“Love Is Blind”’s Kenneth Explains Why There Was ‘No Way’ He and Brittany Were Ready to Say ‘I Do’ (Exclusive)

Brittany Mills also talks to PEOPLE about their breakup, noting that it had nothing to do with Kenneth Gorham’s phone usage, despite what was depicted on season 6

Adam Rose/Netflix (2)

Kenneth and Brittany from ‘Love Is Blind’

Warning: This story contains spoilers from episodes 7-9 of Love Is Blind season 6.

Kenneth Gorman and Brittany Mills may have seemed like a perfect match on Love Is Blind, but there was a lot that fans didn’t see before the pair called it quits.

Brittany, 25, and Kenneth, 26, hit it off in the pods before becoming one of the first season 6 couples to get engaged sight unseen. With barely any drama between the two — aside from what appeared to be some awkwardly silent moments on their getaway to the Dominican Republic — Brittany and Kenneth seemed to be a pretty promising couple.

But things changed when they returned to Charlotte, North Carolina, and the two had to resume their daily lives as a unit. In particular, it appeared Kenneth was always on his phone and the two were on different pages when it came to physical affection and “the crave” of PDA. Ultimately, the couple decided to go their separate ways in an emotional moment during episode 8.

Speaking to PEOPLE about what went wrong — and why there was no possible way they could’ve said “I do” to each other, despite their emotional connection — Kenneth says their split came down to one factor: time.

Related: Love Is Blind Couples Get ‘Messy’ — and Not Always in the Bedroom — in Latest Trailer for Season 6

Courtesy of Netflix

Kenneth and Brittany after their reveal on ‘Love Is Blind’

“Brittany and I just had a phenomenal connection. It was so real, so genuine, so authentic, something I had never experienced before to that level,” the middle school principal explains. “As hard as it was for me to say, ‘I think it’s the time we need to just walk away from each other at this moment,’ ultimately, what it was for me is just the power of time.”

“At that time, we were less than a week away from our wedding,” he continues. “And so, I said to myself, ‘As much as I would love to still fight for this thing, considering where we are right now, there’s no way that we could say yes to each other in a week’s time, with these feelings kind of being where they’re right now.’ … As hard as it was, as difficult as it was, so much love that I had for Brittany, I kind of just had to lean there with my decision at that time.”

Related: Love Is Blind: How 8 Couples Have Made Love Last Against the Odds Half a Decade After the Pods Opened (Exclusive)

Asked whether he sensed the split ahead of time, Kenneth admits he knew they were headed for the end.

“There were moments before where I was like, I can kind of feel some things that are a little icky for me. But I’m such a fighter, I just believe in fighting, so that’s just my life. In all facets of my life, I’m just very big on, ‘No, I’m going to fight to the end, tooth and nail.’ And so, even with me feeling those moments of Brittany and I might maybe not be on the same page, I still said to myself, ‘I’m going to go with it,'” he recalls. “But at that final moment I was like, ‘Yeah, this is it … We’re here, with a week’s time, so not the best thing to keep going.”

The educator also knows his tendency to “process things internally” was partly to blame for their demise. “I’m like a silent processor. And so, there are many times where things were happening, things were said between the two of us, and instead of me just responding in the moment just impulsively, I pretty much just started to retreat,” he says. “And me retreating was my way of processing internally … And so, that’s what I learned through this experience, was like, ‘Yeah, Ken, your tendency, when you feel away about something or you’re trying to process it, you just kind of mellow out, and you’re just kind of more not vocal.'”

Courtesy of Netflix

Brittany and Kenneth on ‘Love Is Blind’

From Brittany’s perspective, she and Kenneth ended things simply because they weren’t growing together as they’d hoped.

“It may seem a bit sudden to the eye, but I think for him and I, coming back after the Dominican and being in a home and trying to get back to normal reality of how our day-to-day life is, we did seem like we were drifting apart just a bit,” she tells PEOPLE exclusively. “There’s a lot of emotions. You’re getting back after a wonderful experience. And it’s so unique. And being there, and then you come back and you’re like, ‘OK, we’ve got to keep going. We’ve got to keep up that energy.’ And I think we were just drifting a bit … we came to an understanding of, yes, we did see some changes post-being in the pods and then in the DR.”

“You have internal thoughts, and he does as well. We all do. And I think that with those internal thoughts, I did not want to be necessarily instantly reactive. I think that’s important because you don’t want to not offer someone a chance and you don’t want to not offer the experience to play out, because that’s what this is all about, sight unseen,” she continues. “But I think, as time went on, maybe time wasn’t necessarily on our side and maybe that played a role in it, too. And of course we’re still figuring out things for ourselves. We’re both still growing.”

Related: Why Love Is Blind’s Trevor Thinks the Timing of His Pod Date Could’ve Changed His Outcome on the Show (Exclusive)

The senior client partner also notes that their breakup had nothing to do with Kenneth’s phone usage, which was emphasized heavily once they moved into an apartment together in Charlotte.

“We have joked about [his phone usage], and we talked about it of course while we were filming … and at that time, it truly didn’t bother me,” she explains. “I definitely take into consideration his career, number one, because that is extremely important to Kenneth, and I think we all know that. And so in my mind, while yes, I could’ve been like, ‘Oh, get off your phone.’ No, it was more so of, I know what he’s doing. He’s got a career. He’s got a whole entire school to take care of. Children to grow, learn. And I think that that’s very important to remember because it didn’t necessarily rub me the wrong way. Whenever I needed something or I needed a conversation, his phone would drop. And so that’s how I felt. Whether it is shown that way or not, that’s my feelings and that was our story.”

Kenneth admits he was ashamed by his actions on camera but knows he wasn’t intentionally trying to “be not engaged or disrespectful or completely just like, ‘This isn’t important.'”

“This was the most important thing to me in this time,” he notes. “But I had to be honest like, ‘Hey Ken, you need to see this. When you get in the mode of processing, you do these types of things.’ So I hated watching it, but I understood it.”

Related: Love Is Blind: Emotions Run High as Season 6 Cast Overcomes Love Triangles and Jealousy to Find ‘Real’ Love

As for those silent moments between them in the Dominican Republic, Brittany simply chalks it up to them both experiencing moments of “reflecting.”

“We are both very much so extroverts, but also we’re introverts as well. And I think, like I was saying, to the eye it might seem awkward or silent of some sort, but truthfully I didn’t feel that way,” she says. “I think we were just in the moment. And in times where there weren’t conversations of any sort, where we had to take a second, I think that that reflects back on us both reflecting. I think Kenneth is very much someone who thinks about what he’s saying, and he’s not very reactive. And that’s something that I do really appreciate about him. And so that’s, I think where we might be silent in some instances, I believe that that’s what we’re doing. We’re reflecting, we’re taking a second to ourselves. Being in the moment still with one another, but also so taking step by step, day by day.”

Now that Kenneth and Brittany have split, only four season 6 couples remain engaged: Chelsea and Jimmy, AD and Clay, Laura and Jeramey, and Amy and Johnny. The pairs only have so much time left before they must head to the altar and decide if love truly is blind.

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Episodes 1–9 of Love Is Blind season 6 are now streaming on Netflix, with episodes 10 and 11 set to drop next Wednesday.

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