Bartise Bowden shocked Love Is Blind fans when he announced that he had welcomed a son in April.
The Dallas-based dad confused his followers with the announcement, given that he had just wrapped up appearances on two Netflix reality TV shows, Season 3 of Love Is Blind and Season 1 of Perfect Match, which premiered six months apart.
Love Is Blind and Perfect Match viewers questioned the timeline and wondered how he had time for an entire relationship and to welcome a son in between filming for reality TV.
During an episode of the Talk’R podcast earlier this week, Bartise clarified the timeline, explaining how it all went down.
“I did Love Is Blind, I did Perfect Match, I had a son, and the timeline of all that, how it plays out, like on camera, doesn’t make any sense,” Bartise admitted.
Bartise continued to explain, “What actually happened was, I filmed Love Is Blind, I actually had a whole relationship between Love Is Blind and Perfect Match, filmed Perfect Match, came back, conceived a son.”
Bartise Bowden shares a ‘beautiful’ co-parenting relationship with his son’s mother
He also revealed that in the interest of protecting his baby mama, Olivia Gross, and his son, Hayden, from being thrust into the limelight, he remained mum until after Perfect Match aired, noting that he did it to protect their privacy rather than out of secrecy.
Bartise and Olivia are no longer together, but he says they share a “beautiful” co-parenting relationship.
“We are very involved together and separately, which is beautiful, and I wouldn’t want it any other way given our circumstances,” Bartise shared.
Although Bartise and Olivia are no longer an item, he has been linked to another woman, Cait Vanderberry, as Monsters and Critics previously reported.
The duo was spotted at the same restaurant and got flirty on each other’s Instagram posts. With some detective work by Love Is Blind fans, Cait’s identity was revealed, but it’s unclear whether they’re still dating.
Bartise didn’t find his happily ever after on Love Is Blind or Perfect Match
When Bartise first appeared on reality TV during Season 3 of Love Is Blind, he fell in love with Nancy Rodriguez in the pods. The two got engaged and made it to the altar, but Bartise shocked Nancy, their guests, and Love Is Blind viewers when he said, “I do not.”
Bartise asked Nancy if she wanted to discuss it on the altar, but she chose not to and instead stormed off.
After the ceremony, Bartise confessed to the producers, “Is love blind, though? I’ll say this: I never fell out of love with Nancy. But once you introduce your friends and family and real situations and living together, the un-blind parts, the real world impacts that love that we had.”
After his failed engagement to Nancy, Bartise went on to search for love once again, this time on Perfect Match. He paired with Ines Tazi and then Izzy Fairthorne but couldn’t form a meaningful relationship with either of the ladies.
Seasons 1 through 4 of Love Is Blind are currently streaming on Netflix.