Cheater, Uche Okoroha, tried to judge and manipulate Aaliyah Lennox despite cheating on her with Lydia on Love Is Blind Season 5

There may have been tears, but there are no regrets for Aaliyah Cosby on Season 5 of “Love is Blind.”

In new episodes of the Netflix dating series released Friday, the 29-year-old ICU travel nurse attempts to make things right with her strongest connection in the pods, 34-year-old lawyer Uche Okoroha, after unexpectedly dropping out of the show in Episode 4.

When Aaliyah left Uche high and dry, she wasn’t leaving behind her relationship.

“I wasn’t really thinking about it as if I was leaving the show without him,” she says. “I didn’t leave the show thinking that I wasn’t going to continue with him. I felt like the bond we formed in there was so solid that we would continue regardless of the show.”

She’d left after “an exchange of words” with her best friend in the pods, 32-year-old geologist Lydia Velez Gonzalez, “that didn’t really go well,” she reveals in Episode 7. But she always intended to keep pursuing a relationship with Uche, who was planning to propose to her the day he found out she’d left.

Ultimately, Uche declares it “over between us” because of her lack of confidence in their relationship.

Earlier this month, USA TODAY spoke with Aaliyah about why she left “Love is Blind” and how she feels about Uche and Lydia now.

“The fact that Lydia and Uche not only knew each other, but had a prior romantic relationship, was a complete surprise to me. I was totally blindsided,” show creator and Kinetic Company CEO Chris Coelen tells Variety of the connection that occured despite the show’s vetting process. “It was a complete shock. To be honest, it was like, ‘What are we gonna do?’ Nobody had any idea.”

The duo realized they knew each other upon meeting in the pods, as she immediately recognized his name and voice. Once producers realized what had happened, Coelen pulled them each into private conversations.

“We told each of them, separately, that we had no idea how this happened, and we were disappointed, but we felt the right choice was for them to leave the experiment,” he says. “Lydia and Uche were absolutely crushed. Separately, they each expressed a tremendous desire to stay and continue, speaking about their investment in the process. And to be honest, I felt bad for them, because this is an amazing experience to participate in.”

With that, he informed Lydia and Uche that if they were at all interested in exploring a relationship with each other, they should do so outside of the show.