Shayne Jansen is ready to share his side of the story.
The Love Is Blind star joined Nick Viall on the Viall Files' March 30 episode to address the rumors that have emerged about him since season two's shocking reunion. The real estate agent has been accused of using drugs during filming and of hooking up with co-star Shaina Hurley after the show wrapped.
In addition to addressing the allegations (below), he said he wants to speak his piece because ex Natalie Lee has spoken hers but he insisted that this wasn't his attempt to smear her: "I want it to not go unnoticed that Natalie is a good person and what we went through was very dramatic for both of us. I just had a lot to get off my chest... I don't wish ill will on her and I don't wish her to get hate at all."
Following the podcast's release, Natalie spoke out on her Instagram Story, saying, "Right now I'm saddened and confused by his dishonesty on the podcast," she wrote. "I didn't think it would get to a point where I'd have to address this publicly, but blatantly lying about me on a podcast for whatever motive is where I draw the line."
Continue scrolling to read Shayne's own words on the drug allegations, his relationship with Natalie and who he is still friends with post-reunion.
Shayne acknowledged that he looked very jittery and agitated in the pods but insists it had nothing to do with drugs. While he admitted that he's done drugs recreationally, the real estate agent scoffed at the social media rumors that he was "carrying cocaine on me and snorting lines and doing all this kind of stuff in the bathroom" while producers were following his every move. He added, "I'm not going to risk everything on the show."
Shayne said he has "severe ADHD," which makes him anxious, and that he struggles with sitting still in general. "You have cameras here, cameras here, staring at you while you're confessing your love and you're talking about deep emotions," he said about his time in the pods. "It's an uncomfortable situation, regardless."
Moreover, he admitted that he drinks a lot of coffee, saying, "I'll be the first to admit that I don't help my anxiety... I drink like five shots of espresso."
But it wasn't coffee that contributed to Shayne's lack of shut-eye in the days leading up to the wedding. "My wedding day, where I look like I was coked out of my mind, I didn't sleep for two days straight because I had no idea what [Natalie] was going to say at the altar," he explained. "No idea."
He even asked the producers if he could skip the the ceremony entirely because he knew it would be "embarrassing," but he says the producers told him that he had to go through with it. "Whether you say yes or no is up to you, but you have to go through with it," he explained. "It's kind of what you sign up for."
To make matters worse, he said, the stars were working during the day and filming at night, making him even more tired. "I was so mentally exhausted by everything going on in my life, and I just didn't want to have another problem on my hands," he shared, "so I was like, Let's just do this."
In recent weeks, Shayne and Natalie have seen each other, but the star said that he's done trying to make their relationship work. "It's over," he declared. "For the first time, I can confidently say that. If you asked me that a week ago, I wouldn't be able to answer that for you."
According to Shayne, Natalie makes him feel "horrible" about himself and he's not sure if he ever loved her. As he put it, "I love Natalie but did I fall in love with the idea of her? I go back and forth and I think about it all the time."
He also says they "trauma bonded" because of how intense it was to be in the pods. "That has to be it," he shared. "That's what I keep going back to. What we went through was so messed up."
According to Natalie's IG Story, she ended things with Shayne because she "found what I considered to be very flirtatious messages between him and other women."
Shayne is the first person to admit that he handled that name situation in the pods terribly—mistaking Natalie's voice for Shaina's—but he insisted that his asking Shaina what she was wearing wasn't a "sexual" question: "It was just like a joke thing."
And his relationship with Shainaremains platonic to this day, with Shayne saying that they've "never hooked up" or seen each other out of social gatherings. "We bonded over the fact that we were both getting murdered on the show," he explained, adding that he felt she was the only person who could sympathize.
He noted that he wishes Natalie could've been more supportive online—"The person getting the best edit in the entire world, seeing all that hate I'm getting and she didn't once stick up for me"—especially when it came to Shaina.
"Once the show came out, she was liking comments on people's s--t, like little passive aggressive stuff," he said. "She was milking every single thing she can."
Natalie responded to this claim on Instagram, stating that she has resolved her issues with Shaina privately and that she's "not the reason" for her frustration with Shayne.
Shayne's main issue with Natalie is that he feels he's "never enough" for her, and he cited their bachelor-bachelorette parties as an example. Shayne claimed that she got angry with him for drinking, but "I wasn't doing anything wrong." He added, "Drinking wasn't a problem in the weeks before."
This and other situations made him think that Natalie wasn't sincere when cameras were rolling. "We always had talks about what she wanted to say and what she wanted to do all the time," he claimed. "I'm like, This is supposed to be a fun, enjoyable experience and we're supposed to be our natural selves."
Natalie wrote on Instagram that she "set boundaries with filming," like refraining from drinking "before 'serious' scenes and to not share in-depth details of our intimacy out of respect for my family."
She added, "I know he found this frustrating; the latter is what led to our fight in Mexico."
Shayne had little to say about the season's most-talked-about cast member, Shake. "He means absolutely nothing to me, so I don't want to give him anymore publicity, anymore s--t... He's a horrible person"
In his opinion, Shake got off easy in the show, sharing that his co-star said a lot of "really bad" things that were left out of both the show and the reunion, but Shayne wouldn't elaborate: "I don't want it to come out of my mouth out of respect for the other cast members," he said. "And I don't want to say it either."
But Shayne also thinks that Shake has "some underlying issues" he doesn't know how to deal with and wants to give him the benefit of the doubt. "Deep down, do I think he's a bad person?" he said. "I can't say that I guess because I don't know him that well."
As revealed in the show, Shayne's dad died mere months before the show started filming. And although it was difficult to grieve his loss while filming, Shayne wouldn't change it for anything. "Obviously [joining the cast] didn't help the situation I don't think," he explained. "It just amplified what was going on in my life and that really did help. When you watch stuff on tv you learn so much about yourself, you really do. It's wild."
He added, "Who knows where I'd be if I didn't see myself on TV. I'd just be stuck in this rut the whole time."
Shayne is currently focused on distancing himself from the Love Is Blind cast. He said that his fraught relationship with Natalie has caused a rift between him and the cast, explaining, "A lot of stuff has happened outside of the show right now. It's constant gossip and drama with them."
"I think they feed off of it a little bit," he continued. "There's a new story about me every single time with them and I feel like I always get attacked by the whole group of them. I feel like they always take Natalie's side more than mine."
While he had a good friendship with Deepti at one point, he said that he's giving her space "out of respect" for her friendship with Natalie since he doesn't want to put her in the middle of their fights. "It doesn't make sense right now."