“Love Is Blind” star Izzy Zapata didn’t want to let money get in the way of his relationship with Stacy Snyder.
The reality star revealed that after he and his former fiancée got into a tiff about his lack of transparency regarding his finances, he “immediately” sought the help of a professional before their wedding.
“I was like, ‘[This is] another obstacle, like, I’m gonna fix it,’ and that’s what I tried to do,” he explained on Friday’s episode of Nick Viall’s “Viall Files” podcast.
Zapata and Snyder seemingly formed an unbreakable emotional connection when they dated blindly in the pods during Season 5 of “Love Is Blind.”
However, things quickly went downhill when the former sales representative revealed that he had a low credit score.
At that point in their relationship, Snyder — who founded the professional styling and organizing company The Closet Audit — had made several remarks to Zapata about how much she valued financial stability in a partner.
Zapata, however, didn’t see the issue in concealing his credit score since he had already told her that he had no debt.
Of course, Snyder thought it was a major red flag.
“We sat and talked it out and she was very uncomfortable,” he recalled of their final conversation surrounding finances.
“I [told her] I didn’t have any debt, my student loans were paid off, like nothing. I told her I was on a 1099 [tax form] because I switched over and I was doing insurance at the time, and so [with] that, she was like, ‘Oh my god, you’re on a 1099 instead of a W-2?'”
Zapata recalled that Snyder was worried that his income would be unstable because he didn’t have a traditional W-2.
“That kind of, like, threw me for a loop,” he added. “I was like, ‘Damn, I didn’t realize [it would be such a problem].”
“The only thing bad is that I have bad credit [because] I got cards when I was 18 [or] 19, I was an idiot, f—ed it up and my credit was bad,” he candidly explained.
Although Snyder seemed excited to marry Zapata — and even proudly wore a denim jacket bedazzled with his last name — their final money conversation was enough to convince her to say “I don’t” on their wedding day.
“I love you more than I can even explain. I wanna make you happy,” she told him at the altar.
“I wanna give you that reassurance and I do want you and I wanna say, ‘Yes,’ but I would be doing you and I a disservice right now to say that I do when I feel like there’s a lot of things that we need and more than anything we need time and we haven’t had time.”
The pair initially agreed to work on their relationship going forward, but that didn’t happen.
Although Zapata and Snyder tried to get on the same page, it didn’t pan out and they stopped speaking for one year until they ran into each other at a Houston bar.
Now, they are on great terms and speak often. In fact, they are such close friends that Snyder showed support for her ex when he went Instagram-official with his girlfriend, Shelby Webb, earlier this week.
Snyder gave Webb her stamp of approval by commenting, “Cuties ❤️,” on the Instagram post, which included photos of the happy couple kissing and showing off their matching tattoos.
Zapata previously said that Webb is “secure with herself ” and does not see Snyder as a threat.
“If anything, I’m so grateful for my girlfriend. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be getting through this stuff,” he told People Monday.
“So she’s actually been so just calm and chill. No reaction, just so nonchalant. So it’s been pretty smooth.”
