“I’m Not Surprised Matt and Colleen Broke Up — He Was Lowkey Abusive, and She Deserved So Much Better”

They said till death do us part, but for this Love Is Blind Couple, it's over a bit sooner. Season 3's Colleen Reed and Matt Bolton have announced their split after nearly four years of marriage. They made their announcement in a joint statement shared on Instagram. Together they wrote, "We wanted to share something personal, and this is not easy to do, but after nearly four years together, we've decided to end our marriage and move forward on our own paths. We've been separated for some time now and have been doing our best to work through everything privately and with care. This was an incredibly difficult decision, not one we made lightly. It came with a lot of thought, and it's been an emotional process for both of us. We met in the most unique and unexpected way, and we'll always be grateful for the love and memories we've shared. There's not one thing we would change, and we continue to have deep respect and care for one another."

While statistically, Love Is Blind hasn't had the strongest track record of marriage success rates, the now-estranged Matt and Colleen seemed to be defying those odds. But looking at the history of the couple as seen on Season 3, their separation may not be that shocking. What might be shocking is that they were able to stay together for as long as they did. Solely based on the series, Colleen and Matt's rocky road predicted this fate.

Matt and Colleen Had Some Troubling Signs on 'Love Is Blind'

In the Dallas iteration of Love is Blind, Matt and Colleen allowed the unique experiment to play out as planned. During the pod phase of the experiment, Matt popped the question with a tearful Colleen saying yes. But once they moved into the next phase of their relationship in the real world, the couple found themselves plagued by arguments. Though they had some hiccups on the journey to the altar, they eventually said, "I do," leaving as one of two couples wed, alongside Alexa Alfia and Brennon Lemieux.

Many viewers watched the pair on the show and, without knowing them personally, felt as if they were doomed to fail. As he told People shortly after the season's premiere, he was looking for a way out. "Leading up to it, even after the aquarium scene, we had a lot of conversations that you guys didn't see, about if we really wanted to do this, and we knew we loved each other. We saw so much potential, and it was just on the day of, we still didn't know. But when I saw her walking down the aisle, I was like, 'Listen, we've got too much potential. This is such a great moment. We are meant for each other.' So we just had to do it. Can't pass it up," he admitted. Though Matt and Colleen saw their potential, fans of the show put timelines on how long they would last. Paired with Colleen's evident discomfort during the reunion, viewers felt as if Matt was low-key abusive and toxic toward her throughout their time on screen.

Once you're on Love Is Blind, you open up your lives for the world to follow, which meant fans kept a close watch on the married couple. No matter what Colleen would say publicly, including in her chat with Cosmopolitan about her demeanor during the reunion, noticing that they were not living together after getting married put pause into the potential they saw. Again, Colleen defended their arrangement while appearing on Out of the Pods podcast, hosted by Deepti Vempati and Natalie Lee. It wasn't until June of 2023 that they moved in with one another.

Colleen's Body Language Had Fans Concerned

With all the signs pointing to this ultimate result, we are not prone to what's happening inside the relationship. All viewers have to base it on is what was shown during the show. Matt spent so much of his time post-release defending his actions. With such harsh criticism he had faced, he called them "laughable." But they were based on something, right? The edit doesn't lie. Words may fail, but sometimes it's body language that can reveal an entire story. That's where many fans noticed Colleen's discomfort, especially in her conversation with Cole Barnett at the pool. She has claimed that she was uncomfortable watching it back, but it might have been something deeper. Some viewers felt it was signaling an abusive relationship. Often, Matt spoke abrasively and Colleen often seemed as if she became a shell of herself around him, submitting to his antics to keep the peace.

For her part, to spend the time with Cosmopolitan having to defend her actions from the reunion by saying, "Going into the reunion, I was not in a good headspace as I was dealing with a lot of anxiety due to the negative commentary I had endured during the first few episodes," it might be all the proof fans needed. They were a united front, but was it a mutually united front? There have been many gaslighting emotional abusers throughout the history of Love is Blind. Many fans will stand by the fact that Matt might have been one the whole time. We all want to see love prevail, but for this couple, maybe this separation was for the best.