Love Is Blind season nine is one of the most dramatic yet. With contestants from Denver, the reality dating show finds itself in a bit of a predicament. While it's not unusual for some contestants to leave the pods earlier than expected, in season nine, it was far more common. A fan favorite from the early episodes, Anna Yuan, abruptly left the dating experiment. The first two episodes focused on her relationships with Patrick and Blake. But, at the beginning of episode three, producers quietly announced Anna left.
Anna dated Patrick Suzuki, a 31-year-old construction manager, and Blake Anderson, a 34-year-old accountant while on the show. And she hit it off with them both. So, why did the 28-year-old choose to exit Love Is Blind early when she seemingly had two good connections? During a conversation with Netflix's Tudum, Anna explained her decision. Here's everything we know.
Anna's experience in the pod
Before Anna chose to leave Love Is Blind, she dated Patrick and Blake. Anna and Patrick are both Asian and bonded over their shared dating history of primarily dating white men and women. It's not typical for contestants to share their physical attributes, but they both revealed that their parents weren't born in the U.S. Patrick called his connection with Anna "electric" and was ready to become exclusive with her.
© COURTESY OF NETFLIXAnna also dated Blake, who she described as "genuine" and wanting "the same long-term things" as her. During a date with Blake in episode two, Anna revealed that she once ghosted a person she was dating. "I have ghosted someone in the sense like if we've just been kind of talking or like maybe we've gone on one date and then our texts slowly start feeling just boring," she said. "But I've never been dating someone consistently and then just like out of nowhere ghost them."
© COURTESY OF NETFLIXAt the start of the third episode of season nine, Patrick entered a pod thinking he was about to go on a date with Anna, but the pod was empty. It turned out that Anna stood both Patrick and Blake up, and chose to not say goodbye to either of them.
© COURTESY OF NETFLIXWhy did Anna leave Love Is Blind?
Anna told Tudum that the show was more intense than she anticipated. "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."
© COURTESY OF NETFLIXFurther, she found it difficult to explain the experiment to her parents and the longer she was there, the more worried she was about it might impact them. "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?'" she said.
While some fans of the show still ship Anna with her connections, she told Tudum: "I don't think I regret [leaving] it because I don't think the connections were strong enough to have a successful marriage from there," she explained.
