Married at First Sight USA bride Jalyn Garcia has revealed that she already knew her on-screen husband Josh Black years before they were paired together on the show.
The pair tied the knot during the opening episode of the latest season, which recently aired on E4. Contestants on the series are typically matched as complete strangers after being selected from thousands of applicants.
However, Jalyn later admitted that she recognized Josh immediately when she walked down the aisle.
“I walked down the aisle, and I knew him immediately when I saw him,” she said during an appearance on the What’s the Reality Podcast following the show’s U.S. broadcast.
According to Jalyn, the pair first met around eight years earlier at a local gym in Texas.
“He came up to me and just introduced himself, and I said ‘Hi,’” she recalled.
She explained that they continued to cross paths over the years.
“I would see him here and there, and he would say, ‘Hi.’ I think he worked at a bar once, and I walked in and he took me to grab a drink and I said, ‘OK, thank you’ and left.”
The two reportedly exchanged contact information at one point but never pursued a relationship because Jalyn was “in a relationship for a while.”
Despite their previous interactions, Jalyn said she still knew very little about Josh before filming began aside from recognizing him from the gym.
Josh also reportedly recognized Jalyn on their wedding day, though the pair chose not to discuss their history during filming.
During the season premiere, Jalyn told relationship experts she was searching for a “fairy-tale ending” and hoped to find someone to start a family with. Josh similarly shared that he was looking for his “happy ever after.”
The latest season of Married at First Sight USA also made franchise history by featuring Jalyn’s mother, Belynda Chapa, as a participant, making them the show’s first mother-daughter duo to marry during the same season.
New episodes of the series continue airing on E4.