Love Is Blind’s Izzy Breaks Down His Emotional Wedding Day and His ‘Switch-Flip’ Moment (Exclusive)

Warning: This post contains spoilers from the Netflix Season 5 finale Love is blind.

Love is blindIzzy Zapata felt all the emotions on his wedding day.

During Friday’s Season 5 finale, Izzy and fiancee Stacy Snyder finally made it to the altar as they decided whether to tie the knot or potentially end their relationship for good. For Izzy, the answer was a resounding yes. But while he agreed to marry Stacy, she ultimately turned him down, citing lack of time as their biggest problem.

Izzy said he understood her perspective and still loved her – the pair even kissed at the altar. But even though they appeared to be on good terms and potentially trying to date again, Izzy later went off on Stacy on camera after he finally had a moment to register his emotions.

“It’s like he’s always trying to find something wrong,” he said in a confessional interview. “It was like all the outside s— was coming at her and I was blocking it all out. Looks, money, drama. I just focused on her… The whole point of this [experiment] is, Does it matter? Does creditworthiness matter? Does the car I drive matter? Does it matter where I go to fucking dinner? None of that matters to me. This makes me wonder: ‘Why are you 33 years old and single?’ I’m 29 years old and I can give you everything that a fucking rich 45-year-old man you always strive for and always fail at can’t give you.”

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Speaking about why he changed his mind so quickly, Izzy, now 31, tells PEOPLE that his true feelings began to dawn on him while being questioned by producers.

“When we were down the aisle, I was still optimistic about things, even though she said no at that point,” he explains. “I thought we’d still be together after the wedding, so I said, ‘OK, we’ve been through this together.’

“But I think it changed when I had to do the interview and [was] I’m just thinking about what the hell just happened when they pulled me over,” he continues. “So when I’m sitting there and they’re asking me questions, I’m like, ‘Damn. F— this. This is s—ty.’ I was so hurt that I finally let my emotions sit.”

Izzy and Stacy from the fifth season of ‘Love is blind’.

Monty Brinton/Netflix

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Izzy says that in that moment, which happened just 20 minutes after Stacy said no at the altar, he finally decided to prioritize his own emotions.

“At that time, I was taking more care of myself because I always prioritized her and tried to be strong for her. And I kind of let her push my feelings aside,” he says. “So I said, ‘You know what? No.’ It’s not how you want to feel and so you’ll see a switch flip where it’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m upset.’ I was really hurt.”

Izzy Zapata on her wedding day.

Rebecca Brenneman/Netflix

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Izzy and Stacy’s journey down the aisle got off to a great start, but soon took a turn for the worse when Izzy was introduced to Stacy’s life in Houston. She began criticizing the way the sales clerk lived, including his “messy” apartment, drawer of random women’s things, and use of paper plates.

Stacy, now 34, was also extremely concerned about Izzy’s finances and bad credit — especially since the operations director was used to a lavish lifestyle (as her father said, “sometimes love wants to fly first class”).

On their wedding day, Stacy told Izzy at the altar, “I want you and I want to say yes. But right now I’d be doing you and myself a disservice to say ‘I do’ when I feel like there’s a lot of things we need—and more than anything we need it’s time for us.”

Stacy Snyder on her wedding day on ‘Love Is Blind’.

Rebecca Brenneman/Netflix

When asked if he doubted Stacy would say no, Izzy told PEOPLE he had a hunch something was wrong, even though he wasn’t allowed to see her for two days before the wedding.

“I had a feeling, just a premonition,” he says. “I could tell if she was going to be the least bit insecure, she was probably going to say no. I still kind of tried to keep this optimistic mindset through it, I really tried to push. So I wrote a note and just kept fighting until the end. I mean, in the end it was still very devastating.”

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It didn’t help that right before the wedding, Izzy and Stacy had a fateful conversation about Izzy’s credit score. Stacy fought the revelation, claiming that Izzy hadn’t been completely honest about the subject and had failed to mention it earlier.

“It happened right before the bachelorette party,” Izzy recalls, noting that she “definitely” believes the timing of the conversation may have played a factor in her wedding decision. “I didn’t really give it enough time to marinate, let it sit and process. I felt that kind of affected it as well.”

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Despite everything that’s happened, Izzy believes they would be close to their wedding anniversary today if Stacy had said yes at the altar.

“We had really good chemistry,” he explains. “That’s what you didn’t see too much on camera. You kind of just see more of the surface stuff. You don’t see that connection, that emotional connection that we had together.”

“I mean, we are still great friends today. Just like we were then,” he adds. “Well yeah, I think we’d probably still be married if we were together.”

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Love is blind season 5 is streaming in its entirety on Netflix. The reunion episode airs Sunday at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 AM PT.

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Source: HIS Education