirmed’ that Lydia followed him onto Love Is Blind

According to Uche’s Instagram Live Q&A, he and Lydia were never officially “together.” He says that while they were dating, they were also both seeing other people at the time.

Did production know their history beforehand? Well, Uche says that they had to disclose details regarding their recent relationships to production before being cast on the show. If Lydia believed they were seriously together at the time, then she would have given production his name or photo and “the producers wouldn’t have allowed both of us on the show.”

Furthermore, Kinetic Company (the production company behind Love Is Blind) CEO Chris Coelen recently discussed the Lydia/Uche mishap with Variety and said they didn’t know of the connection between the two beforehand.

“It was a complete shock. To be honest, it was like, ‘What are we gonna do?’ Nobody had any idea,” said Coelen.

Once production found out what happened, they apparently planned to remove Uche and Lydia from the experiment.

"“Lydia and Uche were absolutely crushed. Separately, they each expressed a tremendous desire to stay and continue, speaking about their investment in the process. And to be honest, I felt bad for them, because this is an amazing experience to participate in.”"

From there, the pair assured producers they had no interest in pursuing a relationship with one another and agreed to keep their connection secret. Only when “real feelings” were on the line, like the budding romance between Uche and Aaliyah, were they given permission to proceed how they felt was best and divulge their prior history.

After watching the show and seeing the footage of Lydia and Aaliyah’s friendship, Uche also says he would have handled things different if he had known what was going on while the show was happening and says he doesn’t blame Aaliyah for leaving.

One of the other shocking things Uche reveals in his Instagram pertains to Lydia. He says that Lydia did follow him onto the show and even goes as far as to say that fact has been “100% confirmed. I brought up Instagram because this was the method. More on this later.”

Despite this, Uche also says he holds no ill will toward Lydia and wishes her well.

It sounds like we will be hearing more about this on the show, either in the finale, reunion, or even  the eventual “After the Altar” segment. Something else interesting to note is that it sounds like the reunion has not been filmed yet. Someone asked Uche if he would be part of the season 5 reunion and he said “when I am able,” which is a somewhat vague answer.

More so than the reunion, Uche says he looks forward to expressing his “unfiltered” opinions on the experience through various outlets like podcasts, interviews, and his own social media.

Uche has his Love Is Blind AMA linked in his highlight reel on Instagram, if you want to swipe through the entire thing.