Fans are just now experiencing the ups and downs of Love is Blind Season 4, but the season was filmed almost a year ago, which means looking back on the experience is a complicated subject for most people involved. Remezcla had a chance to talk to one of the show’s starts, Jackelina “Jackie” Bonds, about what it feels to look back and see herself on TV, her life now, and whether she has any regrets about what transpired during the course of the show.
“I honestly can’t complain,” she shared with us. “Life is good, to be honest.”
Bonds, who emerged from the pods engaged to Marshall Glaze, is in a very different place now than she was then – after not going through with the wedding. In fact, Bonds didn’t even get to the altar, and chose to purse a relationship with Josh Demas, the other man she developed a connection with in the pods. But even while she was filming, she confessed she was always just focused on what was happening, and not what others would take from her journey.
“I was in the moment, I’m not thinking about nobody else,” not when she had good times, and not during “the fights I had with Marshall on camera.” Of course, afterwards, there was a realization that “people are going to watch and think that’s too much, or that’s doing the most.” And nerves, of course, because “I don’t want to be the stereotypical Latina.”
At the same time, though, Bonds recognizes there’s little she can do about other people’s perceptions. “I don’t care about what people say on the Internet because people are always going to talk. We all have haters in real life. It’s just I’m going to have a little bit more because I’m on TV, but we all have haters. They can hate all they want, but I’m going to make sure that I’m empowered. I’m going to put myself first and do what’s best for me.”
“I know who I am. My family knows me. My man knows me. My family is all good. So as long as they accept me and know the real Jackie B., I’m cool.” And for Bonds, that certainty came from a place of trusting her intuition. “Women’s intuition is the best. We know exactly how everything is going to play out because our gut tells us. And sometimes we just have to be firm. We have to do what’s best for us.”
And as for the inevitable regrets, Bonds shared that the only regret she has is that she “didn’t have that conversation with Josh in the pods,” telling us that she felt like if they’d had that talk, things would have gone very differently. And though her relationship with Marshall might not have worked out, Bonds is still glad she went on the show – for Demas, for the group of women she met, and for herself.
In fact, she shared there was a little bit of a situation with one of the boys in the pods that we didn’t get to see, and that made the women band together. They were a team, and they were not going to allow any man to disrespect any of them. “We had fun, but we made sure that we were all good.”
And as for the biggest lesson she takes for herself, Bonds expressed that she tries to remember to give herself grace. “I didn’t give myself enough grace. And looking back, I feel like me trying to be 5 steps ahead and know everything and know every little detail wasn’t really serving me.” So, even these days, she tries to remember to “slow my roll, give myself some grace and just understand and live in the moment.”
The moment is Season 4 of Love is Blind being out, an upcoming live-reunion (where we hope to see Jackie again), and a lot of people having opinions about her journey, for better or worse.
The first eleven episodes of Love is Blind Season 4 are now available to stream on Netflix.
