'Love Is Blind': Were Jessica-Mark and Kelly-Kenny forced to be on the show?
'Love Is Blind' thrives on a complicated and controversial premise that encourages single men and women to speed date each other and after a string of meet-ups at the pods (which lets them keep their appearances hidden), they are to take a final call on with whom they'd like to get engaged with. This interesting process brought two couples together - Jessica Batten and Mark Anthony Cuevas, Kelly Chase and Kenny Barnes - albeit for a short while.
Right from the word go, you could see that Mark was all-in but Jessica found herself doubting the decision to get engaged with Mark, citing their age gap as a red flag quite often. Even when they were vacationing in Cancun, Mexico, Jessica spoke about how they have not been able to get physically close to each other because the Mark she knows from the pods is vastly different from the one she has been interacting with.
And, according to a Reddit post, she wanted to leave the show from there on but the producers apparently didn't allow her to. This led to her being distant and making very little effort to make her relationship with Mark work. Even when they started to live together, there existed a coldness that stopped the two from taking their friendship to the next level.
However, that didn't stop Mark from trying to make her day special. This one time, he arranged for a date complete with rose petals, food and wine in two separate rooms just to make her reminisce the days they spent at the pods. He knew those few dates that they had were very special to her and that was when they truly established an emotional connection.
Unfortunately, the couple couldn't make it work and Jessica said no to marrying Mark at the altar. She was hurt that it had to be that way but was also stern in her decision.
One other such couple was Kelly and Kenny, who split on the wedding day leaving the groom devastated. But, if rumors are to be believed it was all orchestrated. Apparently, they weren't even supposed to be one of the couples on the show but with Carlton Morton and Diamond Jack's unexpected and ugly breakup, the showrunners were left with no other choice but to hang on to those two.
This explains why Kelly and Kenny have been so distant, physically. They were able to openly communicate, have honest chats on and off but their sex life just wouldn't start. And that bothered Kenny for a while but he had made his decision. He said his "I do" with confidence but was rejected by Kelly, who decided not to get swayed by emotions and decided to take a call based on what would make sense for the both of them.
Catch all the episodes on Netflix now.