&34;I listened, and I responded, and I chose Connor. And I stand by that decision,&34; Brianna McNees tells EW. Love Is Blind stars Bri and Connor reveal what wasn't shown with Chris at the pod reunion mixer &34;I listened, and I responded, and I chose Connor. And I stand by that decision,&34; Brianna McNees tells EW. By Sydney Bucksbaum :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/headshotb5dc24df8d5d43d1a16c9ce0e0383119.jpg) Sydney Bucksbaum Sydney Bucksbaum is a staff writer at . She has been working at EW since 2019 and is a published author.

"I listened, and I responded, and I chose Connor. And I stand by that decision," Brianna McNees tells EW.

Love Is Blind stars Bri and Connor reveal what wasn't shown with Chris at the pod reunion mixer

"I listened, and I responded, and I chose Connor. And I stand by that decision," Brianna McNees tells EW.

By Sydney Bucksbaum

Sydney Bucksbaum

Sydney Bucksbaum is a staff writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2019 and is a published author. Her work has previously appeared in *TV Guide Magazine*, E! News/E! Online, *The Hollywood Reporter*, Mashable, Bustle, IGN, DCComics.com, Inverse, *The Daily Northwestern*, and more.

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February 19, 2026 10:00 a.m. ET

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'Love Is Blind' stars Bri McNees, Connor Spies, and Chris Fusco. Credit:

Adam Rose/Netflix (3)

**This article contains spoilers about *Love Is Blind* season 10, episodes 1-9.**

*Love Is Blind *couple Bri McNees and Connor Spies are opening up about all that drama with Chris Fusco in the latest episodes.

While Bri and Connor thought Chris was their friend — to the point where they were planning double dates with him and his fiancée Jessica Barrett — the truth came out after Chris and Jessica broke up.

Not only did Chris slide into Bri's DMs, he also hit on her hard at the pod squad reunion mixer in episode 9 by simultaneously insulting Connor to her face. While the episode ended before viewers saw Bri's reaction, she's now ready to spill all the tea on exactly what she was thinking about Chris "switching up" on them all.

Bri tells ** that Chris "immediately" reached out to her after his breakup with Jessica.

Connor Spies and Bri McNees on 'Love Is Blind'.

"I will never forget this moment because we were filming a date at our apartment, Connor and I, and my phone is blowing up," Bri says. "I realized it's our girls group chat, and it's because Jess and Chris had just had their conversation. And so we literally stopped filming because we were like, 'Hey, there's a lot going on in the group, and we need to pause and show up for people if we are available.'"

The cameras stopped filming their date, and that's when Bri got the first message from Chris.

"I literally was out in the hallway while Connor was [doing] an interview and I got a message request from Chris," Bri says. "I actually thought it was fake because he told me he was not on social media, and we had just got back to Columbus, [Ohio], there was a lot of hype around the show. So the DM that is shown at the party isn't the first time he messaged me."

Connor says that regardless of what the message was, he had a bad feeling about the intention.

Chris Fusco on 'Love Is Blind'.

"I think it was a harmless response to a story or something, and me being a little bit protective, I'm like, 'Don't respond to stuff like that, Bri. Let's just not do that stuff,'" Connor tells EW. "So she didn't, and then a few days later was the mixer."

Bri remembers that first message being "something super casual, like, 'Hey there.'"

"And I'm like, 'Okay, what do I do with this?'" she adds. "It was kind of friendly at the beginning. And in terms of us leaving Cabo, we were friends. He friends me on Instagram. I'm like, 'Okay, is this weird?' But I don't think too much of it. And then the guns-a-blazing comes out at the mixer. I was very shocked at just that behavior and the conversation and the content of it."

Chris told Jessica during their breakup that he couldn't stop thinking about his "No. 2" person from the pods, but Bri had no idea he still thought of her in that way.

Chris Fusco and Bri McNees on 'Love Is Blind'.

"What's shocking about that is he didn't really express any feelings towards me in Cabo at both of the mixers that we had," Bri says. "It was just very friendly and we were even talking about going on double dates, so I think that's why it's so bizarre that I was like, 'Really? You feel that way about me?!'"

But Bri realized "immediately" at the mixer that Chris was trying to re-explore their pod connection, and she says she shut it down despite how it appears in the episode.

"I think there was a little bit of alcohol mixed in as well, and so that always heightens emotions," she says. "He kind of just said what was on his chest and I listened, and I responded, and I chose Connor. And I stand by that decision, because it was Connor or bust, and anything that Chris was going to say to me wasn't going to change my mind."

For his part, Connor admits he had no idea what was happening with the conversation between Chris and Bri at the mixer — especially how Chris was insulting him to his own fiancée by calling him "too submissive."

Chris Fusco on 'Love Is Blind'.

"I think I was kind of in La La Land talking with the boys mostly during the mixer," Connor says. "I fully trust Bri, so whoever she was talking to, I was good with it. I know that she's got my best interests at heart too, so I was letting her talk to whoever she wanted to while I was just kind of doing some bowling, hanging out with the boys. I had no idea until the end."

Connor adds that Bri and their fellow cast member Alex Henderson let him know that something was going on with Chris.

"She kind of gave me a little bit of a hint, and also Alex had told me, 'Hey man, you might need to have a conversation with Chris,'" Connor says. "So shout-out to Alex for having my back on that one. But yeah, I didn't find out until the very end on what his intentions were and what he was saying, and that's when we all started leaving."

Both Bri and Connor are still shocked at how Chris acted like a completely different person after his breakup with Jessica.

'Love Is Blind' star Chris talks 'body-shaming' Jessica, DMing Bri, strip club pic, more

'Love Is Blind' creator explains how cast members knew each other before filming

"It makes me feel like I didn't really know who he was anymore," Bri says. "You dated this person for so long, and Connor will say it — he was Connor's best friend in the pods. We both had this really great connection with him, and to see him kind of switch up on both of us for different reasons, it's kind of just like, 'Do we even know who you are anymore?'"

Connor reveals that his friendship with Chris ended as soon as he discovered what Chris was saying about him to Bri.

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"The minute I heard what he said and how he said it, that's not your buddy," Connor says. "No matter how long you've known somebody, if that's the way you go about something, because there is, especially in this crazy experiment, a way to go about it and respectfully, and putting down me to get somebody else, I don't think that's very attractive to even the girl you're going after."

Bri adds that they "don't speak" to Chris anymore. And she's not just talking about herself and Connor.

"He doesn't really affiliate himself with the group," Bri says. "It's cordial. We've seen him and we've just kind of said, 'Hey, what happened, happened.' We've moved forward. I haven't really thought about it literally since that mixer. I was like, 'Whatever, I'm going to keep going with my man.' But yeah, we really don't even know if Chris is in the country right now. We [have] idea where that man is."

*Love Is Blind* season 10 will release episodes 10-11 on Feb. 25, and the finale on March 4, on Netflix.

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Published: February 19, 2026 at 05:57PM on Source: RED MAG

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