“Love Is Blind” star Paul Peden is speaking out!
Viewers have gotten to know Peden during the fourth season of Netflix’s massively successful reality dating show.
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The 29-year-old environmental scientist bonded with fellow contestant Micah Lussier in the pods, and eventually popped the question to the 27-year-old marketing manager.
Outside of the pods, however, Lussier’s reputation with her fellow “Love Is Blind” ladies had been repeatedly called into question after she and her pal Irina Solomonova, regularly seemed to enjoy showing classic ‘mean girl’ behavior toward their co-stars.
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Lussier’s past romantic connection with Kwame Appiah has also been frequently mentioned and depicted on screen throughout the season, as has Solomonova’s flirty behavior toward her pod pal’s fiancé, Peden.
Both Lussier and Solomonova have since publicly apologized, but the online criticism toward both women still continues nearly a month after season four’s release.
Peden, who was still engaged to Lussier at the time of the post, is finally addressing social media’s ongoing distance from his fianceé and her BFF.
Lussier Apologies For Displaying ‘Emotional Immaturity’ On Instagram
Peden’s potential bride-to-be addressed her behavior on her Instagram Story late last month.
In the text post, she assures followers she has “apologized privately” to everyone she has “hurt on the show by my hands.”
Lussier adds, “An emotional immaturity was shown,” and assures readers she vows to “grow from it.”
“To the viewers I’ve hurt, I’m sorry I’ve triggered so many of you with my behavior. Seeing that person on the screen would make me feel the same anger,” she goes on to say.
Solomonova Condeems Her ‘Immature And Naive’ Behavior
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Lussier’s pod-bff also issued an apology via social media.
Solomonova, 26, took to her Instagram to post a video addressing her behavior earlier this month.
In addition to apologizing to the audience, Solomonova addressed each contestant individually and added, “I’m genuinely so, so sorry, truly. I want to add value to people, and I want to make people feel seen, and who I was on the show was the complete opposite of that person.”
Both women would later explain their behavior in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, attributing it to a survival tactic while in the pods.
“For us, it was really helpful to have a little sense of normalcy,” Lussier told the outlet. “Being able to laugh, and make light and make jokes, and, well, maybe sometimes the jokes wouldn’t land or maybe it didn’t look the best, but we needed that in the moment to feel like a normal person. Because you’re part of this experience that is so beyond words. To be able to make a little light of such a hard thing was really helpful.”
Solomonova added, “Me and Micah’s coping mechanism was laughing about it. And I will honestly say on the record, 100 percent, I did not intentionally ever want to hurt anyone. [Hearing] that I hurt people’s feelings genuinely breaks my heart…” she explained.
Peden Attempts To Put An End To Social Media’s Criticism Of These ‘LIB’ Ladies
“Love Is Blind” star Paul Peden defends Micah Lussier and Irina Solomonova, saying that his cast mates “do not deserve” the level of criticism they’ve received. pic.twitter.com/SNWSSCS7GH
— E! News (@enews) April 13, 2023
Although we won’t spoil whether or not Peden tied the knot with Lussier, he was still defending his fiancé and her pal before the finale aired.
He sat down with E! News to share his thoughts about the onslaught of negative attention they have received.
When asked if he feels the criticism that the duo is receiving is justified, Peden told the outlet, “Yeah, that’s a tricky one. I have hated to see that. Like, I know that they made mistakes, but they do not deserve that intensity of criticism. It’s just not fair, it’s not right.”
“When you’re receiving hundreds of thousands of death threats and [people] wishing you were dead, that’s just not… it’s not… they know they made mistakes, right, and they’ve acknowledged them, and I think that that’s all you can ask for from somebody,” he continued. “
You know like, you don’t want to continually punish somebody beyond what is necessary to make them recognize that they made a mistake and to move forward doing better. Anything beyond that is just malicious,” he goes on to say. “It’s hard to see.”
Fans will soon see if Paul Peden and Micah Lussier have any unfinished business to address during the live reunion on Sunday, April 16th!
