Nick Lachey Says ‘Love Is Blind’ Casts “Fairly and with Great Diversity” After Lauren Speed-Hamilton Accuses Series of “Cutting All Black Women”

Nick Lachey is defending the wildly entertaining train-wreck that is Love Is Blind, the Netflix dating show he co-hosts with his wife, Vanessa Lachey. After former contestant Lauren Speed-Hamilton accused the reality series of “cutting all Black women” from episodes, Lachey responded, telling Entertainment Tonight that Love Is Blind tries their best to create a diverse cast each season.

Lachey said he does “understand where she’s coming from,” but placed the blame on fate, adding, that he’s “not sure what exactly you can do about that except continue to cast with diversity, which they’ve done.”

He continued, “People gravitate to who they gravitate to. That’s not something that producers or anyone else can dictate or strip or have dictated or stripped. People make connections in the pods for whatever reason, and those connections are then followed through to the rest of the season.”

The host insisted the process is not manipulated behind-the-scenes, either. He told ET the Love Is Blind casting department “is casting fairly and with great diversity,” but added, “How it plays out, I can’t really answer to that part of it other than I know it’s not dictated or manipulated… who moves forward. It’s really, truly the connections they make blindly in the pods.”

Speed-Hamilton called out Love Is Blind in a series of tweets late last month, right when the third season first dropped on Netflix. The reality star — who is a rare success story and is still married to her husband from the pods, Cameron Hamilton — accused Love Is Blind of only featuring Black women in trailers and not in full episodes.

She wrote in a follow-up tweet, “I know it’s slim pickings but about 85% of them couples be forced (just moving forward for entertainment purposes) anyway. Y’all could at least force some more sisters to move forward throughout the show. 🤷🏾‍♀️”

When a commenter asked Speed-Hamilton why she thinks Netflix cuts Black women from the show, she accused the streamer of putting entertainment first, ahead of diversity.

“It’s couples that get engaged that aren’t even shown sometimes. I think they only show what they deem most entertaining,” she wrote.

Love Is Blind Seasons 1 and 2 are now streaming in full on Netflix. New episodes from Love Is Blind Season 3 premiere Nov. 9.