Milton from 'Love is Blind' says Uche's claims about Lydia 'had no weight on my relationship'
Spoiler alert: The following contains details through Episode 9 of Netflix's "Love is Blind."
Not much phases Milton Johnson, one-half of “Love is Blind” Season 5’s remaining two couples.
While the 25-year-old petroleum engineer found “life-lasting friendships” on the Netflix reality show, he managed to separate those from his relationship with his fiancée, 32-year-old geologist Lydia Velez Gonzalez.
His ability to tune out the noise comes in handy in the new episodes that dropped Friday, when his friend from the pods and Lydia’s ex-boyfriend, 34-year-old lawyer Uche Okoroha, pulls Milton aside to allege that Lydia was dishonest with him in their relationship prior to the show.
Milton opened up to USA TODAY about his feelings regarding that conversation with Uche. “The relationship status, what happened, I don't know. I wasn't there. It was before me,” he says. “So it really had no weight on my relationship with Lydia.”
What happened during Uche and Lydia’s argument?
To recap: In Episode 7, released last week, Uche confronted Lydia during a “pod squad” party to re-litigate what went wrong in their relationship, “no lies, no drama, no BS.”
It went as well as one would expect.
Uche accused Lydia of being dishonest during an argument they had during their relationship (seemingly involving him cheating on her, per Lydia’s accusation during an interview). He also claimed, as he pulled up screenshot evidence, that she was “stalking” his friends’ Instagram accounts before the show.
Though they started the conversation with measured tones, the scene ended with Lydia stalking off and exclaiming he needs his “personality checked.”
Episode 8 shows the aftermath of this, in which Uche tries to save Milton from what he calls “one of the biggest mistakes that he’s ever made” if he says “yes” to Lydia at the altar.
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Milton shrugs off Uche’s claim that Lydia followed him on to ‘Love is Blind’
Despite Lydia’s protests, Uche pulls Milton aside to relay his allegations against Lydia, including that she followed him on to “Love is Blind.”
“I don’t want this to affect your relationship with her at all, but I think I would be a bad friend if I didn’t come to you and tell you that Lydia planned to be here with me so that we could end up here together,” Uche tells Milton.
Milton, serenely looking off into the distance during the conversation, shrugs off Uche’s claims: “I understand (there are) nuances, and things are situational,” he says.
“I’ve really wanted to find someone genuine, and I feel like I’ve found it,” Milton replies. “I kind of always live my life in the honeymoon phase. I don’t let anything ever give me a negative perspective.”
How did he manage to remain so unaffected?
“My primary objective was to potentially find a spouse,” Milton tells USA TODAY. “Now, it's great that I met all these great guys and I built all these great relationships, but at the end of the day, I have a primary goal.”
“So I'm always going to be focused on that.”
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Milton loves that Lydia is ‘different’ from him
As Milton and Lydia recap their conversations with Uche once they’re home, Milton comments on how she reacted while interacting with her ex-boyfriend.
“I’m a little more level-headed than you are. I’m just, like, less emotional,” he tells Lydia. “And I’m not saying that in a negative connotation at all.”
He then asks Lydia to handle heated situations “a little more similar” to how he does.
This isn’t the first time he’s pointed out the difference in their dispositions; it’s a theme that comes up throughout Season 5. Milton explains why that is – and why it’s not necessarily a bad thing in his eyes.
“For me, being less outwardly expressive, that just comes down to my personality, my upbringing (and) my culture,” he tells USA TODAY. “I just think that's not really the character types in my immediate family. We don't have a lot of that.”
He adds, “One thing that really drew me to Lydia was that aspect, she is so polarizingly different, and I love that.”
And like any relationship, Milton knows "it's going to be work."
“It's a constant up and down, and it's a balancing act," he says. "So that's something we were still figuring out during that time, was that perfect balance."
The “Love is Blind” finale premieres on Netflix on Oct. 13.