Love in the time of social distancing has forced lots of couples to get creative. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Netflix's Love Is Blind inspired a fan to propose while quarantined in Huntington, New York. After marathoning the Netflix social experiment, 29-year-old Greg Teatom re-created one of the reality series' blind date "pod" scenes with his girlfriend Jillian Barnett.
"I had this ring and the woman I loved and I just had to propose to her!" he explained in a March 25 interview with Entertainment Tonight. "Once we were on other sides of the door, I asked maybe one question before our puppy decided he couldn't wait anymore and pushed the door open! I immediately got down on one knee and asked her to marry me."
Of course, Barnett, also 29, said "yes." She admitted, however, that she initially thought her now-fiancé was just "being really crazy" from the isolation when he suggested they dress up and pretend to be Love Is Blind contestants.
"Because we had nothing else to do at home and he seemed so excited about it, I decided to play along, having absolutely no idea that he was planning to propose," she told ET. "We were only in the "pods" for a few minutes, until he asked me how I would feel if he told me he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. Playing along, my response was, 'Well, I would say that was pretty quick of you to say considering you haven't met me yet.' Then he told me to come out, and to my surprise, he was down on one knee!"
Even then, Barnett, a physician's assistant at a New York hospital, said she still thought it was all part of a joke until she noticed the ring was "exactly the one" she'd always imagined. "I'm so happy it was just the two of us and our puppy in the comfort of our own home," she said.
The pair explained they most relate to Love Is Blind's Lauren and Cameron because of their similar ability to communicate and support each other while complementing each other's differences. (Cameron even commented on an Instagram video of the proposal, according to Barnett.) Ironically enough, Lauren and Cameron gave advice to couples in quarantine in a separate ET interview just two days earlier on March 23. One of their pro tips: embrace some alone time in separate rooms.
"Even though we're stuck together, I feel like that me time, that individual time, is super important," Lauren explained to ET. "You just gotta make sure you're good too, outside of just being with someone else." Her solo activities have included giving herself a spa night, complete with a mini facial. While together, Cameron added that they've been enjoying "taking the dogs on walks, making funny videos together, watching movies."
And for other couples like Teatom and Barnett, it could apparently also be a great time to pop the question. You just might want to have a contingency plan, however, in case your significant other says "no" and your time in quarantine turns super awkward.
