Yahoo Lifestyle “Love Is Blind”’s Stacy Snyder Recalls 'Living a Double Life' While Hiding Relationship with a Woman in Her Early 20s
The reality star publicly came out as queer in an Instagram video debuting her girlfriend in August
Monty Brinton/Netflix
Stacy SynderStacy Snyder has come a long way since her first experience with a woman.
On the Oct. 29 episode of Just B with Bethenny Frankel, the Love Is Blind season 5 alum opened up about her journey of publicly coming out as queer and revealed that she had previously dated a woman — unbeknownst to some of her family.
“I had been with a woman before, probably in my early 20s, it was a two-year relationship, we lived together," Snyder shared. "The women in my family knew about it, [but] I never told my dad, he's pretty conservative."
The reality star admitted that she was "afraid" of what her father would think and she "didn't know what I was doing" as it was her first experience being with a woman romantically.
"All of it, like I was afraid of what people were gonna think or say, as far as my family, cause in our family, at least with me and my sisters, we're looked at as a certain [way]," she explained. "They produce, they all got scholarships in school. I cheered in school. The guys that I've been with are successful, [and they] look a certain way. And I'm like, I don't think that they're going to be able to [understand].”
Even if she was able to let her family in, Snyder feared that the attention would "also put pressure on the relationship I was in" and would go "in circles" as she debated the right move.
"I feel like I'm living a double life, but here's what's going to happen if I do," she recalled thinking. "So I literally was living a double life with parts of my family and my relationship."
Despite this, her ex was still "around" but her family members thought "she was my friend."
In August, Snyder — who got engaged to Izzy Zapata on season 5 of Love Is Blind but called it quits at the altar — revealed that she was queer publicly when she debuted her girlfriend in a video posted to Instagram. As text speculating her romantic life popped up on screen, the video blurred for s split second before the words "SHE'S HAPPY" appear in all caps.
At the same time, a woman came up and kissed her as she beamed from ear to ear.
Related: Love Is Blind's Stacy Snyder Comes Out as Queer: 'Surprise'
On the podcast, Snyder revealed that she has been dating her girlfriend for four months and opened up about the differences she's noticed between dating women and men.
“I feel like with women, it's very different. It moves a lot faster. The emotions come in a lot sooner just because we're more emotionally [in tune]," she explained. "So it's serious in a way like we're in love, but I feel like it's moved a lot quicker than it would in a heterosexual relationship."
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
She added, "We also were friends for almost a year before this happened. So you have to consider the trust, getting to know someone, all of that is already in place. We've been friends for a year."
"We know who each other is. We know each other's families. So then when it switches into dating, you're not wasting the time to figure all that out," she continued.
