Joey Sasso and Kariselle Snow didn’t meet in Panama. They had a history that stretched back two years before filming began — a history that the show’s premiere episode laid out with the kind of uncomfortable honesty that immediately separated them from every other couple in the villa.
Kariselle had slid into Joey’s DMs after seeing him on “The Circle” Season 1, where he had won the whole show with his larger-than-life personality and disarming sincerity. She flew out to Los Angeles to meet him.
By her account, the weekend was a whirlwind — he told her he loved her and that he wanted to marry her one day. Then he got cold feet, started pulling back, and eventually ghosted her entirely. They stopped talking for months. Then he came back. Then he did it again.
By the time “Perfect Match” filming began, they had been through two rounds of on-again-off-again and neither had gotten what they actually wanted from the other.
Joey went to the villa knowing Kariselle would be there. He said later that he saw it as a real shot. “In the past, we had tried making it work, but it just never really matched up. I knew when I saw her night one that was the person I was going to be dedicated to the entire time on the show.”
What Happened in the Villa
Despite being sent on a date with “Too Hot to Handle’s” Chase DeMoor early on, Kariselle proved her loyalty to Joey, and the couple seemed strong throughout the show no matter what challenges or obstacles they faced. Chase’s presence caused tension — he was later confronted during the show about having a secret girlfriend at home, which did not help his credibility — but it never actually shook what Joey and Kariselle had.
Joey never expressed interest in another contestant. He stayed locked in from night one to the finale. The entire villa watched them operate as a unit. Host Nick Lachey compared their dynamic to the early days of his own relationship with Vanessa.
In the finale, despite being praised by their fellow contestants and Nick Lachey, Joey and Kariselle were not declared the winners — Dom Gabriel and Georgia Hassarati were announced as the perfect match instead.
It didn’t matter. Joey got down on one knee and proposed anyway. Kariselle said yes. He called his mom from the villa to tell her. She found out in real time, on camera, and the moment was completely unscripted.
Why It Fell Apart
Joey lived in Los Angeles. Kariselle lived on the East Coast. After a while, the distance became too much and they split for good.
Joey was careful and diplomatic when he talked about it publicly. “Relationships in general are extremely difficult and it’s hard to sit here and say exactly what happened because it’s extremely personal between the both of us,” he told Variety. “We have so much in common, but I just think that we really tried to do everything we could to work on everything. We both had the best of intentions, but we have a lot of differences that separate us with the things that we want and the way that we feel about each other. That chapter of my life is over.”
Francesca Farago, who had her own history with Joey, added a sharper edge in an interview on the Almost Adulting podcast: “He was horrible to her. It was really sad.” Neither Joey nor Kariselle publicly responded to the comment.
Joey insisted the relationship was never for the cameras. “Not being together shows how real it was because, let’s just be completely honest, if we were going to fake it, this would be the time to fake it — while the show’s airing. I’m not a person who’s going to fake something for a show. I just always try to lead with my best foot forward.”
The Aftermath: Cordial, Not Close
To their credit, the two handled the public fallout better than most. Joey told Variety they now have a cordial relationship and share “the same attitude toward each other.” Whenever they have a problem, they talk it out directly and never allow others to talk badly about each other.
As for his relationship status, Joey said: “I have dated. I have talked to people. I have had those experiences, but I just don’t want to put that out there for the world.” He briefly appeared to be seeing someone new — posting a photo that fans speculated about — before quietly deleting it without comment. He has kept his love life off social media since.
Where Joey Is Now
Joey’s post-villa life has been the most unexpected pivot of any “Perfect Match” Season 1 cast member. He is deep into an acting career, and he is serious about it.
His Instagram bio at @joeysasso leads with “Actor” and links directly to his film “Young Lion of the West,” now streaming on Amazon Prime. The film is a period Western — a full genre departure from the reality TV world that made him famous.
He has 736,000 followers and posts content that mixes the charismatic, jokester energy of his Circle days with something more focused and intentional. He is sober — he has celebrated multiple sobriety anniversaries publicly — and has spoken openly about how that shift changed everything about how he moves through the world.
He has two daughters with a woman named Capriana, whom he has been with since after the show, though he keeps that relationship relatively private. His Instagram grid tells the story in fragments — Halloween costumes, Christmas trees, birthday posts — the life of someone who has built something real and protective around it.
His Threads bio puts it simply: he’s a dad who loves KISS and Led Zeppelin and his girls. The reality TV chapter is a credit on his résumé now, not the center of his identity.
Where Kariselle Snow Is Now
Kariselle Snow, at @kariselle on Instagram with 373,000 followers, has leaned fully into the multihyphenate life her bio describes: comedian, personality hire, singer, model, figure skater.
The figure skating isn’t metaphorical. She skated competitively before reality TV, and she has returned to it with visible joy — her Instagram includes skating videos, competition photos, and a post about competing for a new title with the caption “Working towards a new dream because life doesn’t end at 30.”
She sang the National Anthem at a Charlotte Hornets Buzz Worthy Women game and has been documenting her return to the ice with the same wide-open energy she brought to the “Perfect Match” villa.
Her music is active too — she has been in the recording studio, has performed at events including the Electronic Dance Music Awards in Miami, and her highlights tab on Instagram includes a whole folder labeled “Singing.”
She went back to pageant competing for a stretch, entering the Miss Delaware USA competition in 2024 and describing it as a way to reconnect with who she was before Netflix found her.
Her bio on Instagram reads simply: comedian. personality hire. It is understated for someone who is doing this many things at once.
The Honest Read
Joey and Kariselle were the show’s emotional center — not the winners, but the couple everyone was actually rooting for. Their history gave the relationship weight that a fresh villa pairing never could have. Their commitment to each other inside the experiment was real. And their breakup, whatever the specifics were, was handled with more grace than most.
What made them compelling was also what made them impossible: two high-strung people who loved hard, burned hot, and had already failed each other twice before they tried again on camera. The engagement was genuine. The attempt was genuine. The outcome was the same as the first two times, just with a bigger audience watching.
They are both, by all available evidence, doing well. That is not nothing.
“Perfect Match” Seasons 1 through 3 are streaming now on Netflix.
“Perfect Match” Season 4 premieres May 13, only on Netflix.
Read next:
Read next:
- Where is Francesca Farago from ‘Perfect Match’ Season 1 Now?
- Georgia Hassarati & Dom Gabriel: Where Are They After ‘Perfect Match’ Season 1?
- Chloe Veitch & Shayne Jansen: Where Are They Now After ‘Perfect Match’ Season 1?
- ‘Perfect Match’ Season 4 Cast
- ‘Perfect Match’ Season 4 Trailer & Early Pairings
- Does the ‘Perfect Match’ Season 4 Cast Have History?
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