Love Is Blind EXCLUSIVE: Kieran & Meg Reveal Truth About Their Secret Relationship

44:53I need to look sensational for him. I need to be. So I think I'd had all the stress. I was like, right, I love my outfit. I feel like I'm feeling good. And I was like, I already felt like I knew what Kieran looked like as well. So I think I trusted myself so deeply. I had no idea. I was so calm. I was so not calm. I was just excited. Opposite. Are you more nervous about you disappointing her or Meg not living up to the expectation that you had? That's interesting. That's actually a really good question. And I'm not dodging the question. I actually don't know which one I was. I was nervous about both of those things.

45:29So I was basically nervous about us not connecting in like physically and like there being either me like just not quite feeling it or I could just get that feeling from Meg. she's not quite feeling it and it just not being natural that scared the life out of me because you can't hide that on tv like you people will see if you are not 100 % in this into the person yes thankfully that wasn't my experience but that was what my nervousness was and so meg you weren't concerned at all no i feel like i definitely thought about it i thought oh it'd be really bad if it is awkward but i think because we'd had this whole two weeks like this deep conversation had a giggle like we just connected so deeply i just didn't worry about that i was like we've already done that like i know him like i know him so well so it really is just the physical now yes and i think i actually was so past that point i don't think it actually would have really mattered even though i did have an idea but yeah i i'd convince myself it doesn't matter i convinced myself like i'm in love with this girl it does not matter what she looks like but i couldn't tell you if i if i walked through there and i just didn't have that i didn't have a physical attraction to meg maybe it would have made a difference i don't know i've never been in that situation before right to see to see but it probably you i don't know i have no idea it's tricky and like also like about myself i'm thinking yeah did i ever think like i don't It's really hard to think about.

47:04I think this is such an interesting topic. Yeah. Here's what the nerd in me says. I know you said you've got a nerd deep down. Yeah. I have a nerd. I have a big nerd. I'm awesome. Yeah. So good. Deep down is I would argue that the strength of your emotional connection played a significant role in your perceived physical attraction. Probably true. Yeah. Because you see this play out in sex all the time is that couples who have a stronger emotional connection have higher satisfaction sex. And you ask, well, why is that? It's because you feel so safe with the person that you feel like you can explore everything.

47:42And then also, I think there's a combined self-esteem element that's at play. I would argue that you both have a high level of self-esteem. So therefore, there's no search for external validation. It's not about, well how does Meg look with me? It's just how do I think she looks? It's not how does Kieran look to the world? It's how do I view him? And I would argue that both your strength of your emotional connection, your high self-esteem did play a role in that physical attraction. I think so for sure. I think that's right. I was instantly attracted physically. You look that way. Yeah, but it probably, yeah, it comes from that's Meg.

48:28That's the girl I'm in love with. That's probably the initial thing. And then, yeah, I mean, I also really fancied her, which is great. Did you plan the kiss or just, no? Oh, yeah, you can't plan that. No, no. I wanted to hug you. I hugged you first because I felt like I wanted to embrace her first. And then I think I stepped back. I planted the kiss on you, Adam. And then you just flew in. And I was like, yes, let's go. Yes, yes, yes. This is good. So now also, do you feel a sense of relief? Because you now know you've got the emotional, you're the physical. Now it's like. It's pure excitement.

49:04It's just. Yeah. We take off together. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's pure excitement then. Then I was just so excited. It's almost like being on a hike, wasn't it? Yeah. We were just like, this is unreal. Yeah. I was done with. This is so cool. We didn't want to leave because it's quite short, that meeting. how long is it five five a bit longer than that I reckon it's like 10-15 they don't tell you but I reckon it's about 10-15 but it feels like it goes like that and then you're being told right we need to separate you and you'll see each other in Cyprus which by the way is three days later so you don't see each other so you don't see each other for a bit and it's horrible it's horrible that short period you have that massive explosion of emotions and then it's like right see ya see ya separation back in your hotel rooms right see you never I was like Separate for three days Oh my gosh That's why you're saying goodbye Like you don't want to stop Saying goodbye As the door is closing Yeah yeah Like you don't even Fly in together It's like you All separate Boys and girls Separately Separate hotels Separate everything You see each other And then Yeah Okay okay So how was Cyprus?

50:06You have more of the Reality TV element Yes At play Yeah You know So how did you find that The cameras in your face Are a bit weird to get used to Aren't they? Yeah it was very odd Obviously it's the first day that we've seen each other after three days. So we're still like this, like, hello. Oh, you are real. You are real. I'm like looking at his hands like, what? Oh, like, okay, this is my fiancé. We're in Cyprus, okay. And we were just... But we were like this. Yeah, oh yeah. That was the most amazing thing was we were like we are now straight away. Yeah, we were very lucky. Very tactile, very like all over each other.

