Contains spoilers for the Love Is Blind UK finale
Netflix’s Love Is Blind is no stranger to controversial characters, with producer narratives and viewer opinions often coinciding when it comes to creating TV villains. First there was season one’s Jessica with her baby voice, quickly followed by Shake from season two. The crown was then passed to season six’s Matthew, who had an *interesting* approach to the pods; and who could forget Zanab and her tiny oranges in 2022? We truly have seen it all on this chaotic dating show.
Now, the experiment has moved to this side of the pond with Love Is Blind UK, and it was only a matter of time before viewers pinned the devil horns on a new participant, labelling them as this year’s baddie. A quick glance at the internet suggests people are united in declaring Catherine as that villain. And while she may not be to everyone’s taste (who is?), and her behaviour at times has been questionable, the intense online vitriol against her has got to stop.
Catherine, aka Cat, a 29-year-old dental nurse from Jersey, is one half of a couple who got engaged in the pods. The show follows contestants who go on a series of dates where they can’t see who they’re chatting to, and communicate through a wall. The premise encourages people to focus on building a connection based on the person on the inside, rather than letting outer appearances come between them. Once connections are formed, the couples get engaged and spend the next few weeks together, before deciding whether to say “I do” at a wedding ceremony in front of their friends and family.
Cat and fiancé Freddie, a 32-year-old funeral director from Bolton, had one of the first dates we saw and instantly hit it off, bonding over their love of the gym (they both go twice a day), furthering their connection when talking about past relationships, with Cat also sharing how she was adopted.
After Freddie proposed, the couple joined the other engaged couples on a trip to Corfu. But after a few days of honeymoon bliss (they had sex twice on the first night), things went rapidly downhill. Over the course of the experiment, Freddie revealed he had cheated in the past which triggered Cat, and she later got annoyed at him for saying another pod member was attractive. She simultaneously shared how fellow contestant Sam looked like her ex.
Freddie doubted whether he was “enough” for Cat, and worried their differeing lifestyles wouldn’t work, with Freddie’s sister also questioning if Cat was the right match for Freddie. The final nail in the coffin was when Freddie suggested the pair get a pre-nup so he could protect his assets, something which Cat took issue with.
It’s perhaps not surprising, then, that these two didn’t tie the knot in the final Love Is Blind UK episode, with Freddie not wanting to go through with the marriage, citing the timing not being right as the reason. As he put it, “There’s still mountains left for us to climb and lessons for us to learn before fully embracing a lifelong commitment.”
Regardless of whether you believe Cat’s treatment of Freddie to be ‘right’, it’s no excuse for the vitriol she’s experiencing on social media right now. Yes, she might have reacted in a different way to how you would have behaved, but take a step back for a second, and think about the intensity of the experiment they’re in. The got engaged without seeing each other, spent the next four weeks living together, and then had to decide whether they wanted to spend the rest of their lives as one. Of course she’s going to be feeling everything to the extreme.
Love Is Blind is meant to be a fun, albeit emotional show, and yet people have taken Cat and Freddie’s relationship to heart, sharing vile reactions about her online, while painting Freddie as an angel who can do wrong. And yes, perhaps he is shown in a more favourable way for a lot of the series, but it’s not a justification for an internet pile-on.
In response, Cat has had to issue a statement asking people to treat her with kindness, while also turning off her Instagram comments to protect herself from an onslaught of negative feedback.
In her statement, posted on Instagram Storyie Catherine addressed the “edit” and reminded people to consider how much is cut down to make an entertaining TV show, saying. “I would just like to come on here to say thank you so much for all the lovely messages, however people need to remember this show was filmed over a year ago and TV is edited and a lot happens that viewers do not see!
“Two months of filming into one hour episodes at a time, a lot has ben missed that the fans will not see. TV is edited so public and fans can enjoy and get gripped into the show. It’s real peoples’ feelings and emotions and certain situations have been made to be something that they are not! #bekind 🙏.”
It’s a line we’ve heard many times from celebrities who have often come off negatively on a reality show, but there is truth to it. We don’t know the ins and outs of their relationship, despite what we might feel after binge-watching 11 hours of TV.
Cat has also been extremely candid with her feelings, revealing how past experiences of being cheated on have made her more on guard and vulnerable. While, of course, this doesn’t justify all behaviour, it gives us an insight into why she may be acting the way she has.
Also, there’s no need to see Cat and Freddie as black and white, with no room for grey areas. Freddie insisted that their lives were too different because Cat goes to bottomless brunch and a fancy restaurant every once in a while, but didn’t actually listen to her saying this isn’t the case. People are so ‘Team Freddie’, that they even villanised Cat for not hugging him after he said no to her at the altar. Sorry, but would any of you really give the man who just rejected you on your wedding day a big hug?
As Catherine pointed out, the show is filmed for two months, and condensed into 11 episodes. There is only so much we will see of Catherine and Freddie’s relationship, and the only two people who will ever know what really went on in that relationship are Cat and Freddie. They have likely both made mistakes, judgements and said unkind things, but we won’t see it all.
It’s fine to support Freddie and call them both out on things they’ve done wrong, but it doesn’t need to stoop to this level of online hate on against Cat.
Love Is Blind UK is available on Netflix now
Senior Entertainment and Lifestyle Writer
Lydia Venn is Cosmopolitan UK’s Senior Entertainment and Lifestyle Writer. She covers everything from , to the latest celebrity news. She also writes across our work/life section regularly creating , covering exciting new releases and sharing the latest must-haves. In her role she’s interviewed everyone from Margot Robbie to Niall Horan, and her work has appeared on an episode of . After completing a degree in English at the University of Exeter, Lydia moved into journalism, writing for the , before working as Features Editor at , where she spoke on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour and Talk Radio. She has an encyclopedic knowledge of Gilmore Girls and 00s teen movies, and in her free time can be found with a margarita in hand watching the Real Housewives on repeat. Find her on .
