Brittany Dodson is ready to share her side of the story regarding her now-broken Love Is Blind engagement with Mo Ndiaye.
Brittany, 35, appeared on season 8 of the Netflix dating experiment, where she formed pod connections sight-unseen with Mo, also 35, Devin Buckley and Adam Bevis. She ultimately accepted Mo’s marriage proposal before they ever met face to face.
“I liked Mo a lot and I had picked Mo first, and then I went back and was like, ‘Well, let me see what Adam is about,’” Brittany recalled of her blind dating experience during the Thursday, April 3, episode of the “Jess A Couple Things” podcast.
She continued, “Because [executive producer] Chris Coelan came in and was like, ‘Don’t pick what you usually do.’ He was getting in my head a little bit. … [He told the women] to be open to new people and new experiences.”
After giving Adam a chance, Brittany realized that she did have a stronger connection with Mo.
“I feel, like, Mo was saying all the right things,” she said. “[He talked about] his values around family, and he’s dropping little things, [and] you can tell by people’s voices what races they are. He’s like, ‘Yeah, ‘cuz you know how we do,’ and all these things. I am very much pro-Black and everything I want to [do] is uplift. … I loved that about him.”
Brittany further explained that Mo told her that he was Muslim, which they bonded over because her father also practiced the religion. (The coach’s mom is a Christian.)
“He’s like, ‘I don’t care nothing about that,” she said of their religious beliefs. “Anything I said about what I was open to [whether] kids, everything, he’s like, ‘I don’t care anything about that. Let’s go build this life together.’”
Mo proposed to Brittany in the pods, and, after she accepted, they met in person via the “whole reveal” scene.
“I just felt, like, ‘This is so crazy. I can’t believe I came on this show and did this, and I’m about to get engaged,’” Brittany recalled. “I go through the real and Mo comes out and I see him. I’m not a super vain person … when I saw him [I noticed] you wasn’t as tall as you said you were. I was like, ‘OK, whatever alright,’ and so, we walk toward each other.”
At that moment, it “registered” in Brittany’s mind that Mo had allegedly lied about his height.
“I still was willing to accept him,” she stressed. “He seemed very nervous and I’m like, ‘I’m a whole lot of woman.’ … He’s kind of shaking a little bit. We did kiss [and] it was a little peck at first. He got on the knee, opened the box and did the proposal and everything.”
After getting engaged, Brittany and Mo — along with fellow cut couple Kylie Schuelke and Brian Sumption — spoke with producers about the cast trip to Honduras. When it was revealed that only five pairs would get to go, Brittany volunteered to stay back while reflecting on Mo’s alleged lies.
“I’m, like, ‘Let’s go back to Minnesota and get to know each other,’” Brittany recalled. “I felt that would be a little more authentic, as well, because there were a couple little signals I was getting … [and] something would come out.”
According to Brittany, she felt in her “heart of hearts” that she and Mo did not need to take the televised cast trip.
“I told [producers] I’m really interested in getting to know Mo on my own,” she said. “I ain’t here for the fame. I was trying to find me a husband.”
At the time, Brittany did not know why the show also opted against featuring their love story in the season 8 episodes. She and Mo then decided to continue dating on their own terms.
“We have the luxury of getting to know each other on our own time,” Brittany said. “We don’t have to rush anything or do anything. We’re not doing this for nobody but us and he was in agreeance.”
Days later, Mo called Brittany and told her that he “didn’t think [he] could get there” with her at all because he had never dated Black women before.
“It was hurtful in that moment to realize and have that stamp of clarity that this has been the case in Minnesota,” Brittany said. “I did know parts of his story, so I did have empathy for him still within that moment.”
Mo, for his part, has not publicly addressed the pair’s relationship or his decision to go their separate ways.
Love Is Blind is currently streaming on Netflix.
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