“Love Is Blind” alumnae Natalie Lee and Deepti Vempati jumped to defend Vanessa and Nick Lachey after the hosts were roasted for moderating the highly criticized Season 4 live reunion episode earlier this month.
“Look, I know we’re biased because of course we know Vanessa and Nick,” Lee said on Monday’s episode of her and Vempati’s “Out of the Pods” podcast. “We really considered them as Mom and Dad during filming.”
“They played this role of mentors to us, providing advice as we were making our decision to say ‘I do’ or ‘I don’t’ on our wedding day.”
Lee said that while she agrees with “the criticism,” she also thinks viewers are being way too hard on Vanessa.
“It feels like a dog pile,” she added.
Both Lee, 31, and Vempati, 32, agreed that the backlash aimed at the Lacheys has been “pushed too far.”
“People are being almost overly critical and [Vanessa is] taking so much heat that I’m like, I don’t know that it’s deserved,” Lee said. “It’s tough to watch because Nick and Vanessa are just really, really nice, great people.”
Vempati added that the 98 Degrees alum, 49, and his wife, 42, “really do care” about the cast members.
Both reality stars also agreed that Vanessa went too far when she asked the cast members if they were having children and that Vanessa was “very bias” during her questioning.
“It was hard to watch,” Vempati said.
Vempati and Lee also discussed how the reunion episode being taped live created an “added pressure.”
They agreed there were “missed opportunities” to ask the right questions – but believe the criticism shouldn’t all fall on the hosts.
“There’s a whole team behind the reunion in general so you can’t place blame on one person,” Vempati said.
Nick and Vanessa were mercilessly dragged over the way they moderated the reunion episode, which Netflix failed to stream live due to technical difficulties. This was the first year the reality series attempted a live reunion.
Some angry fans went so far to demand the married couple’s removal from the show by creating an official Change.org petition that’s been signed by thousands.
Even Vanessa seemed to agree that her questions were biased and sent Season 4 star Paul Peden a bouquet of red roses after interrogating him about leaving fiancé Micah Lussier, 27, at the altar.
“Thanks for acknowledging the accidental misleading @VanessaLachey,” Peden, 29, wrote on his Instagram Story at the time.
Nick and Vanessa, who have been married since 2011, have been hosting the show since it’s debut in 2020. They have yet to publicly respond to the backlash. However, they have turned the comments sections off on social media.
Meanwhile, Lee was engaged to Shayne Jansen, 33, after falling in love in the pods but she ended things on their wedding day. Vempati, for her part, dumped fiancé Shake Chatterjee, 33, at the altar after he repeatedly expressed how he wasn’t attracted to her.
