Reality TV
Jessica Battens chaotic turn onLove Is Blinds first season was followed by vindication and an engagement.
But her happily ever after was hard-won.
The ring is a honker.
Show me the ring, I interject.
The suspense lay in who would say I do at the end of the season.
A character emerged, soon to be dubbed Jessica the Messica by a castmate.
On the Sunday morning we meet, Batten seems mellow.
She wears a gray hooded sweatshirt and holds a mug the entire time we talk.
Viewers criticized her behavior, her drinking, and even her voice.
It is, she says, not anything I thought would ever be a thing.)
And it felt likeeveryone, even those who didnt typically enjoy reality TV, waswatching the show.
In April 2020, Netflix estimated that 30 million householdswatchedLove Is Blindin its first four weeks.
I was just kind of hoping and betting that the show wouldnt get picked up, she says.
But after two years of anxious waiting, Netflix began servingLove Is Blindto distraction-starved viewers across the nation.Ugh.
Many of the men, Batten says, were professional athletes with opening lines in theu up?genre.
Bless you, Dr. Ben.
Bless all the Dr. Bens!
We actually kissed that night, after meeting for like an hour, she recalls.
The next day she joined McGrath and his friends for a 15-mile bike ride.
She took issue with neither.
McGrath swept up to Los Angeles every weekend, and in between visits they would FaceTime and watchSuitsin tandem.
It expedited the seriousness of the relationship, Batten says.
In September 2021, a year-and-a-half after they met, McGrath proposed.
Battens edit had shifted.Peoplemagazine went all out, publishing exclusive photos and a blow-by-blow of the proposal.
Battens Instagram overflowed with congratulations.
And with a doctor a verytalldoctor no less.
America loves a good marriage plot even more than we love to hate a good wildcard.
But Batten bristles at the narrative that her engagement to McGrath somehow fixed her.
As great as our relationship is, it was really myselfthat got me through, she says.
The happy ending was just that I was still standing.
Being able to make adverse decisions that are maybe unpopular, then getting through it to live another day.
Getting through it was a process.
She starts to say howLove Is Blinddidnt break her spirit, nothing like that, then aborts.
I was broken down for sure, she says.
She got a really good attorney and a good PR person.
Netflix provided her with counseling, and she still meets with a therapist weekly.
And her friends rallied around her.
I feel like she was doing the best she could with the situation at hand.
I just felt like it wasnt that bad.
I always thought, and even to this day think, You didnt, like, kill somebody.
Whats the big deal?
You didnt like thisguy?
Batten has also started to let herself off the hook.
Lets really peel back the onion on this, she says, suddenly animated.
I hadnt taken a two-week vacation… ever, she says.
She worked, and stillworks, in tech sales.
I did just kind of want to let loose and have fun with it…
I think thats when you see the best me come through, in the original series.
She does have regrets.
I dont know why I shared that.
A lot of people in my life didnt even really know that.
And its not even something I thought about very often I didnt havecognitionbefore my dad.
That, coming to light alongside the Jessica character, was tough.
She tries not to think about the former too often.
In subsequent interviews she presented an alternative storyline to her callous altar-dumping of Cuevas.
Um, I mean, its amazing, she says.
But there are a lot of variations on reality TVs bad edit.
There will always be another Jessica.
But this Jessica is doing just fine.
