Warning: This post contains spoilers for “Love Is Blind” season 9.
“Love Is Blind” season 9 cast member Joe Ferruci opened up to Us Weekly about the real reason he called off his engagement to Madison Maidenberg during the recent batch of episodes released by Netflix.
In the most recent two episodes Netflix aired of the hit social experiment dating show, audiences watched Joe abruptly leave his tuxedo fitting without an explanation. In the next episode, Joe told Madison he no longer wanted to participate in the experiment or be engaged to her. His reasons on the show were vague, but he’s since explained exactly what was going through his head.
Joe & Madison’s Journey on ‘Love is Blind’
Joe and Madison, like all “Love is Blind” couples, met during the “pod” portion of the experiment. Although they couldn’t see each other, Joe told Us Weekly his connection with Madison “was great,” adding, “There were a lot of butterflies. It was a very deep connection. We had a lot of laughs.”
The cast is only in the pods for 10 days, according to Tudum, but Joe assured Us Weekly that the “pressure cooker” nature of the show meant the relationships moved fast. “The conversations you have in there are very deep and exceed what would be in a regular relationship just by timeline. The more it went on, I could see it working out,” he said about his relationship with Madison.
Joe was so confident in his relationship with Madison that he proposed despite having no idea what she looked like. Unfortunately, the cracks in the relationship started to show early on. During a cast pool party in Mexico, Joe drank too much and had to leave early. Later that night, Madison attempted to have a conversation with her fiancé, but his incoherence upset her and led to their first big fight.
Luckily, since the show, Joe has realized he was using alcohol as “the worst coping mechanism” and has since scaled back his drinking.
Why Joe Ended His Engagement
When the two were back in Denver, Joe and Madison got in another fight, this time about Madison’s assuredness. Joe did not feel quite as confident in their relationship, and he was nervous that Madison didn’t seem to have any doubts. Ultimately, that was the reason Joe later realized he couldn’t go through with the engagement.
“It seemed Madison was all in and what you would want in a person. I, on the other hand, had some concerns, nervous, scared, anxious. I never saw that coming from Madison,” Joe said to Us Weekly. “I think it scared me seeing that as well, and I know she wanted to keep on with the experiment, go through, get as much as you can out of it, in the way of, ‘Is this my person?’ More time for discovering that. I think there was a certain breaking point for me where I couldn’t go on any longer.”
Eventually, Joe realized he could’t go through the motions anymore, and with the weddings only a week away, he didn’t think he was going to change his mind; Joe was going to say no at the altar, so he might as well end the relationship early.
Joe says he had tried to “mask” these emotions, but at a certain point, he had to be honest with himself. “It is super emotional, high pressure, anxiety ridden, and I just couldn’t do it anymore. The light bulb definitely came up, like, ‘Why am I still here?’”
With hindsight, Joe realizes he could have handled the situation better. “That’s the story of my experiment on TV. It just felt disingenuous on my part to even be there, if I didn’t think we had enough time to get there or if I knew this wasn’t my person,” he said.
At the end of the day, Joe says he and Madison just weren’t the right match. The pods don’t mimic real life, and Joe didn’t realize he and Madison weren’t going to work out until they were back in the real world. “I think you learn a lot about a person outside [of the pods] where you can see how they communicate. You can see how they move, facial expressions, other conversations that definitely are not filmed — maybe something you don’t want on camera — and ultimately, it wasn’t a fit,” he told Us Weekly. “She was not my person, and I think that’s OK. We’re just two very, very different human beings.”
