Love Is Blind spoilers ahead.
Amid all the chaos on the current season of Love Is Blind, one couple has remained pretty drama-free: Johnny McIntyre and Amy Olenska.
Like all of the couples featured on the Netflix show, Amy and Johnny, both of whom were 27 at the time of filming, formed a connection, sight unseen, by communicating through pods. They were the first pair of the season to get engaged and have largely been hailed a fan favorite among viewers.
However, the pair recently experienced a little bump in the road while discussing birth control.
In the latest episodes of the show, it was revealed that the couple hadn’t been “sexually intimate,” with Johnny telling their fellow contestant Laura Dadisman that he and Amy were “taking it slow” because she was “not on birth control.”
After Laura told Johnny that his and Amy’s “sexual chemistry” was “palpable” and that she could “tell” they were “knocking boots,” he replied, “We’re taking it slow ... ’cause she’s not on birth control and, like, I want kids, but not right now.”
“When she was like, ‘I’m not on birth control,’ it’s like, well, literally if any small thing happens, we could have a little Amy or a little John Jr. running around,” he added. It was later revealed that Amy had never been on birth control and didn’t want to be on it because she liked how “regular” everything in her body was.
Johnny then went on to admit that up until that point, he’d assumed every woman was on birth control — a revelation that left viewers at home pretty horrified.
He said, “I just always thought that everyone was on birth control. Like, that’s it.” Laura burst out laughing at this admission, and Johnny went on to admit that his assumption was “ignorant” while noting that “every girl” he’d ever dated would always “complain” about birth control.
In the next episode, Johnny discussed the subject with Amy herself, noting once again that everyone he’d ever dated was “almost always” on birth control.
Explaining his reasoning for wanting to wait before having kids, Johnny stressed that he wanted to ensure that they were financially stable. Amy agreed that it would be challenging getting pregnant soon, but noted that she felt they would still be able to “take care of a child.” But Johnny made it clear that he wasn't on board with the idea: "I don't want that, period."
Describing their clash over birth control as the “biggest roadblock to intimacy,” Amy said in a confessional, “I feel like Johnny’s really scared. I don’t know. I feel like using protection, like, that’s not enough for him.”
Amy did suggest the idea of a vasectomy to Johnny, who replied, “I know it’s not just the girl’s job. I don’t want it to seem like I’m saying, ‘Do this,’ or that this is the only way to do things, because it’s not.”
The pair ultimately agreed that they needed to do more “research” on the topic and “figure out a solution” before their wedding, with Johnny stating that it could be “make or break” for them.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Amy and Johnny’s discussion sparked a whole load of discourse online. While many users wound up discussing the numerous potential side effects of birth control, others praised Amy for reminding Johnny that a vasectomy was always an option too.
“Johnny wanting Amy to be on birth control this badly is stressing me out. Its not a flinstones vitamin, it comes with a whole host of things including blood clots, depression, hormonal changes, weight gain, acne, infertility… like this is crazy,” someone tweeted.
“I’m not mad at Amy for not being on birth control and bringing up getting a vasectomy to Johnny,” another person wrote.
Now Johnny has spoken out about his divisive remarks.
Speaking with People magazine this week, Johnny said that he feels his and Amy’s discussion was “spun the wrong way.” He explained, “I do want to have kids, but I want to […] be able to actually experience life with Amy and grow and really evolve with her as a couple before we welcome kids into the mix.”
Johnny continued, “When things come up with kids, because I hear for a lot of parents too, the first couple of years are rough. You’re sleep-deprived, you're not really your normal self you were way back when. So I wanted to know Amy for herself first and actually to know her before we were [going to] welcome kids into the mix.”
Johnny also told US Weekly that he was “uninformed” about birth control prior to his and Amy’s conversation.
“[It] was a really big thing that we talked about multiple times,” he said of the subject. “We wanted to make sure we’re on the same page. Me really not knowing a lot about birth control, contraceptives, things of that nature, made it difficult to really have a good conversation right away because I was uninformed.”