Love Is Blind's Raven Opens Up About Feeling 'Unprepared' by SK's Answer at Altar (2024)

This post contains spoilers from season 3 of Love Is Blind.

Raven Ross' emotions were pure and genuine during her onscreen wedding to Sikiru "SK" Alagbada on Love Is Blind.

Though Raven and SK had a nontraditional road to the altar in the Netflix hit's third season, she ultimately said "yes" to him on their wedding day. However, SK, 34, admitted that while he'd loved Raven, he could not say "yes" and marry her.

"We have a very unique and complex set of circ*mstances. I feel like today is not the best time for us to do this," he said at their wedding, which left a typically stoic Raven in tears.

Speaking to PEOPLE after the dramatic moment, Raven, 29, says SK's rejection came as a total surprise.

"I was clearly really shocked," she shares. "I feel like the whole time, I was definitely not portrayed as an emotional person. So it was probably shocking for everyone to see me be such a crybaby."

"But it was a really emotional day," she continues. "I definitely was unprepared. We had gone through this whole experience. I was definitely on cloud nine after our build-up of having a great relationship, so I was a little shocked."

In the early episodes of season three, Raven found herself developing a connection with both SK and Bartise Bowden in the pods. Her time with Bartise garnered some criticism from fans after Raven was captured doing jumping jacks while he poured his heart out about his parents' divorce in the pods.

Raven, who works as a pilates instructor, tells PEOPLE of the moment: "I'm going to own up to it: it was a horrible time to do jumping jacks. I totally take accountability for that."

Bartise later ended things with Raven and got engaged to Nancy Rodriguez, while Raven moved forward with SK and continued to develop a strong connection with him. She ultimately accepted SK's proposal with a resounding "Yessir!" — but their relationship wasn't without challenges.

In the early stages, Raven and SK struggled to form a physical intimacy. They also experienced difficulties with their different backgrounds, cultures and perspectives on family.

Things slowly progressed between the pair, but they later faced more bumps in the road while meeting each other's loved ones. In particular, Raven's friends were skeptical about their ability to maintain a long-distance relationship after learning that SK planned to move to California for two years to earn his Master's degree. Raven also expressed hesitations to relocate, noting that she enjoyed her current life and job, and "the convenience" of living in Dallas.

However, none of this seemed to phase Raven on their wedding day. "I couldn't imagine a world without you. I think we have a great future ahead of us and I really mean it when I say I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you," she told the data engineer at the altar.

Though he had a chance to explain himself on the episode — sharing, in part, that he would've felt "guilty" to pursue a marriage "when I know there are so many unanswered questions" — SK tells PEOPLE that he felt viewers didn't get to see his full extent of his love story with Raven.

"I think Raven and I's story, the way it was portrayed on the show, I kind of feel bad watching it, especially from the perspective of the audience, because a lot of our love story wasn't completely told in the way it was portrayed," he explains. "The narrative focused a lot more on some other subjects and some other incidents in the show."

"I feel like the audience missed out on that love story, on how it even came to be," he continues. "If I were watching it myself, not being in the experience, I would have a lot of blanks."

Speaking about his intentions of going to grad school and how it impacted their relationship, SK says Raven was very much aware of the plan. "In our very first conversation, I brought it up. I was like, 'I'm actually getting ready to go to grad school in the fall.' And she didn't really have a problem with that," he says. "We said we're going to do things long distance and we're going to try it out."

"But of course, it's easier said than done... when things get real and now you have to put numbers on paper," he continues. "Besides that, I've also had a very, very international life. I've lived in five countries to date, and I knew that sometime in the future, we could have a possibility of having to move somewhere else, maybe with kids even."

Given his background and plans, SK says he hoped to find a partner who would be willing to travel with him — but didn't blame Raven for not wanting to uproot her life.

"For me, it was a big deal because I knew that love should lead everywhere, wherever you're going. I don't think we had enough time to be able to get there," he says. "And also, for her to trust me, right? It's been 10 days since we'd known each other and telling someone that you just met in 10 days to leave their own dreams and come pursue your own dreams, it's got to take a lot of gut to be able to do that. And I just don't think we were there yet."

As the Love Is Blind season continues, four more couples will walk down the aisle to say "I do" — or "I don't" — and determine if love really is blind after all.

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The first ten episodes of Love Is Blind season 3 are now streaming on Netflix. The season 3 finale is set to drop on Nov. 9.