Love Is Blind season 6 star Jimmy Presnell is taking responsibility for Chelsea Blackwell going viral after she compared herself to Megan Fox.
“Chelsea is getting a ton of heat, and I should take blame for the heat because it was my reaction that got all the clicks,” Jimmy, 28, exclusively told Us Weekly while promoting season 6 of the Netflix series. “It was my reaction where I’m like, my mouth dropped and my eyes got huge, so I could have done a better job of not blowing it out of proportion.”
Chelsea, 31, made headlines earlier this month when episode 1 showed her getting to know Jimmy in the pods. During a conversation about each other’s appearance, Chelsea claimed that she resembled Fox, 37, because of her dark hair and light eyes. Although Chelsea made it clear she “doesn’t see” the similarities, the comparison worked on Jimmy, who asked her, “Can we get married?”
The comments quickly went viral online, with fans arguing about whether Chelsea was accurate in her depiction. Some viewers felt like the flight attendant had misrepresented herself, while others could see the vision.
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Jimmy, for his part, does think Chelsea “resembles” the Transformers star, but he doesn’t think the pair actually “look” alike. He does, however, find Chelsea “beautiful” regardless.
Jimmy Presnell and Chelsea Blackwell Courtesy of Netflix
“To be fair, that woman didn’t say, I look like Megan Fox. She said, ‘People tell me,’” he explained to Us. “But I heard that and I was so excited. So yeah, maybe my bad. She’s getting a lot of heat and she doesn’t deserve it. She’s an amazing person and I will shield her from all that s—t if I need to. I can speak numbers to how she is as a person, and if they want to hate on somebody, they should hate on me. She don’t deserve it.”
Chelsea, meanwhile, isn’t sure where she stands when it comes to blaming Jimmy for the internet backlash. “I want to say yes, [I do blame him]. I want to say no,” she told Us. “I said it, but I think the whole point of why it blew up so big is because the whole ‘she lied’ thing.”
Despite who she holds responsible for the drama, Chelsea noted that the conversation never should have sparked controversy at all.
Megan Fox Theo Wargo/Getty Images
“It was such a silly, goofy conversation that him and I had,” she said. “I didn’t even think or remember saying it. So the fact that it’s blown up to proportions of this magnitude is mind-blowing.”
Chelsea first addressed the drama after the first batch of episodes dropped on February 14, taking to Instagram to share a video of herself dancing to Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” and captioning the post: “Go on a show for love > get your butt dragged through the trenches.”
A few days later, Chelsea asked for backup on her claims. “This would be a great time for the people who have ever told me that I resembled her to come forward,” she quipped in a February 21 TikTok video. “Please! I’m begging you.”
Whether it was the allure of Fox or something else entirely, Jimmy did get on one knee and proposed to Chelsea in the pods. The couple’s bliss was shortlived, as they later found themselves at odds after meeting face to face. While Jimmy admitted there have been some “hard” moments to watch, he insisted the duo’s love is real.
“I didn’t think they did Chelsea and I’s relationship a whole lot of justice,” he told Us. “I mean, I would’ve left [if we weren’t happy]. There was some awkward cringey moments in there. … But I just feel like they didn’t do enough justice to how we were as a relationship and the happiness that we’re involved in what was keeping us there and why we were fighting. We loved each other.”
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Chelsea, for her part, agreed “100 percent” that the show failed to highlight the couple’s happier times.
“There were so many moments that were not aired. The connection we had on the pods was not aired at all, and it was so strong and so deep,” she told Us. “The little moments that we had together and in [the Dominican Republic], where we just knew, I knew, I made the right decision on picking Jimmy.”
New episodes of Love Is Blind season 6 air Wednesdays on Netflix
