- "Love Is Blind" star Jackie Bonds has taken responsibility for her controversial leaked text messages.
- She said her messages were "tasteless and disrespectful."
"Love Is Blind" star Jackelina "Jackie" Bonds acknowledged that she sent the disparaging text messages about her then-fiancé Marshall Glaze that went viral on TikTok before all of the episodes of season four had been released.
Jackie began her statement, posted to her Instagram story on Tuesday, by saying she "sincerely" apologizes and takes "accountability" for her "actions and words" in her relationship with Marshall.
She also thanked Marshall for confirming to Nick Viall on Tuesday's episode of "The Viall Files" podcast that she broke up with Marshall before meeting up with her current boyfriend, Josh Demas, at a coffee shop. The edit on "Love Is Blind" placed the coffee-shop scene before the break-up scene in the episode that aired, making it appear as though Jackie began a relationship with Josh, whom she also met in the "Love Is Blind" pods, before ending her engagement to Marshall.
"I would also like to apologize and take accountability for my disparaging remarks as well in those leaked text messages," Jackie's public apology statement continued, in part. "It was tasteless and disrespectful to speak about anyone that way."
In the text messages in question, shared in screenshots on TikTok earlier in April, Jackie wrote that Marshall gives her "vibes," used to "twerk on the bed," and can sometimes be "sweet," and joked that she didn't want to hear her friends yelling about how Marshall has "sugar" in his "tank" at their wedding.
Some have interpreted these as homophobic comments questioning Marshall's sexuality. Jackie also wrote in the leaked messages that she and Marshall were making their relationship "stretch for TV," and she was separately spotted out in public with Josh around the time the messages leaked.
After they fell in love and got engaged while participating in the social experiment that encourages people to date each other and commit to marriage sight unseen, Marshall and Jackie's storyline on "Love Is Blind" largely revolved around their fights.
Jackie frequently complained on camera that Marshall wasn't as masculine as she'd like him to be.
After the controversy surrounding the leaked texts, Jackie and Josh didn't attend the delayed "live" "Love Is Blind" reunion because, as Jackie said in another Instagram story statement, Netflix and the couple were receiving "death threats."
Netflix didn't immediately reply to Insider's previous request for comment about the alleged death threats.
Jackie said that she and Josh "fought" to attend the reunion in person, but Netflix wanted to keep them "safe."
Instead of appearing live, Josh and Jackie did a pre-taped interview with "Love Is Blind" cohost Vanessa Lachey. During the interview, the couple, who have been dating for a year, explained the timeline of their relationship. They also talked about their pets and said they didn't have plans to marry anytime soon.
But as many viewers pointed out, Lachey failed to ask Jackie about the insults she directed at Marshall both on- and off-camera. She also didn't bring up Jackie's leaked text messages at the time.
In her statement on Tuesday, she also thanked Marshall for taking "accountability" for the "derogatory comment" he made towards her during an off-camera fight while the season was filming. During the reunion special, when Lachey asked him to explain what he'd said after Jackie referred to his "derogatory" comment in her pre-taped interview with Josh, Marshall explained that he'd told Jackie she "could've been a man" during the off-camera argument and acknowledged it was out of line.
At the end of her apology statement, Jackie said that she never battled with her ex and asked for everyone to drop it: "Like Marshall said at the reunion we both deserve happiness, peace, and to be able move on from what transpired last year."
"Love Is Blind" season four is currently streaming on Netflix.