John Shannon said it himself on the Love Is Blind season 11 reunion: the marriage ended because of what he did. Then, pressed by the hosts, he said the three “graphic” texts that ended it went to a stripper who also works as an escort.
The reunion dropped Sunday, November 8, on Netflix. Sarah Williams and John Shannon were the only couple to say “I do” in the season 11 finale. Their marriage lasted just over a year.
Sarah filed for divorce from John on June 4, 2026, citing an “irretrievable breakdown” of the marriage, according to Massachusetts court documents obtained by PEOPLE. They married March 27, 2025, and began living separately in April 2026.
At the top of the reunion, John took the blame. “Unfortunately Sarah and I are no longer together, which is my fault. We had a wonderful year of marriage,” he said. He said that about six months ago, on a “boys night” out, he made a mistake and committed a “major breach of trust.” He said he acted “unhusbandly.”
He said nothing physical happened. What happened, in his words, was three text messages. “I texted one of the people we met out that night, and nothing happened, but she saw the texts and they were inappropriate for me to be sending as her husband,” he said. “I crossed a line.”
Host Nick Lachey asked him directly: “Emotional, physical, doesn’t really matter. In your words, did you cheat on your wife?”
“Mm-hmm. I guess so, huh? Yeah,” John replied. “There was a woman we met out, like, bar hopping and stuff, and got her number.”
Pressed again on how three messages could get that graphic with a stranger, John named who she was. “She was a stripper,” he said. “Yeah, it was a stripper. That’s the truth. That’s who we met, and, you know, she gave me her number, and I texted her later. She was also an escort. Nothing happened with it. Sarah knows this.”
A castmate then asked him point-blank if they slept together. “No,” John said.
Sarah said the texts were not the whole story. She said she had reservations before the wedding — the night before, she told fellow contestants Aneha Singh and Wilnie Louis on FaceTime, “This ends with him cheating on me.” She said John had behaved in ways that made her uncomfortable before, including an incident at a bar, and that he reacted harshly during disagreements, sometimes with name-calling and insults.
“He would react, like, quickly, say something hurtful,” she said. Asked for an example, she said, “Like, ‘dumb.’ Like, that’s just a simple one.” She added, “I’ve never been spoken to by a man like that ever.”
For Sarah, the texts were the end of it. “It was just the last thing. It was, like, this slap in the face that I needed,” she said. “I’ve heard him say he doesn’t wanna be married to me. Then I see these texts, and I’m like, ‘Oh, it’s just confirmation.'”
John’s father, David, defended his son on stage, saying, “He did a stupid thing, but he didn’t cheat on her.” John said he has started therapy. Sarah said she has forgiven him.
“I don’t blame her at all for leaving,” John said. “It’s been really hard.”
Related: She Accused Him of Cheating Three Months After the Divorce. She’s Kissing a Rapper on Camera.
Sources: PEOPLE (November 8, 2026); USA Today (November 8, 2026); TV Insider (November 8, 2026).