(NewsNation) — “Love is Blind” contestant Ben Mezzenga says he’s “over the heartbreak” of getting told no at the altar by fellow contestant Sara Carton.
It’s “not because of, I would say, the politics side of things or the values, but more just some external factors that happened after the cameras turned off,” he told NewsNation’s Leland Vittert on Thursday.
“Love is Blind” is a television show that features contestants who start out talking to each other but aren’t able to see each other. At the end of the season, they can choose to get married.
A clip of Carton telling Mezzenga she didn’t want to marry him went viral recently. According to Forbes, Carton later told her family she left him because of his views on social issues.
Once, Carton told her family, she asked him about Black Lives Matter, and he responded by saying he’s “never really thought too much about it.” In addition, Mezzenga’s church held “traditional” views about sexual identity, Carton said.
Forbes reports Carton received support from some viewers who praised her for sticking to her values, but conservatives criticized her, calling her “woke.”
“I think these were honestly issues that she definitely cared about,” Mezzenga said.
Anyone saying either one wasn’t on the show for the right reasons is wrong, Mezzenga told “On Balance.” “I think we were both doing a really good job being vulnerable,” Mezzenga said.
Although he’s always avoided political conversations in real life, something Mezzenga said he will take with him from the show is to try to “lean into” them.
“It’s not necessarily conservative or liberal, it’s more just — I want to make sure I’m more convicted in my faith, because that is really what’s the most important to me,” he said. “I need to be a little bit more forthcoming in in kind of instilling that in my relationships.”