Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Cheating, Entertainment, Love Is (Not) Blind
Marissa Dow
In a Love Is Blind plot twist that Christopher Nolan himself probably couldn’t cook up, Stephen Richardson has cheated on his fiancée Monica Davis within weeks of their experimental relationship leaving the pods for the real world. Of course, this is actually no surprise, considering Stephen told Monica he had cheated in the past when they first met. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t necessarily come from the Catherine Richards’ school of thought where “once a cheater, always a cheater” reigns supreme. But the careful way Stephen tried to sugarcoat his previous “emotional affair” (which he says happened because he didn’t feel “good enough” for his partner) by calling himself a “technical cheater” was a way bigger red flag than the cheating itself. Earth to Stephen: most people would go ahead and say a technical cheater is simply a cheater full stop, just ask your ex-girlfriend how she feels about it if you’re confused. According to the second drop of Love Is Blind season 7 episodes, Stephen can now ask Monica what cute little title she prefers to call him after his “disgusting” non-monogamous behavior during their engagement. The thorough breakdown of the Stephen and Monica Love Is Blind cheating scandal you were waiting for has arrived.
According to Stephen, he went to a sleep study, where he says he got drunk, which caused him to send explicit texts to an unnamed woman he was already in contact with. Already, I have a million questions about why a sleep test would get their subjects drunk and where I can sign up for one, but that’s beside the point. In Monica’s words, drunk Stephen proceeded to send “disgusting” “text messages filled with fetishes and cumming.” The “really gross texts” about “kink stuff” came the day after, when Stephen sobered up. Naturally, Stephen claimed he didn’t remember those texts until Monica asked him to hand over his phone, which he then conveniently recalled he had already deleted the conversation from.
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During the confrontation, Stephen (who looks like he just got hit by a double-decker bus named Accountability) is reluctant to explain himself at all because “at this point” he doesn’t think “there’s anything [he] could say that [Monica] would believe.” Yes, pal, those are the consequences of lying directly to someone’s face. Stephen does eventually insist he wasn’t pretending he wanted to marry Monica all along, but at the same time, he probably shouldn’t have come on the show in the first place… Stephen, please use all three-fifths of your blackness to make that make sense.
Stephen says he was triggered to cheat by an earlier conversation with Monica before he left for the fateful sleep test. I can only assume the conversation they are referring to was the one where Monica and Stephen have a cringeworthy giggle over their active sex life that ended in Monica telling Stephen he should stop trying to instigate “butt stuff” because she was “saving [her] butt for her husband.” As a grown woman who is no stranger to girl talk, even I had to whisper, “TMI” after watching that.
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The painful convo (only made bearable by Taylor and Garett coming to the rescue) happens at the end of season 7, episode 8.
As of now, Monica has not shared on camera or online how she discovered Stephen’s infidelity. Based on the fact that she knew the timeline of the text messages, however, she either got access to his phone from another source (like a laptop) or the woman in question sent Monica a “hey girlie” text worthy of calling off her wedding.