'Love is Blind' star Kenny Barnes engaged to girlfriend Alexandra Garrison after Kelly Chase said no in finale
Kenny Barnes of the Netflix dating reality television series ‘Love Is Blind’, has gotten engaged. According to People magazine, on August 7, the 28-year-old proposed to girlfriend Alexandra Garrison at Duke Mansion in Charlotte, North Carolina, after dating for a little over one year. The pair reportedly met after Barnes' appearance on the Netflix dating series, which was filmed in fall 2018.
Per People magazine, Barnes proposed to Garrison with a four-carat emerald center stone ring. “She would tell you that she had an idea, but I would describe it as wishful thinking. I kept it a secret and definitely handled her questioning in the months leading up to our moment to keep her off my trail," Barnes said. “I had organized plans to propose at The Biltmore Estate (our first date) but the vacation fell through in response to COVID-19 restrictions.”
Barnes and his ‘Love Is Blind’ fiance Kelly Chase were one of the most stable couples throughout the run of the show. However, they didn't actually end up together. In the final episode of the show, which aired on February 27, 2020, Barnes said yes while Chase said no, leaving him stranded at the altar. But reportedly, neither ever planned to go ahead with the marriage.
They both reportedly said that they mutually decided to say “I don’t” before the wedding. “What’s not shown is that she and I had conversations multiple times,” Barnes said, noting that cameras were there. “We were adamantly not going to get married. That was never something that we were going to do.”
But it would seem it was all for the best, for Barnes had already found his future fiance by the time the reality show aired. The two, according to People magazine, were introduced by Barnes' younger sister Anna and dated long-distance for the first three months of their relationship.
“Alexandra and Anna had been friends for nearly three years while living in Charlotte and when I came to town to help move Anna, I met Alexandra at the brewery, Wooden Robot,” Barnes said. “What's funny is that there was apparently an 'inside joke' among their friends that Alexandra should date me. Alexandra knew who I was during that entire three-year period, but since we lived in separate cities and had never met, there was never an opportunity to entertain anything.”
“There are definitely moments in the early stages of our relationship where the thought crossed my mind, but the moment that sticks out most is when she and I stayed up looking at the stars during a summertime trip to Lake Gaston,” he said. “We talked for at least six hours and ended up falling asleep on the couch upstairs. It was then that I knew we were on the same page and that we were meant to be.”
“I chose to be single for nearly a year after filming [of ‘Love Is Blind’] ended," he said. “Part of that was out of necessity to allow myself to get back into my foundation and the structure that enables me to accomplish what I desire. The other part was that I feared bringing someone into the unknown which was the release of the show. At the time of filming, no one knew when the show would be released, how it would be formatted and, honestly, how any of us would be portrayed. We had a really good idea, but there is no control over editing and usage of content to either present or withhold context.”
According to Screenrant, Garrison, a Virginia Tech grad and Chief of Staff to the CEO of Red Ventures, an American marketing company, lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, the same city that Barnes now resides in.
After ‘Love Is Blind’ aired in February, Barnes said, “I wanted to get back to my roots, so I committed the next seven, eight months of just self-improvement, and it ended up putting me in a position to be truly open and to respect someone and know that there are people out there who are willing to meet you in the middle. They want to love you just as much as you want to love them. And that’s been a beautiful thing for me, and I would not be there today without this experience.”