[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the Love Is Blind Season 4.]
Jackie and Marshall’s breakup will go down as one of the most memorable Love Is Blind splits. The pair called it quits after Jackie was a no show for wedding dress shopping with the rest of the cast — a decision she made without informing Marshall. He was at the men’s tuxedo shopping appointment with the rest of the guys when Brett (via Tiffany) broke the painful news.
While everyone else was shopping, the Netflix reality series showed Jackie meeting with former pod flame Josh in a coffee shop. It was in this scene that he professed his love for her again (the first time was at Chelsea’s birthday party a few episodes prior), and she was willing to give things a try. Back at home, she told Marshall she couldn’t love him because of her attraction to Josh, but she also wanted to break up because she wanted him to be more “aggressive” with her. The emotionally intelligent Marshall preferred sensitivity over dominance, but had no issues standing up for himself when the time came.
“I would like the ring back. I don’t think that you deserve it because you should never have accepted my proposal,” he told Jackie in the final moments of their awkward breakup. Jackie refused.
“Well, I’m gonna keep the ring because I accepted it because I wanted to marry you,” she replied. “Everything I told you in that pod was real.”
“You know what, I don’t even care, you can keep the ring,” he shot back. “Every time you look at that thing, whatever you do with it, I want you to be reminded that you passed up on something great.”
Based on Marshall’s ask, you’d think he bought the ring himself. But reality dating shows that feature engagements often front the bill of the bands. Picking the rings is a landmark episode of each season of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette (with Neil Lane providing the jewelry each season). Does Love Is Blind pay for its cast members rings? According to Jackie, it does.
Following the breakup episode, she took to Instagram to defend herself from what she considered an unfair edit, saying she “must speak the truth.”
“Marshall and I were broken up before I saw Josh at the coffee shop,” she posted on an Instagram Story. “I am wearing different clothes, my hair is styled different, and at the end of the video I say ‘I don’t know if I am going to be with Josh.’”
“I am not sure what the reason is for playing the coffee shop date before the break-up but to restate, Marshall and I were broken up before Josh and I had our coffee shop date,” she continued. But in the breakup talk with Marshall, she said she had met with Josh on her own.
She capped off the story saying, “As for the ring, Marshall did not pay for the ring, Love Is Blind paid for all the rings.”
Scott Green/Netflix
While the Josh date timeline might be murky, her statement about the rings appears to be true. A Netflix representative told POPSUGAR that the Love Is Blind cast doesn’t have to pay for the rings. And series creator Chris Coelen told Variety in 2022 that the men are given “10 or 12 different styles and colors” to choose from. They also have the option to bring their own rings for the pod proposals, and the cast has complete control of what happens to the rings after they get engaged.
“Whatever they choose, we pay for. Whatever we pay for, they keep, regardless of engagement ending,” the rep said.
Coelen told Entertainment Tonight in 2020 that the men are provided a collection of rings because they can’t leave the pod and lounge facilities.
“Since they were in the facility and weren’t able to go out into the ‘real world’ at that point, they couldn’t have been able to go [to a shop],” he said. “We wouldn’t have allowed them to at that point. It’s obviously such a gigantic moment in people’s lives that we wanted it to be as authentic to them as it possibly could be.”
Wedding planning was entirely up to the cast members as well, and funded by Netflix, saying that any aspect of the nuptials could be “enhanced” with their own money, if so desired.
“Aside from production logistics, we wanted them to really plan their weddings, and they did,” Coelen told ET. “They would talk to one another about things like what they wanted, who they wanted to invite and what they wanted their vows to be. If they wanted to spend their own money, or try to enhance it within reason, we would certainly allow that. We would never put any constraints on them unless it was something we couldn’t accommodate within the show. That was really up to them.”
So, the ring was paid for by Love Is Blind, and its fate was up to Jackie and Marshall. Tune in to the live Love Is Blind Season 4 reunion on Sunday, April 16 to see if these exes hash out this breakup tension.
Love Is Blind: The Live Reunion, Sunday, April 16, 8/7c, Netflix