Love Is Blind star Kacie McIntosh says she wanted to “protect” Patrick Suzuki during their TV breakup.
Kacie, 34, got engaged to Patrick, 31, sight unseen during the reality series’ ninth season, but the Colorado-based hair and makeup artist broke up with him shortly after they met in person.
She blamed her decision on a lack of physical attraction, explaining in a confessional, “He deserves somebody better than me. He’s not a bad-looking guy in any sense, but he deserves somebody that is so obsessed with him. I just, unfortunately, don’t think my attraction to him is gonna grow that much, and it sucks.”
In a Monday, October 6, interview with People, Kacie said she regretted how she ended things with Patrick on the show.
Love Is Blind’s Kacie Says She’s Gotten ‘Death Threats,’ Ex Patrick Reacts
“I was trying to protect his feelings and his insecurities, and it came off weird,” she told the outlet. “It came off wrong. It was like gaslighting and I think that was my biggest regret. Unfortunately, nobody knew what was going through my head. I’m a lover girl. I was like, ‘Wait, maybe this could work in Denver.’ But yeah, I regret making him feel more insecure about his biggest thing, and not being completely honest.”
Kacie added, “Nobody wants to say right to their face, ‘I don’t know if the attraction can grow. Let’s go home.’ I just didn’t want to say that right then in that moment. We just came off seeing each other [at the reveal] … I didn’t want to break his heart in that way.”
When asked if Patrick had always been her top choice in the pods, she replied, “Yeah. Day one, I have in my notebook. Patrick was my number two. He was always in the top for me. My number one, actually, in the beginning was Blake, but I don’t actually think we talked that much. I can’t remember. It was pretty much just Patrick through and through for me.”
Kacie explained that they’d “really connected on so many levels of travel, being full of life, being well-rounded, wanting to do all these activities and live a full life together. And I really loved how well he spoke and how much he was such a hard worker, and there was so much about him that I was just taken away by him.”
Love Is Blind’s Kacie ‘Likes’ Comment About Show Not Being Real
Since the latest Love Is Blind episodes began airing this month, Kacie has received fan criticism over her split from Patrick, who seemingly defended his ex via Instagram Stories on October 4.
“Hey everyone, I’ve been reading the comments and DMs,” he wrote at the time. “I’m blown away by all the love and support — thank you. I’ll do my best to get back to everyone. Please remember we’re all human.”
Kacie told People that “I guess a lot of people are coming after me right now, and I just have to say I wore my heart on my sleeve. I did what I could and I’m human and I did an experiment that unfortunately just did not work for me. And I feel really sorry that it didn’t work for Patrick either, and that it didn’t work for us. And how I went about everything, did I do it in the way everybody wanted me to? No, but I did it in the way I thought was best at the time, and that’s all I can do.”
She affirmed, “I loved Patrick. We did this thing together, and I did the best I could with the weirdest experience you’ll ever go through that nobody will really ever understand.”
