Anna Yuan surprised viewers and fellow contestants when she unexpectedly dropped out of the experiment on Love Is Blind season nine!
The then 28-year-old hairstylist from Denver had two strong connections in the pods and seemed to be leaning towards her connection with Patrick (pictured here) before ghosting him when they were supposed to have another pod date.
today, Anna is opening up about her exit from the show and why she left.
Keep reading to find out more…
“I went in there thinking that anything could happen,” she told Tudum. “I’d be OK if I didn’t find somebody because it’s such a wild thing, and it’s so far off from how any of us have dated before.”
While Anna was initially not as interested in Patrick, and butting heads early on, their connection started to strengthen over their similarities and bond over both coming from Asian immigrant parents.
“You can gather information about who somebody might be by talking about your past or your childhood and what you’ve been through,” she says. “We’re both children of immigrants, and there are very specific things that every child of immigrant parents goes through. Even if we’re not saying exactly, ‘Oh, yeah, growing up with parents who have a language barrier is difficult,’ we can gather things from that.”
Though their discussions over the commonality felt special at first, it started going to a more overwhelming feeling.
“I started seeing myself being pretty vulnerable, and it scared me a little bit because this is an intimate part of my brain. These are very sensitive topics for me,” she explained. “It’s not that I’m just sharing it with whoever I’m dating or the other women — this is going to be broadcast for people.”
She then started to think if the experiment was worth it and how her choices would affect her family. Her parents weighed heavily on her mind while filming and ultimately made an impact on her decision to leave.
“With my parents being immigrants and having a language barrier, I’ve always naturally been their helper,” Anna says. “When I told them, ‘Hey, Mom and Dad, I’m going on this show, they’re going to take my phone, they were like, ‘Are you being kidnapped?’”
Not being able to shake the feeling of her parents being worried about her, she made the decision to leave the experiment, but felt guilty for taking the spot of someone else that could have participated.
“I was a wreck,” she said. “My eyes were almost swollen shut from crying. I was embarrassed.”
Though she ghosted Patrick, she was given the option to go on the date to tell him she was leaving, but she decided she didn’t want to be on lens anymore – she does wish she didn’t stand him up, but knows she made the best decision for herself at the time.
“I don’t think I regret it because I don’t think the connections were strong enough to have a successful marriage from there,” she noted.
After being completely taken aback by being ghosted, Patrick eventually picked himself back up and focused on his other connection with Kacie, who he ended up proposing to.
If you missed it, meet all of the Love Is Blind season nine singles!
About the Author
