Jason Pham, Wed, June 26, 2024 at 4:26 PM GMT+2·5 min read
As Netflix’s newest toxic couple, Perfect Match’s Harry and Jess have viewers wondering whether they’re still together and what happened after filming ended on Season 2. Well, Harry seemingly accidentally spoiled their ending, and it could come as a surprise to some.
Harry Jowsey and Jessica Vestal are two of 22 contestants on The Perfect Match, Netflix’s dating series that brings together alums from various Netflix reality shows—including Love Is Blind, Too Hot to Handle, and The Circle—as they date and couple up with each other. Harry was originally a contestant on Too Hot to Handle Season 1, where he was one of 10 winners and ended up with co-star Francesca Farago. (The two split after filming ended.)
Jess, for her part, starred on Love Is Blind Season 6, where she dated co-star Jimmy Presnell in the pods. Jess and Jimmy broke up in the pods after Jimmy proposed to his now-ex-fiance, Chelsea Blackwell. After two failed Netflix relationships and endless drama, could Harry and Jess’ second chance at love fare better than their first? Thanks to Harry for spilling the details on his podcast earlier this year, we already know the answer.
Harry confirmed in an episode of his podcast, “Boyfriend Material,” in April 2024 that he and Jess broke up after The Perfect Match Season 2 finished filming. During the podcast, Harry revealed that he had a secret girlfriend while competing on Dancing With the Stars Season 32, where he was paired with professional dancer Rylee Arnold. Though Harry didn’t name his girlfriend, many believe it was Jess, given photos obtained by Page Six of them together in Mexico in June 2023—around the time Perfect Match Season 2 would’ve finished filming.
A month after they shot the last episode of Perfect Match, Jess said in an interview in the show that they’re “still going strong” and plans to move to Los Angeles. “I wonder when this is gonna come out. We’ll be strong by then. We’ll probably be married by then,” Harry added. Welp!
As for why Harry and Jess are no longer still together, Harry revealed on his podcast that he and Jess broke up because of rumors that he was dating Rylee while on Dancing With the Stars. “On my reality TV journey, the last stop was Dancing With the Stars. I know what you’re thinking, ‘Harry, are you and Rylee dating? Are we together? Am I leading her on? Are we hooking up?’” he said. “What if I told you, I was in a secret relationship at the start of Dancing With the Stars and all those edits brought me and my girlfriend at the time apart?”
Despite the rumors, Harry confirmed on his podcast that he didn’t cheat on Jess with Rylee while on Dancing With the Stars. He also revealed that he and Jess tried to get back together during Dancing with the Stars and he even ordered an engagement ring and planned to propose to her. “I call her and I profess her love. ‘I’ll give you my Instagram logins, I’ll give you my bank logins, I’ll unfollow every single female that I follow in hopes that it makes you happy. I said you can read every text message you want because you, my love, are my lady and I want to have your hand in marriage,’” he said.
Their relationship ended, however, when Jess was supposed to fly to Los Angeles, where Harry lives and planned to propose to her. When she never did, Harry blocked Jess on his phone and on social media. At the time of writing, Harry and Jess also don’t follow each other on social media. Harry and Jess, however, sparked, rumors they were still together when Harry shared a TikTok of them at a beach with the caption, “I can’t wait to grow old with her.” However, given Harry’s openness about trolling fans and the media—such as when he fed false rumors he was dating Khloe Kardashian—the TikTok could be another example of him misleading his followers.
Jess confirmed that it made her feel betrayed, when she told Entertainment Tonight, “outside of the show it was more of like, an all right, fool me twice shame on me, I’m gonna have to take that on ’cause I did know better.”
Jess told Tudum, “I wouldn’t quite call us friends, but we’re definitely not enemies. At this point, I just have to meet him where he is. I mean, Harry is Harry.” For the record, Harry wishes he “did a lot of things differently” looking back. “I’ve grown so much and done so much work on myself in the last year,” he says. “Now I get to look at that version of Harry and be like, ‘OK, well, thank God I’m not like that anymore.’ I get to evaluate myself and make sure that that doesn’t happen again.”
It wasn’t the first time Harry has been accused of cheating on Jess. During The Perfect Match Season 2, Melinda Berry accused Harry of kissing Rylee off-camera, which he denied. “I did not kiss her. That was a deep fake. But Melinda is telling everyone like it’s fact,” Harry said in a confessional interview, accusing Melinda of “trying to get as much screen time and as much clout off this whole situation as possible.”
Following the episode, Melinda shared an Instagram Story hinting that the kiss, in fact, happened. “Wow. Wow. Oh, I cannot wait for the truth to come out. Oh, God,” Melinda said in a video of her watching the show. A Reddit user who claimed to know a producer on The Perfect Match also alleged that the kiss between Melinda and Harry happened. “My friend was a producer on this show and told me exactly what happened. They said Harry is gaslighting so hard that it made them doubt what they saw with their own eyes. What happened was Harry and Melinda both asked to go to the bathroom which was off-camera. That’s where he kissed her. That’s why he immediately started saying ‘where’s the footage’ when Melinda then brought the kiss up on camera. [sic],” the user said.