50:46but what i will say is in general we had the best time in cyprus like we just loved i mean ultimately we were on holiday together in a beautiful place five-star resort you know netflix is card on the room service thank you very much you know you can't really argue with that and yes we had two lots of filming we did have time on just our ourselves as well not loads but we did have time to ourselves and we just had the best time i don't we spoke to some of the other couples and i don't think they had the best time which is which is also a telling in my in my opinion but we actually just loved it didn't we yeah there was drama going on that we had no idea about so like at the pool party there's like conversations happening and we were with these couples for four weeks from that point and we had no idea about half of the stuff that was even going on but it's funny i think we were just like just having a great time you get to those mixes where all the couples are mingling and the producers would be like right can can you go and speak to x or you know how it goes right you guys speak to x we often just said no and we were like actually we want to hang out together interesting um which you start to realize you do have the power to push back yeah you don't initially realize that but you start to realize oh actually if i don't want to do this i'd just say no and then i don't have to do it yeah and we just decided that this experiment is about us as much as i actually do get on with all of those boys on the show and love them like great great people i've got time after this that i can build those friendships more and you know spend time with them i've got a very short amount of time to get to know this lady as well as i can before i bloody decide to marry her i'm going to spend every minute i can with her so i actually did that and she and meg did that too um so we didn't actually hang out with the other people that much we just spent all of our time together yeah our priorities were with each other yeah and we kind of i think the producers got that quite quickly they were like we won't ask you again what you are talking about right now i think is a massive topic that is not discussed enough when it comes to reality tv and the love genre and that is exactly what you said if you don't want to do it you don't have to do it yeah and i think this speaks to the incentive and almost your north star on the project yeah right so if it is to find love that's the top yeah and you feel like i'm finding it yeah then you're good yeah yeah you know but if the north star is brand building maybe you say yes every time the producer asks you to do something yeah Paul's about to show you a presentation he made in Adobe Express, so you better be nice.

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55:32So, you know, this is a great time to talk about there was an incident that happened, right, that I think everyone who's watched the show is aware of. Yeah. Both pulled into it. I think, Meg, you in particular were pulled into it. Yeah. But what I'd like to focus on with regard to that incident is how it impacted your relationship. Because there are certain things at play that I found very interesting. For example, I think that there is this whole notion of bro code. Yeah. There's a bit of that going on. Right. For sure. And it's like, oh, man, did Kieran break bro code? Yeah. Right. Then there's also a conversation around, well, do you always stand up for your partner in a moment of contention?

56:11Yeah. Right. And then there's girl code. Do I always tell my girls or is it my responsibility? Yeah. Right? There were so many things that were happening. I thought it was fascinating. I thought you both handled it exceptionally well. Thank you. But how would you describe what happened and how that impacted your relationship? It's a really interesting question. Yeah, it's hard to explain it. It started off with, you know, we both witnessed some behavior from one guy on the show that you wouldn't want to see from a fiance. Right. That's how I'll characterize it. Yeah. It was the behavior wasn't of one that was about to get married to someone.

56:55And then you're put in this difficult position of, I really like this guy. We got on well. Like we had a decent relationship. but Meg also really gets on with his fiance so it's like well we're sitting on some information now and are we better people for sharing the information or better people for sitting on the information and letting them figure that out themselves right and can I say that is an issue that almost every couple faces yeah at some at some part yeah like do you sit on it or do you tell yeah like what do you do so I'm curious did you both have a conversation yeah okay you Yeah, we had a day, didn't we, in between because we were both filming in different locations.

57:36So we couldn't have the conversation with them straight after. So, yeah, we had a conversation. We were like, what's the right thing to do? Like, we're also on a TV show. So how do we get this information to them without, we didn't want to be in the middle of it. Like, of course, we know this is going to cause drama. Yes. And that was the one thing we were like, we don't want to be a part of any drama because we're not interested in causing that. But it was like, the one question I asked Meg, which I think was the simple question to ask was, if we weren't on a TV show right now, what would you do?

58:14And she said, I'd tell her. Yeah. I was like, well, then do that. Yeah. She ended up leaving the experiment. And then the next day. Which was also a shock, by the way. Yeah, we didn't know that was going to happen. We didn't expect her to leave the experiment. kind of expected them to have a conversation about it and try and communicate as to you know what happened yeah i wanted to give her the information i was like you do whatever you want with that information but i just need you to know that because if it was the other way around i would have absolutely wanted you to tell me but then yeah the sort of fully answering your question the bro code thing was interesting because i was i don't want to wrap my guy out right right but at the same time like i know what's right and wrong and i know some of the stuff that said and some of the behavior was was not right and so i backed megan going and telling um his fiance and then when he then essentially wanted to call us out for doing that then it was like oh okay now i'm now i'm involved yes because because i backed you know my fiance in in her telling um yeah telling telling her and i think she's done the right thing so if another guy is gonna call her out for that i need to be there to support her and make sure that yeah that he knows that what he did was wrong and this is not mine and meg's issue this is your issue you guys need to go and talk about that right i really appreciate that from kieran he was he was a great little cheerleader on the way there.

