“Love Is Blind” star Abhishek “Shake” Chatterjee had no shame in admitting that he was attracted to Vanessa Lachey during the Season 2 reunion.
But according to his ex-fiancée, Deepti Vempati, it wasn’t the first time he tried to flirt with the show’s co-host, who’s married to Nick Lachey.
“Can I tell you, he was hitting on her at the couples reveal,” Deepti alleged on the “We Have the Receipts” podcast with Season 1 star Lauren Speed. “It’s so disrespectful.”
Deepti further claimed that Shake “made a lot of the other girls cry” while filming.
“They don’t show that, but I actually had to talk to him about that,” she said. “And it was, like, a rocky step in our progression in the pods.”
Fans got to see a glimpse of Shake’s behavior toward Vanessa in footage from the reunion. While attempting to defend how he spoke about Deepti behind her back, he told Vanessa she was the only person in the room that he found attractive – all in front of her husband.
“We’re animals,” the veterinarian argued, to which Nick clapped back, “No, you treat animals. We’re human beings.”
Following the reunion, Shake publicly slammed Nick for the comments he made about his profession.
“@nicklachey you’re a massive t–t for your comment dragging vets,” he wrote via Instagram on Monday. “You do realize that becoming a veterinarian is considerably more difficult than becoming a human doc right?”
Shake faced major backlash throughout Season 2 for being “disrespectful” towards Deepti. After blindly getting engaged to her in the pods, he made it known to co-stars, friends and family members that he wasn’t physically attracted to her.
However, the self-proclaimed villain has since taken responsibility for his actions and apologized to his ex-fiancée, whom he knew he “hurt.”
“Deepti, I am truly sorry for some of the things I said,” he said in a video posted to Instagram on Tuesday.
“Things that, honestly, just could’ve been left unsaid, or could have been said differently. Things that never should have been said on national television.”
Deepti, who said “I don’t” to Shake at the altar, recently told Page Six that she still stands by her decision.
“We talked about how we struggled with the intimacy part of our relationship but watching it back was hard,” the reality star explained. “It was tough [to see] the way he was talking about me.”
She added, “Some of the things he said were just completely disrespectful, even to a friend. So, yeah, it’s been tough watching it back but I’m trying to put it in the past and just move forward.”
“Love Is Blind” Season 2 is streaming now on Netflix.