Yahoo Movies Love Is Blind boss says Lydia and Uche twist was "complete surprise"
Love Is Blind season 5 spoilers follow.
Lydia Velez Gonzalez and Uche Okoroha's reunion was completely unscripted in the new season of Love Is Blind.
Cast as singletons for season 5 of Netflix's hit dating show, Lydia recognised Uche's name and voice immediately after being thrown into the pods together. It thent ook Uche a little longer to identify Lydia.
But once the producers realised what was unfolding, creator Chris Coelen pulled both contestants in for individual sit-downs.
Related: Love Is Blind's Colleen and Matt had "low-key" anniversary after moving in together
"The fact that Lydia and Uche not only knew each other, but had a prior romantic relationship, was a complete surprise to me. I was totally blindsided," Coelen told Variety. "It was a complete shock. To be honest, it was like, 'What are we gonna do?' Nobody had any idea."
The Kinetic Company CEO elaborated: "We told each of them, separately, that we had no idea how this happened, and we were disappointed, but we felt the right choice was for them to leave the experiment.
"Lydia and Uche were absolutely crushed. Separately, they each expressed a tremendous desire to stay and continue, speaking about their investment in the process. And to be honest, I felt bad for them, because this is an amazing experience to participate in."
Related: Netflix's Love Is Blind season 5 trailer hints at big twist
Lydia and Uche were then given the green light to stick around so long as they followed two basic rules; don't tell the rest of the cast about their secret and don't attempt to rekindle any feelings.
"On Day One of the pods, we all felt that the information wasn't relevant and we all agreed revealing it would have been destructive to everyone's overall experience," Coelen revealed.
In the end, the duo were "free to discuss their past history" after proving that they'd fallen for other people on the show in Aaliyah Cosby and Milton Johnson.
This ultimately worked against Uche, with Aaliyah quitting the series during the first few episodes made available for streaming, while Milton decided to power through and propose to Lydia.
Love Is Blind season 5 is now streaming on Netflix.
You Might Also Like
