Just grabbing a friendly bite …or something more? Love Is Blind contestants and exes Chelsea Blackwell and Jimmy Presnell got the rumor mill buzzing on Thursday when they revealed that they were seemingly grabbing a meal together on the beach.
It all started after Chelsea posted a photo of herself on a plane on her Instagram Story, announcing that she was traveling to attend a friend’s wedding.
“Coming for my best friends wedding! @mizzp86 can’t wait to squeeze you!!! Quick stop in Fort Lauderdale!” she wrote.
That stop included a meal at the ocean-front restaurant JB’s on the Beach, which Chelsea tagged in a photo, writing, “Alexa play beaching by Jake Owen.”
In the shot, a man’s arm and a Corona beer can be seen. Similarly, around the same time, Jimmy posted a photo to his Instagram Story, tagging the same location featuring his seafood meal and a Corona in the shot.
The matching images sparked speculation that the Charlotte, North Carolina, natives and exes might be rekindling their romance after they split on the show’s season 6 finale, which premiered on Wednesday.
The formerly engaged pair called off their wedding before ever making it to the altar after a series of big fights and lots of drama throughout their engagement.
Both Chelsea and Jimmy attended and filmed the show’s reunion special, which airs next week. Netflix released the first photos of this season’s contestants at the event on Thursday.
And while the status of Chelsea and Jimmy’s relationship is unknown, Jimmy did take the time to defend Chelsea on Instagram after the show was first released last month.
“On a real note, Chelsea is an amazing person and loves so hard. Due to time, a lot of the full story this far wasn’t shown,” he wrote in a tribute post to Chelsea. “There are reasons we are both fighting for each other and sticking to our promise. It’s easy to make assumptions off of snippets of our relationship, but I wanted y’all to be easy on my girl. At the end of the day, we are all human, and it took a lot of courage for every one of us to put ourselves out there to find our person.”
At the time, Chelsea commented on the post, writing, “My lil heart ❤ forever grateful.”
Both Chelsea and Jimmy have received a lot of online scrutiny for the way they’ve handled their relationship. During the pods, Chelsea shared that friends have compared her to actress Megan Fox — a comparison that garnered a lot of criticism online. When it came time for Jimmy to see Chelsea in person, he said that she “lied” about how she looked, specifically calling out the Megan Fox comparison.
ET later spoke with both Chelsea and Jimmy about the now-viral moment, which they both regret.
“I don’t remember the Megan Fox comments being that big of a deal,” Jimmy admitted to ET, noting how “hard” it is to rewatch the moment knowing that it led to so much negativity. “I mean, obviously my ears or my eyes perked up a lot when she said Megan Fox… But, God, I would have done everything to have that moment back.”
“I spent so much time getting to know her emotionally. I’m so pissed off at myself for letting a comment like that make me that excited,” he reflected.
As for Chelsea, she’s been taking it in stride.
“I did reach out to her [Fox], and I was like, ‘I’m so sorry I did this to you,'” Chelsea told ET, adding that she hasn’t heard back from the Transformers star. “I’m just waiting for Megan to respond.”
The Love Is Blind reunion special drops Wednesday, March 13 at 9 p.m. ET on Netflix.
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