On a show like Perfect Match where everyone is already a star from a past reality show, it can be hard to stand out from the crowd, but fan-favorite Chloe Veitch managed to do just that. Hailing from Too Hot to Handle and The Circle, where she stole hearts worldwide — and racked up over 1.7 million Instagram followers in the process — the British reality TV queen headed back to Netflix in search of love. Spoiler warning: Spoilers for the Perfect Match Season 1 finale follow.
Instead of romance, however, Veitch says she came away with one major takeaway: “Feeling empowered as a woman to make the choices that I wanna f*cking make,” she says. “Instead of making decisions for other people based on what I think I should do, I was actually making choices for myself regardless of what anyone else thought of me. So that was a massive step in my relationship with myself. I’m grateful for Perfect Match for kind of pushing me into [making those decisions].”
Many of those decisions centered on Veitch’s love triangle with her ex and The Circle co-star Mitchell Eason and Love Is Blind’s Shayne Jansen, the latter of which she tells Her Campus was “the most intense relationship I’ve ever been in.” Veitch and Jansen, who matched in Episode 6, had many ups and downs, including Veitch choosing Eason over Jansen at one point, sending him home before she decided to bring him back into the house. In the end, Veitch and Jansen made it to the finale as one of the final five couples.
It all came to a head when host Nick Lachey asked the other contestants for their commentary on the remaining couples during the finale. Eason had a lot to say about Veitch and Jansen, creating tension between the three of them. Thankfully, Veitch has had the chance to clear the air with the rest of the cast since the dust settled. “I’ve spoken to Shayne, I’ve spoken to Mitchell,” she confirms. And while it was “a little bit awkward” for her and Eason at first, she believes he ultimately had her best interests at heart. “He might have been warning me, ‘Chloe, I don’t think that you two are gonna last. Open your eyes, girl.’”
In the context of the finale, in which Veitch and Jansen were still happily together, this revelation might come as a surprise. But she tells Her Campus that the relationship is over. “Not everyone thought me and Shayne were gonna last,” she says. “And I guess they were right, but I needed to find that out for myself.” There are no hostile feelings between her and Jansen, “but there [were] a lot of emotions involved, so I feel like it would be impossible to be friends.”
That may be the case for her and Jansen, but Veitch was rooting for some of the other couples on the show, including Joey Sasso and Kariselle Snow, who got engaged during Perfect Match. “I was blown away,” Chloe says about learning of the engagement. “But I know that Joey and Kariselle have had history … and they reconnected on the show.” Her hot take? “They should have been the perfect match. I’m sorry, they should have been the perfect match. I’m saying it!” (Don’t worry, I won’t tell winners Dom and Georgia.)
Outside of Perfect Match, Veitch has taken her strong opinions on sex and relationships to her podcast, Bangin’, on which she interviews celebrity guests. “I didn’t realize I had such strong views on sex, and what women should do, and what they shouldn’t do,” she says about what she learned from hosting. “The types of conversations that I found myself having were educational.” She called the experience “liberating,” explaining, “If I wanted to talk about sex, I could. If I wanted to talk about relationships or the taboo subjects of mental health and addiction — I think not many people would wanna talk about that on a public platform. But I was like, you know what? I’m gonna do it because it’s just who I am.”
Veitch is also known for her stunning style and beauty that she showcases on Instagram, which often includes an iconic red lip. Her favorite lipstick to get the job done might surprise you, though: While she loves Huda Beauty’s matte lip products, she admits there’s no real science behind her makeup. “Normally I just go into any store and get a bright, bright red matte lipstick, and then just whack it on,” she laughs, and emphasizes: “It has to be bright!”
She’s also got another beauty trick up her sleeve that she says is perfect for those of us with dry skin: “I’ve tried mixing an illuminator with my foundation and it gives me that glowy baby look,” she reveals. “That’s my go-to.”
With Perfect Match in the rearview mirror, the sky’s the limit for Veitch’s career. She’s on the road to stardom already, having attended Netflix’s Your Place or Mine premiere with other Perfect Match alums. (“My dress ripped,” she reveals. “On the [red] carpet. And it was a rental!”) But next, she’s got her sights set on doing some acting herself.“I would absolutely love to get into acting: Netflix originals, movies, comedy,” she says. “I really want to pursue either standup or working alongside Netflix to be in a comedy series like Friends. I could imagine myself being Phoebe from Friends.”