Stephen's 'Love Is Blind' Cheating Scandal Explained – Here's How Monica Found The Texts

Warning: There are spoilers for Love is Blind Season 7, Episode 8.

In the latest episodes of Love is blind In Season 7, Monica Davis called off her engagement to Stephen Richardson after she discovered he had engaged in sexual activity with another woman during their relationship.

At the end of Episode 8, cameras caught the aftermath after Monica found “sexual” text messages between Stephen and another woman that he believed were sent while he was drunk during a sleep test the night before.

“I made a completely stupid mistake when I was drunk on a sleep test with someone who was texting me,” he admitted on the show. “I know it was a stupid decision.”

Monica confronted Stephen about whether he continued texting the woman the next day after sending her “disgusting” messages about “fetishes” and other sexual topics. She was also upset when Stephen claimed he only had sex with the woman after “the conversation we had last night”, while Monica said she wanted to wait to have sex after he admitted he was uneasy about the marriage be one hundred percent sure.

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“Don't blame me for being so disgusting,” Monica said before asking Stephen to get her the money she had paid for him over the last few days. “I'm almost embarrassed by how much of my heart I've given to you. You wanted to shake my dad's hand this weekend? While you were planning on cheating on him? I don't understand.”

“There's nothing I can do to change this, I'll live with it,” Stephen said before leaving her apartment. “I'm really sorry for hurting you, for wasting your time, for coming on the show and doing this to you. I shouldn’t have come on the show.”

Monica and Stephen are now sharing details about what happened off camera, including how she found the text message on his phone and what was said in it.

How did Monica find out that Stephen was sexting another woman?

Monica told Weekly entertainment that she discovered the texts “purely by chance”. She explained, “We were at our apartment that day and that morning Taylor and Garrett had texted all the couples saying, 'We're going to bake fall goods for everyone, and that's what we're going to do.'” Bring them tonight later.' We expected them to come over soon and he had to go to the bathroom so he left his phone and it lit up.”

Because she and Stephen had such a wonderful day together, Monica said she didn't think twice about looking at his text messages to read Garrett's message. When she clicked on Garrett's text, she was in Stephen's text messages, “and on the top right under Garrett was one that was a girl's name, and I could see some writing, and it was just…yeah,” Monica said. “It was such a quick decision, but I thought 'push' and yeah, I saw a lot of text messages.”

Monica went into “detective mode” and began reading the messages thoroughly. “I scrolled up because I wanted to see when they started, and they started a while ago, certainly before he left to do this (the show),” she continued.

“At that moment it was like a dagger in the chest. “Five seconds later, Taylor asked me, 'What did they say?' And I couldn't even remember the girl's name, but I remember they were really very sexual,” Monica added. “I remember someone specifically saying, 'No one has ever been able to satisfy my desires like you can.' And they just went back and forth.”

The 31-year-old sales manager said she didn't know the details of her ex-fiancé's history with the woman, but said there was “definitely a story there.” She also doesn't believe he cheated on her during their post-Pods relationship, but according to the texts, he was said to have been texting this other woman during that time.

What did Stephen say after Monica confronted him about the texts?

When Monica confronted Stephen about the shocking text message, she said he “wouldn't tell her much.” She continued: “In that moment he didn't say, 'I'm not going to tell you,' but he very quickly tried to shift some of the blame by simply saying, 'I'm a…' “You're right,” she added.

“That’s all I could get from him. He didn't really say much… I was so devastated. I was completely surprised. One thing you don't get to see often is how much Stephen and I talked about my past with infidelity and how brutal it was, and he promised… I felt so safe because I knew “That it would never be a problem because I was so open and honest about it.”

Ultimately, Monica wanted to make sure their breakup was filmed so viewers could see it. “I just knew in that moment that I was so disgusted and shocked that I had to keep him away from me,” she said.

What did Stephen say about the cheating scandal?

Stephen recently spoke to People about the incident and admitted that the most important thing he learned from his time on the show was that it's “probably smart to put a password on your phone.”

“But seriously, the most important things are self-talk, self-reflection and a lot of things that I think I said in the pods, where it's like you don't know if you're fully healed until your next relationship,” explained he.

“And you see a lot of people talking about, 'Well, you should have completed therapy before you started it.' And I always ask myself, 'Is therapy a closure?' Are you completing therapy?' No, it should be an ongoing thing because you're always growing and learning and there are traumas that may have affected you that were never a problem until your 30s or 40s.”

“And you might think that you've been keeping this a secret, and then all of a sudden you're faced with something where you're like, Oh, okay, now that I realize it, I see this,” he added. “I have to do something to fix this problem. And that was basically the whole year for me.”

What is the status of Stephen and Monica's relationship now?

Monica did not confirm whether her relationship with Stephen was officially over. Instead, she encouraged viewers to watch the reunion episode. “As viewers watch the reunion, they will learn more about what has happened between him and me since then and the current status of our relationship,” she said.

Meanwhile, Stephen confirmed in his interview that they were not together. Now the 34-year-old electrician said he wants to use what happened to Monica as a learning experience going forward.

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“Not just from my mistake, but from the experiment of Love is blind“It really showed me that it really only takes 10 days to fall in love with someone when you take everything else away from the world and all that's left is yourself and an individual,” he said.

“As a cynic, I can definitely say with confidence that I fell in love with Monica within 10 days. I fell 100% in love with these capsules. I have no doubt that I did. And it was easy because the experiment was set up for us.”

Love is blind is streaming on Netflix. The next two episodes of the seventh season will be released on October 16, 2024.