After one year of marriage, Iyanna McNeely and Jarrette Jones have called it quits as they navigate the single life once more.
“After much thought, we’re saddened to share that we have separated and will begin the process of divorcing,” the Love Is Blind alums — who met during season 2 of the Netflix hit — captioned a joint Instagram statement in August 2022. “While we have love for each other, our lives are going in different directions and that’s OK. Coming to this decision was far from easy and we will always wish each other the absolute best.”
The program coordinator instantly hit it off with Jones while in the pods during the reality TV show’s second season, which premiered in February 2022. After Jones weighed his connections with both McNeely and Mallory Zapata, he eventually popped the question — sight unseen — to the Kennesaw State grad. (Zapata, for her part, found a deep pod bond with Salvador “Sal” Perez, but they called off their engagement ahead of their wedding.)
“[Iyanna is] a better fit for me because she’s everything that I needed,” the health care consultant previously told Us Weekly in March 2022 of choosing his then-wife. “On paper, me and Mal would’ve worked out. … I think with Iyanna — she was vastly different and I think those differences are things that I needed in my life to help me grow and be a better person and be a better husband.”
After navigating their new normal as spouses — and filming Netflix’s Love Is Blind: After the Altar special — McNeely and Jones eventually came to the conclusion that their lives were headed in separate directions.
“I’m OK and getting better. There’s a lot of transition happening right now on top of knowing that After the Altar is coming out,” McNeely admitted during a September 2022 appearance of the “Diary of an Empath” podcast. “So, I’m going to have to relive a lot of stuff, which is the hardest part of it.”
She added: “Every time something like the season premiere coming out or After the Altar coming out, there’s always the knowing that, like, the security of our marriage will [have] a spotlight again. And so with Jarrette and I going through the issues that we were — even as of late before we made the decision to separate — it was just heavy in my mind.”
Scroll below for McNeely and Jones’ most candid quotes about their split and healing: