Love Is Blind’s Hannah Jiles is sending a message to fans after receiving comments from the internet about her weight.
“It’s a very interesting thing because when the show first came out it was, ‘She’s a whale, she’s so fat, she’s disgusting. How dare her talk to Nick [Dorka] like that when she’s fat?’” Hannah, 27, recalled during an exclusive interview with Us Weekly. “[After] they saw that I posted TikTok [from recently], they’re like, ‘Oh wait, she’s lost weight.’ And then it went to, ‘Oh, well Ozempic, Ozempic, Ozempic, Ozempic, Ozempic.’ And, ‘OK, you fixed your weight, now fix your personality.’ You just can’t make them happy.”
Hannah told Us she weighed 175 pounds while appearing on season 7 of the reality dating show after shedding the weight she gained during the COVID pandemic. She now weighs 145 pounds. While the show aired, Hannah said she received numerous “cruel” comments from fans on social media about her looks — which prompted her to reflect on the remarks.
“If I didn’t lose the extra weight that I did after the show, I can’t imagine how I would feel right now if these people were saying these comments to me. It’s so cruel,” she said. “Yes, my personality, at times, is horrid. I know. So maybe if you want to give me constructive criticism about my personality, go for it. But maybe we shouldn’t talk about people’s looks.”
While Hannah has sparked conversation about her appearance on Love Is Blind, she acknowledged that the premise of the show is the opposite: “Is love really blind?”
“I think that’s the whole point of the show. Some people are, probably, gonna talk about their looks [in the pods]. Some people aren’t. Some people are gonna see each other, maybe they weren’t typically sexually attracted to each other and now they are. Or some people just can’t get past the sexual attraction,” she said. “It’s a very important thing in relationships and trying to figure out is love blind?”
During her interview with Us, Hannah noted that she hadn’t “gotten anything done” to her face before filming, but got lip filler, Botox in her forehead and hair extensions post-show. Despite the cosmetic procedures, she added that the secret to confidence is more about what’s on the inside.
“I think as I get older, I just have gained a lot more confidence,” she told Us. “For me it’s just, if you feel good, like you feel good. … Most of the time I’m confident in who I am and I think that’s like the most important thing for confidence.”
Her tip for when she’s suffering from a “lack of confidence”? “I’ll literally have to put affirmations in my mirror sometimes, to remind myself, ‘You’re a bad bitch, You’re OK, you’re OK,’” she said, adding that sometimes she has to “fake it til you make it.”
Hannah noted that her confidence hasn’t changed much since undergoing the cosmetic procedures.
“When I look back and people are like, ‘She looks so much better and stuff now,’ thank you. But I felt just as pretty then as I do now,” she told Us. “I just changed some things about me that, maybe, do make me feel more confident and stuff. But I loved me then, too. Maybe you didn’t, but I did. No matter what, someone’s gonna love you and if you love yourself, people will love you too.”
After her time on Love Is Blind came to an end, Hannah took a brief hiatus from dating to focus on her “inner peace” and do “self-reflection.” Now, however, Hannah is ready to get back out there — and isn’t shutting the door on other dating shows in the future.
“I had a really great experiment, even though you saw the worst things about me,” she said. “I think it was great because I learned a lot about myself and it was genuinely who I am so I could fix it. I think I’ll do it eventually, maybe a little bit. I need some rest.”
With reporting by Sarah Hearon