Warning: this story comprises spoilers from episodes 7-9 of Love Is Blind season 7.
Love Is Blind‘s Stephen Richardson is addressing the fallout from his sleep check incident, which finally ended issues with fiancée Monica Davis.
Within the newest batch of episodes from season 7 of the Netflix hit, followers had been in for a shock because it was revealed that Stephen, 34, went off to do a sleep check one evening, however ended up sexting one other girl whereas there, regardless of being engaged to Monica, 37.
The emotional confrontation — which was notably poignant as Stephen had beforehand admitted to doing one thing comparable in a previous relationship whereas within the pods with Monica — finally ended with Stephen apologizing for his actions, Monica breaking down in tears and the 2 breaking apart.
“I am unable to do something to vary this, I’ll stay with this,” Stephen stated earlier than leaving their shared house. “I really am sorry for hurting you, for losing your time, for approaching the present and doing this to you. I should not have come on the present.”
Now, Stephen is talking out to PEOPLE concerning the ordeal, admitting the most important factor he discovered from his time: “It’s most likely good to place a password in your cellphone.”
“However in all seriousness, the primary issues are self-talk, self-reflection, and plenty of the issues that I imagine I stated it within the pods, the place it is like you do not know when you’re totally healed till your subsequent relationship,” he continues. “And also you see lots of people speaking about, ‘Properly, it is best to have accomplished remedy earlier than you entered this.’ And I am all the time like, ‘Is remedy a completion? Do you full remedy?’ No, it must be an ongoing factor since you’re all the time rising and studying and there are traumas which may’ve affected you that had been by no means an issue till your thirties or forties.”
“And also you would possibly assume that you just had that below wraps after which all of the sudden you are confronted with one thing the place you are like, oh, okay, I see this, now that I acknowledge it,” he provides. “I have to do one thing to repair it. And that is basically what this complete yr for me has been.”
Throughout their confrontation on the finish of episode 8, Stephen owned as much as his wrongdoings, claiming he “did not faux something” and genuinely needed to marry Monica.
“I did make a very silly mistake whereas being drunk at a sleep check with any person who texted me,” he admitted. “I do know that it was a silly resolution.”
Monica refused to simply accept his apology, insisting that he was texting that girl by the next day with “disgusting” messages about “fetishes” and different sexual subjects. She additionally snapped at him when Stephen tried to purpose by saying he solely texted her after “the dialog that we had final evening.”
“Do not you f—ing blame me in any respect for you being gross,” Monica said earlier than requesting Stephen Venmo her for the cash she coated for him over the previous few days. “I am nearly embarrassed about how a lot of my coronary heart I’ve given you. You had been gonna shake my dad’s hand this weekend? When you had been planning on dishonest? I do not perceive.”
Now that they’ve break up, Stephen tells PEOPLE he is used the second as a studying expertise for what he hopes for in future relationships — in addition to what he would not need to repeat.
“Not even simply from my mistake, however the experiment of Love Is Blind, it actually did present me that whenever you take all the pieces else away from the world and it is simply you and a person, it does actually solely take 10 days to fall in love with somebody,” he says. “I can confidently say it doesn’t matter what, as a cynic that I fell in love with Monica inside 10 days. I fell in love along with her in these pods, 100%. There isn’t any doubt in my thoughts that I did. And it was straightforward due to the best way that the experiment was arrange for us.”
“And so taking that into consideration, I perceive now plenty of the trivia we undergo with preventing a real feeling simply because we’re like, ‘Oh, properly, we’re supposed to attend this period of time.’ Or different individuals say, ‘You should not do that on the primary date or should not try this inside a month,’ blah, blah, blah,” he continues. “It is like, why do not you simply do what feels good and cease worrying about all the pieces else and simply get pleasure from your journey throughout the relationship? Both it may work out or it is not.”
“You have a look at each season: they both work out or they do not, however profit from it,” he provides.
Stephen and Monica are the second season 7 couple to separate after getting engaged within the pods. Leo and Brittany beforehand break up shortly after getting out of the pods, although producers stopped following their story and didn’t seize their breakup.
5 different {couples} presently stay: Taylor and Garrett, Nick and Hannah, Marissa and Ramses, Tim and Alex, and Ashley and Tyler.
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Episodes 1-9 of Love Is Blind season 7 at the moment are streaming on Netflix, and episodes 10-11 will drop Wednesday, Oct. 16.