Love Is Blind fans were disappointed that Uche Okoroha didn’t attend the season 5 reunion, but he says he wasn’t trying to avoid the drama — he was just busy.
“Unfortunately I was unable to attend the reunion due to being out of town on a business trip,” Uche wrote via his Instagram Story on Monday, October 16. “As an entrepreneur, building my company is a big part of my life and it’s taken me 7 years to get where I am now. My time is finite and there was an incredible opportunity that I could not risk missing to record a TV show.”
Uche went on to note that he plans to share his thoughts on several things that were discussed in his absence.
“Accountability is important to me,” he wrote. “I have watched the reunion and there are several things that I will be addressing soon. You will not be left without answers, I promise.”
Uche then asked his followers to tell him what topics they would like him to address. When asked whether ex Aaliyah Cosby — who did attend the reunion — wasn’t his type, Uche said he finds her “beautiful” and will share more later on what caused their split.
“I think it’s much easier to find an excuse as to why your relationship didn’t work out than to take accountability and address your own faults,” he wrote. “Sympathy is the best way to win public favor. I’ll be discussing exactly what went wrong with the relationship between Aaliyah and [me] soon — and instead of placing blame I will give perspective on what I believe we BOTH could have done better.”
Uche and Aaliyah hit it off in the pods early in season 5, but as Uche was gearing up to propose, Aaliyah learned that he’d dated fellow contestant Lydia Velez Gonzalez several months before the experiment began. After Lydia detailed her three-month romance with Uche, Aaliyah decided to leave early.
“I felt like my boundaries weren’t being fully respected by Lydia,” she told Us in September. “I stated to her that, ‘I was going to stay, but I didn’t want the constant knowing things about the past and your past with him. I’m trying to focus on the present in my future with this person.’ So, that was a part of it.”
Aaliyah went on to note that Lydia wasn’t the only reason she decided to break up with Uche. “There were many things that led me to make that decision,” Aaliyah told Us. “There were some things on the side of Uche that I felt like we need to kind of work on this a little bit before we are to get engaged.”
During the Sunday, October 15, reunion, Aaliyah confronted Lydia about why she decided to go on the show. Lydia — who married Milton Johnson during filming — said she wasn’t looking to get back together with Uche.
“My instinct that day was not hope,” Lydia said, recalling the moment she found out he was on the show too. “If I had that power, he would have not been there.”
Love Is Blind season 5 is streaming on Netflix.
