‘Love Is Blind’ Villain Irina Apologizes for Her Behavior

Love Is Blind star Irina Solomonova has apologized to all the people she “mistreated” while on Season 4 of the hit Netflix original dating series. After viewers accused her and fellow Season 4 contestant Micah Lussier of exuding “mean girl energy,” Solomonova took to Instagram Sunday to apologize for her “immature” behavior.

In the Instagram video, which marked the first time Solomonova has addressed the controversy, and was captioned “from my heart,” the reality TV star began by apologizing for the delayed response. Solomonova explained that she “wanted to take some time to process everything that has been going on this past week and really get my thoughts together before I responded.” She added that she has since “privately apologized to the people that I have hurt and mistreated,” before apologizing to viewers, saying, “I wanted to say I am so, so sorry for the people that watched the show that felt frustrated, angry, hurt by the way that I was mistreating people on the show. It was very immature and naive of me in a lot of those situations.”

Both Solomonova and Lussier have faced criticism from Love Is Blind viewers for their actions, with many dubbing them “mean girls.” The two controversial contestants have been called out for bullying the other women in the pods during the first batch of Season 4 episodes, including castmate Bliss Poureetezadi. Solomonova has also been called out for her treatment of Zack Goytowski, a 31-year-old lawyer, to whom she briefly was engaged.

In her Sunday video, Solomonova called out specific castmates she hurt, saying, “Zack, Bliss, Amber, Jackie, Micah, none of those people deserved to be treated the way that I treated them.” Reflecting on her time on the show, Solomonova said, “I feel like being on the show was like having a mirror in front of your face, in the sense of seeing yourself in a different perspective… that opened up so much to me, and I’m still processing and going through everything that happened.”

“I just wanted to say that I’m still journeying this and figuring out the person I want to move forward to be. But I know none of those things were OK. Even Zack, he was so vulnerable with me, and I so mistreated him and shut him out,” she concluded. “I hope one day I get to share my experience and what was kind of going on emotionally with that experience but until then, I just appreciate you for watching this and listening to this.”

Solomonova’s apology follows that of Lussier, who addressed her Season 4 behavior in a statement on March 28, in which she apologized for her “emotional immaturity.” Lussier also confirmed that she “apologized privately to the people that were hurt,” and promised that she “will grow” from the experience. The first eight episodes of Love Is Blind Season 4 are now streaming on Netflix. New episodes drop Fridays through April 14.