‘Love Is Blind’ Star Nancy Rodriguez Says Friendship With Bartise Bowden Is Over: ‘It’s Really Just Extra Baggage’

Fans got to see some of their favorite reality TV couples reunite once again in a Love Is Blind: After the Altar special featuring the cast of Season 3. Netflix released the special on February 10, reconnecting some cast members who hadn’t seen each other since the drama-filled reunion. 

One of those couples, Nancy Rodriguez and Bartise Bowden, met up to clear the air since he said “I don’t” at the alter, and it looked like there was potential for a friendship. However, by the final episode, Nancy made it clear the two weren’t on track to become besties after all. Here’s what we know:

Nancy confirmed she and Bartise are not friends

Bartise and Nancy’s story on After the Altar wrapped up with the two sitting down at castmate Alexa Lemieux’s birthday party. They discussed how they’d been trying to be friends since they split and that it wasn’t working. 

While they don’t give many details, Nancy tells Bartise, “Recognize that you were unkind more than you were kind to me.” He agreed but then flat out told her to decide right then if they would have a friendship, and Nancy said no.

According to a recent interview with Today, Nancy has stuck to her decision. “We’re not friends,” she shared. “It was something that I knew that I needed to do to remove myself from that kind of environment. If you’re not doing anything for me personally, you’re not helping me grow in any kind of way.”

While she didn’t share specifics, Nancy added, “It’s really just extra baggage that I wanted to leave behind and that was part of my decision to separate myself.” 

So, what happened?

Nancy and Bartise had just solidified their friendship at brunch

Nancy and Bartise met for brunch while filming the After the Altar special to catch up. It quickly became clear that the two still had a connection, and despite agreeing to be friends, there seemed to be more between them.

Nancy described the meeting to Today, saying, “In After the Altar, we actually sat down and just talked. It had been over a year. It was kind of the first time that we had reconnected.”

However, Bartise made it clear he wanted Nancy in his life, and during their brunch, Nancy agreed. 

“Your energy, your level of positivity,” she pointed out. “I like to be around you, you are a good person, and I think good people are hard to find. It makes sense to have you in my life.”

They solidified their agreement to move forward as friends with a hug and with Bartise promising to be someone Nancy could rely on moving forward. However, things changed somewhere between that brunch in episode one and a birthday party in episode two.

Nancy’s friends and family convinced her to cut off contact with Bartise

After the brunch scene on After the Altar, fans watched as the ladies from Season 3 met up for lunch. Nancy briefly discussed how she and Bartise tried to be friends after their wedding, but maintaining boundaries took a lot of work. 

“We never hooked up after,” Nancy claimed to the other women, who seemed skeptical. “There was one night, things got a little intimate, and the very next meeting, I was sitting on his lap. And then I realized the next day, ‘Yeah, Nancy, that is not okay.’ That’s my biggest fault, is that I don’t have boundaries because it was someone that I did love.”

Zanab Jaffrey suggested she cut off all contact with Bartise, a sentiment which the rest of the crew agreed with. Still, Nancy insisted she and Bartise could figure it out. However, a conversation with her mom and brother in the next episode caused her to reevaluate her decision. It took her mom comparing Bartise to the poop emoji and asking how the friendship benefits her to change Nancy’s perspective.

Both Nancy and Bartise have moved on

Since filming After the Altar, Nancy and Bartise have each gone their separate ways. Bartise is currently on Netflix’s latest dating show, Perfect Match, while Nancy has joined the world of online dating. She revealed in her Today interview that she joined Chispa, a dating app for Latinos and Latinas. 

“I think what makes Chispa so special is that it truly brings me together in a room with other singles who have similar backgrounds,” Nancy explained. She gives credit to her experience on Love is Blind and meeting Bartise, who spoke to her in Spanish, for her newfound appreciation of her culture. 

“I think initially, without having that be a requirement, it did tug at my heartstrings because it’s so nice to know that my culture, my language is there,” she explained. “[It’s such] a rich culture. I love being Latina. And I think, if anything, it just took me to a place of being home.”