Love Is Blind: After the Altar dropped on Netflix on September 1 and gave fans an update on the season 4 cast members since we last saw them.
One of the love stories from season 4 was the late engagement of Bliss Poureetezadi and Zack Goytowski, as the couple said “I do” to each other despite Zack initially getting engaged to another contestant. In the After the Altar special, fans learned that the couple is still going strong but faced a big obstacle due to Zack’s severe allergies to Bliss’ pets. Bliss gave her dog Asher and her cat Blythe to her mother and sister as Zack explored immunotherapy with an allergy specialist.
After the episodes dropped, Bliss shared with People that giving her beloved pets to her family members was a really difficult step but it proved the strength of her bond with Zack. “It was really hard,” she shared. “I would not have done this for anyone else. These animals are like my children. And I think that just speaks to how much I really love and care for Zack. I think I just had hope and faith in the universe or whatever, that they were going to be able to come back to us.”
In return, Zack also made sacrifices for the relationship as he underwent immunotherapy, she explained. “We had to make a lot of big sacrifices for each other in our short marriage so far,” she said. “I think him going through the physical aspect of having to get shots twice a week for long, long periods of time, and then me having to give up my animals, I think that was a really big, beautiful bonding moment for us, and learning that that’s what a relationship is about, not only compromises in the small ways with chores or whatever, but the big things.”
Zack told the publication that the process and seeing Bliss’ connection to her pets was really eye-opening for him as it taught him the difference between simply owning animals and being an “animal parent.” He explained that he could see how much it bothered Bliss to be apart from her pets and his motivation for going through with the immunotherapy was getting his wife reunited with them. Zack revealed that they did some tests with visits to them to see how his allergies were responding and eventually, he felt good enough to have a permanent reunification.
On July 26, Zack posted a series of photos of the Love Is Blind couple, with Bliss holding her cat while he held her dog, and announced that they’d brought their “fur babies home” after a “rollercoaster of a journey.” He wrote that the struggle of getting two shots a week for a year had been difficult but completely worth it when he saw the joy it brought his partner to bring her pets back home.