This Valentine’s Day we’re getting more than roses, chocolates, and a candlelit dinner with our loved ones. Netflix is debuting season 8 of its popular reality series Love is Blind. And it comes on the 5-year anniversary of where it all started with iconic couples like Lauren and Cameron and Amber and Barnett; both which are still going strong today. At the heart of all of this are the Love is Blind hosts Vanessa and Nick Lachey.
Remezcla sat down to talk with the Lachey’s about what makes Love is Blind such a compelling social experiment. Over the years we’ve had Latine contestants like Giannina in season 1, Jackie in season 4, Lydia and Izzy in season 5, Amy in season 6, Marissa and Nick in season 7, and most recently Monica in season 8. And all of them were looking for one thing: a love defined not by what you look like, but who you are inside.
For Vanessa, she thinks people are attracted to the show because people simply want to be loved, warts and all. “We’ve asked this question to ourselves, and after eight seasons, five years, it comes down to the simplistic fact that everybody wants to be loved for who they are on the inside. I want you to love me for who I am. For my good, my bad, my ugly, my quirks, my crazy, my messy, my tidy, all the things.”
This comes despite Vanessa & Nick being very aware of how things have changed with people seeing Love is Blind as an opportunity to make it big in this social media landscape. Vanessa added, “At the end of the day, Nick and I believe that people sign up for this because they want to be loved for them. I think what makes it work from a viewer’s standpoint is that we all see pieces of ourselves and our own relationships and our own lives in these couples and the journey they take as part of this experiment, if you will.”
As someone who has watched all the seasons and plenty of the spin-offs, I can attest to this. I think most viewers can as well. It doesn’t matter if you’re not there in the pods falling in love. Chances are you’ve shared similar experiences to those in the experiment. That’s how Vanessa sees it and why she feels like this show is a little bit of therapy for her and her husband of 14 years. Vanessa said, “We are reminded every season when they’re in that phase of communicating with each other at the most basic level about slowing down to talk things out.”
That’s when Nick compared the beginning of their love story to Love is Blind itself. “When we first started dating […] I was in L.A., she was in New York here on the East Coast. And we spent a lot of time just on the phone. This was pre-FaceTime.” Vanessa and Nick started dating in 2006 and Facetime wasn’t released until 2011. “[We spent] a lot of time on the phone just getting to know each other like they do through the pods. What are your goals? What are your ambitions? What do you want to see for your future? All those types of things.”
On a lighter note, Love is Blind is also well-known for its timely songs. It doesn’t matter what’s happening, if drama happens on screen, a song that is oddly fitting starts playing. According to Vanessa and Nick, those fitting songs are thanks to independent musicians who create the songs for the show. “[Netflix] gives them the scenario,” Vanessa explained, “Like when someone breaks up, you see the song come on. 🎵We just broke up.🎵 But the cool thing that we are able to do and share in Season 8 is that you’re going to notice a change in the music. There’s a lot more mainstream Billboard hits on there sprinkled in with some really independent, beautiful songs.”
Talking about mainstream, both Vanessa and Nick saw Shakira at the 2025 Grammys. She performed a medley of her hits before winning best Latin Pop album for Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran. And like the rest of us, they were mesmerized. And so were their kids, who apparently know her more from Zootopia than anything else. Vanessa gushed about Shakira and said, “The breath work she does, the singing, everything that she encompasses is so beautiful and so amazing. And the fact that she is still so relevant and having had such a long career in music is something that we support, applaud, and love that we get to share with this generation of our children.”
And while they’re both fans of Latine artists like Shakira and Bad Bunny, there is someone that Nick loves more than Shakira: Marc Anthony. (This is the part of the interview where he started gushing like Vanessa was about Shakira two seconds ago.) Nick said, “I’ve always been a huge fan of Marc Anthony’s voice. I mean, just an absolute gift from God, that guy.” And when Vanessa suggested a possible duet with Marc Anthony, Nick lit up even more. “I’d love to. Are you kidding me? I’d love to.”
It’s at this point where Vanessa turns to the camera and speaks as if Marc Anthony was right there, “You’ve heard it here first. Marc Anthony, call him. Not me. Call him.”
We love a supportive partner.
You can see Vanessa and Nick Lachey host Love is Blind season 8 now on Netflix.
