- Kacie McIntosh and Patrick Suzuki got engaged on Love Is Blind season 9.
- Kacie broke up with Patrick after the reveal after she said she felt her “attraction” to him wouldn't grow, but now says it wasn't because of his looks.
- Kacie and Patrick speak out about their messy Love Is Blind breakup.
Over the course of nine seasons, fans of Love Is Blind have seen their fair share of awkward breakups—Diamond and Carlton from season 1, Stephen and Monica from season 7, and the list goes on. But none have been so cringe-inducing and difficult to watch as Kacie and Patrick’s breakup on Love Is Blind season 9.
Patrick proposed to Kacie in the pods after his other connection, Anna Yuan, left the show. And all seemed to be going well for the couple—until they finally saw each other. As always with Love Is Blind, couples don’t get to see each other until after they get engaged, and to say that Kacie seemed underwhelmed would be an understatement. Here’s what went down.
What happened between Kacie and Patrick on Love Is Blind?
Kacie and Patrick hit it off in the pods despite being from very different worlds: Kacie comes from a Mormon family, Patrick is Cambodian and Chinese. Kacie assured Patrick that she was open to dating outside her race despite the fact that she had prioritized physical attraction in the past, but—as an Asian American man—Patrick had his insecurities.
It’s not unusual for contestants on Love Is Blind to talk about their appearances, but Patrick and Kacie’s discussions stood out, in part because the show has featured so few Asian American cast members. After talking things through and establishing their connection, Patrick got down on one knee and the two prepared to meet in person.
The reveal was, in a word, uncomfortable. Kacie seemed thrown off, and when they parted, she didn’t seem sad to leave him.
Shortly after the reveal, Kacie asked to meet Patrick at the hotel (a general LIB no-no), and proceeded to initiate a truly confusing breakup. She told him she couldn’t “do this anymore” and wanted to go home, but at the same time, she kept kissing him and initiating physical contact.
When he asked if she was breaking up with him, she denied it, saying she just didn’t feel comfortable pursuing the relationship in front of the cameras. At the end of their conversation, it wasn’t clear if he really understood that they were over. He even told producers, “You can tell we’re attracted to each other. It has nothing to do with physical attraction.”
Meanwhile, Kacie told producers, “He’s not a bad-looking guy in any sense, but he deserves somebody that is so obsessed with him.”
Did Kacie break up with Patrick because of his looks?
To viewers, it certainly seemed that Kacie wasn’t attracted to Patrick when she saw him in the flesh. She even seemed to admit it to producers in episode 6. “I just unfortunately don’t think my attraction to him is going to grow that much,” she said. “And it just sucks. I just know it won’t.” (Though, to be fair, she also told Patrick that she felt producers were trying to make it about his physical appearance when it wasn’t.)
In an interview with Tudum, Kacie again insisted that her change of heart wasn’t about looks. “He’s a handsome guy,” she said. “It was more about him being a stranger in my arms than it was what he looked like.”
Kacie also said that she fully expected to date Patrick off-camera, but it seems clear that never happened. “I really wanted to talk to him more, pursue going on dates, and get to know each other on a more physical level to see if this was really real,” she said. “I’ll never be able to explain the feeling of, you think you’re really in love with this person, and then you meet them, and you’re like, ‘Oh wow, I actually don’t know this person.’”
Still, she admitted, “I did crash out a little.”
What does Patrick think of his Love Is Blind experience?
Meanwhile Patrick, who has yet to watch the episodes, told the Los Angeles Times that, while he was confused by the breakup at the time, he holds no ill will towards Kacie. “I think she was being honest and truthful with everything that she told me, I just don’t think the experiment worked out for her,” he said. “She wasn’t misleading. We were cool, we were kicking it. She just didn’t want to do it anymore.”
He even said that making it to the reveal with Kacie helped him break through some of his insecurities. “It’s truly not about race. It’s truly more about confidence,” he said, adding that he sees Kacie as an integral part in his personal growth. “I credit her and credit her participation because I don’t think it would make me who I am today without her, just form an emotional perspective.”
We’ll see what he has to say after he watches the episodes back.
