‘Love Is Blind’ Star Mike on Being Shocked by Emma’s Change of Heart on Kids (Exclusive)

Mike and Emma seemed like they’d go the distance on Season 10 of Netflix’s Love Is Blind. Out of all the couples, they seemingly had the most family support on both sides, and they were able to communicate with one another openly, even about tough subjects, like disagreeing over having children, which ultimately led to Mike saying “I Don’t” at the altar. 

Despite this, fans were hopeful the two would at least continue their romance off-screen. They tried, and ultimately ended up going their separate ways. But Mike says he has no regrets and no hard feelings about the situation. In an interview with PopCulture ahead of the reunion special, he shared in detail why saying no was the best option for him at the time.

PC: So congratulations on completing Season 10 of Love Is Blind. I know it’s been some time since filming, but I was able to watch the reunion special, which was jam-packed with goodness. So, during the reunion, you spoke about a conversation with Emma and not saying “I do” because of the whole discrepancy or issue regarding whether or not you guys would have children or whether she would be ready to have children while entering into a marriage. Looking back, do you believe that she would have had children had you guys married?

Mike: So looking back, I don’t believe she would have had children. I was on the fence, right? And that’s the main thing she was on the fence with, not knowing. And I think when you, when you look back, yes, we both agreed to say no. It was a surprise to me when she said yes, it did kind of blindside me. The reason why we were both on the same page to say no was just because It wasn’t fair to her and it wasn’t fair to myself to kind of make a decision based on the accelerated timeline, and I know obviously there is an accelerated timeline. That’s the process we signed up for. It’s just the conversations that we had off camera and then even some on camera.

There really wasn’t enough to go off of for her to to come around on children and to her, for her to want children. So that’s why I said no is because it wasn’t like, ‘Hey, down the road, we can have children or I possibly will have children.’ It was pretty much like there wasn’t enough time on her end to say that she definitely wants children and then I want to be with somebody that definitely wants to know they want children in the future. So yeah, that’s, that’s kind of how that went with the conversation.

So did you guys try to date and when did you actually split? Can you talk to us a little bit about that timeline?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So we did try to date, so that was what the plan was, was to continue dating each other and to tackle these tougher questions down the road. And what you don’t know or see either was, before the wedding, I forget the exact timeline of it, it might have been like a week before, but Emma’s parents were wanting to know what our decision was gonna be. They wanted to know beforehand, and they were kind of freaking out a little bit on their end too.

So we actually drove to Cuyahoga, where they live, and we had breakfast with them. Her father made quiche, and we had a whole conversation, and that conversation entailed us telling them, ‘Hey, look, we’re not going to get married, we’re going to say no at the altar, but we are going to stay together. We are going to tackle these tougher questions with children, but we don’t want to put such an accelerated timeline on it, because we do care about each other.’

And that was the game plan. And then fast forward, after the wedding, after that scene that you see when I’m upstairs speaking with Emma, there’s a lot of emotion there because I thought we were on the same page. And for me, marriage means clarity, not momentum. And I just felt like at that moment, there’s a lot of momentum to get married, to go to the altar,  to see each other in our tux and our wedding dress and all that stuff. And there was so much momentum leading up to that. But I needed the clarity of that children question. And I think we both needed that, right? It’s not just me. I know that she needed that too, based on the conversations that we had with one another, and her parents.

So her parents actually had gotten us a bar afterwards that her family and my family and friends all went out to, and we did that, and we hung out with one another. We had a good time. And then it was based on the conversations I had with my family and friends, and then based on my thinking alone. A week later, I was like, ‘OK, well, we’re supposed to be on the same page and you blindsided me, and why did you blindside me?’ At this moment, I didn’t know what the reasoning was. 

I didn’t know if production got in her ear. I didn’t know if it had something to do with her sister saying, ‘Don’t look like the bad guy on television.’ I don’t know what it was. And for me, I was like on the biggest stage in front of our family and friends, in front of our loved ones, all these cameras. We’re supposed to be together and have pure communication and understanding and honesty and trust, and we preached that the whole time. And for me, I didn’t have that and that wasn’t shown in that moment.

And I was like, ‘OK, do I fully know this person now because she just switched up on me randomly. It’s being said that it’s because of emotion, the emotion of the day. That’s fine. If that is true, then that’s great, and I think we tackle that at the reunion about the emotion part of it. For me, I just went more with the logical part. So we ended up dating for like an extra week afterwards, and then we broke up and we both agreed to break up.

We did it at my apartment and we said that we’ll still remain friendly with each other. There’s no hard feelings or anything. We agreed that if anything comes of it in the future, then we’ll go from there. So that’s kind of how that went down.

NOTE: A Netflix representative denied Mike’s suggestion that production could have swayed Emma’s decision at the altar. 

Now you’re in a new relationship, which you debuted during the reunion. Did Emma know that ahead of the reunion? Because she seemed shocked, unless it was just editing.

Yeah that must have just been editing. She did know that. All of us met at Zeno’s. She didn’t meet my current partner, but all of the cast, there had to have been at least 20-something of us, we all met up at Zeno’s in Columbus in October. I believe it was October, either October or November, we all met up, in Columbus, and, even Chris was there with Connor and Jess and all that stuff too.

We all had conversations, and in the conversation, Emma and I, because we talked all throughout the whole night – and in the very beginning, our first conversation we had, she was like, ‘Oh, how’s your family? How’s everybody doing?’ I said, ‘Good. How’s your family?’ And we’re just catching up and I said, ‘Just to let you know, I am seeing someone. I just wanted to make that known to you so that way you know.’ And she said, ‘Yeah, no problem. That’s awesome. Congratulations.’ So that was discussed. So I think it was just the edit that you saw.

Now, you come from a close-knit family and your mother was very, very vocal, which was very entertaining, by the way. What did they make of the whole process?

Yeah, my parents are definitely vocal. That’s just how they’ve always been throughout my life, and I love them for it. Sometimes it’s a little much. But throughout the whole process, they were nothing but supportive of me. And that was actually even a little bit of a shock for myself because, in the past, never on relationships, but just in the past, how vocal they’ve always been with everything I’ve done in my life. Some things could always be kind of misconstrued, or just those strong opinions would always get in the way of stuff. And I just feel like in this situation, they truly were able to be themselves but support me, or mine and Emma’s decisions, because they knew that we weren’t going to get married but stayed together as well.

Right after we told Emma’s parents, she told my parents too. So I do think that that it shows, in the edit, with them being vocal, but also being super, super, supportive and wanting the best for their child and wanting the best for me. And I think they did a great job of letting me make the decision and whether that had been to marry Emma or not to marry Emma, they would have supported me either way, as long as I was happy.

Now, we know that this is a pressure cooker situation. Looking back, would you say that the love was real and overall, what did you learn from this experiment?

Yeah, I do think that the love was real. I do think that love can be blind. I mean, the overall experiment, I absolutely loved it. I loved every little question that we had to ask, not that we had to ask, but that we explored and we went over. I loved all the experiments that we did, to kind of test the love and, and test the boundaries. I think that it’s not something that you get in a normal dating scene. In the real world, to blind date 16 different women and then to ultimately have such a strong connection and a strong feeling to one of them and be able to propose without seeing them, I think just that just says it all about the experiment.

And kind of bypassing all the looks, it’s something that we don’t do on the outside ever because no matter what, whether it’s the apps, no matter whether it’s meeting somebody out in real life, you usually don’t get a chance to make such a strong connection and talk about such deep things with the significant other before seeing them. So I would 110%, you know, do this experiment again, just based on that.