59:52It gets quite heated. I had no idea. I wasn't prepared to have a conversation like that. I don't know what I was. I think I was just on a different planet. I think I look at everything airy-fairy. I mean, watching it, I can't imagine what it was like in the room. Yeah. So now we're talking about the second conversation where you both come to talk to the gentleman. Yes. Yeah. And in that, I thought, wow, because you're aware that she's left at that point. Yeah. Yeah. So you know he's heated. Yeah. yeah well i i actually sat meg down before we went into the room um off camera and because i know megan very well um and you know megan won't back down if she thinks she's in the right which is an amazing quality but it also means if i i knew how he was going to respond because all he you know all you can do in that situation is get defensive try and focus on semantics certain things that like you could try and like make someone look like they're lying because they've got certain little elements of the story wrong right that's how he was going to approach the conversation and i knew that before he went in so i said to meg just don't don't get your back up because ultimately all you need to say is look i saw what i saw so i said what i said your problem you go and deal with it like this is not my issue it got really heated in the room as i knew it would and meg hit the roof as as i knew she would because she doesn't she doesn't say bullshit which I love about her um but I was then trying to sort of be the calm in the room and be like maybe we don't need to like get angry or emotional we've done the right thing like let's just be confident in that um but yeah it got it got quite emotional and heated yeah I didn't expect it I think as well you did warn me but I was like no it's gonna be fine but we ended up going around in circles it was actually way longer than it looked on the yeah tv um and I just got very frustrated after a while and I was like you know what agree to disagree like is what it is and let's just leave that there like and but but what I saw is then it looked like you left the room I did leave the room and you started crying yeah I did cry yeah I actually left the room at that point which you don't see so I ran after Meg and consoled her and then I came back to the room to finish the conversation one-on-one and then we wrapped up and we we went off yeah it's quite yeah well emotional wasn't it so how it was left though it appeared as if you still had a relationship yeah with the gentleman like you were cordial yeah he was cordial with you yeah right but that your relationship with him was over yeah yeah i think that's probably a fair synopsis yeah so so then how is that maintained as a couple because it's it's interesting uh my wife and i have had situations where um it's been similar right yeah where she's blown up on someone right i'm like but that's still my man stuff it's tough what do you do yeah i think that's how you have to deal with it like you have to be like look i appreciate that's a bad situation deserves to be called out he's wrong um i back you to the hills on that like we're together on that doesn't mean I'm not going to go for a beer with him because he's not all bad, you know?

1:03:05All right. I mean, I don't think you guys have had an argument yet. I don't want you to have an argument right now. But we communicate properly. No, we do, we do. We talk about this stuff. And I'm aware that we're different human beings and you're going to get, like, you spent all that time with Jav and you are pally with him and I didn't have that relationship with him. So it's like, that's fine. That's like, that's fine. I'm happy to not have a relationship with him. But one last topic that I want to mention within this is how masculinity is perceived. I love that you brought us up. In particular, on television.

1:03:40Yeah. Because I had no idea how influential TV was when I first started doing television. Yeah. I was like, okay, this is entertainment. But what I've realized is that many people do take their cues based on what they see. Yeah. And they think about the world in terms of its possibilities as well as limitations based on what they see. And we're living in a day and age right now where there's a lot of complaints around men's behavior, specifically on reality shows. Right. So, Kieran, in particular, did you feel a responsibility to show up in a particular way on this program? No, I don't think I felt a responsibility to show up in a particular way.

1:04:24I think I just wanted to be myself, but I think... only after the show so in the last sort of few weeks since it's been airing you've seen some other other reality shows come out where yeah men haven't behaved brilliantly um that's that's very politically correct men haven't behaved in the right ways um and you see some examples of it on our show as well and we you know coming out of it we're getting a lot of questions and there's this real feeling about you know girl power and girls sticking together which is amazing and i i fully back that and there's some beautiful beautiful examples of that on our show um yeah meg's involved in in some of them which is which is amazing but what i don't want it to turn to is men are shit you know men are terrible all men are terrible like how am i supposed to find a man in this world they're all rubbish examples of human beings and and i feel like those two things unfortunately are linked and they shouldn't be um and i do think there are a lot of poor examples out there of men on reality tv at the moment um and in the wider world which ultimately is having a negative impact on young men because all they're growing up with is the men are shit uh line which is what is being portrayed and then they will turn to examples of masculinity that are like men are great be a man you know you can um we think you're strong be strong and and just the wrong types of masculinity in my opinion um and toxic masculinity and that's what they grow up believing they you know oh well these people like me these people care about me so i'm going to be more like that yes and that's really dangerous um so i didn't feel a responsibility because i ultimately just wanted to be myself but what i hope is that i was an example of a good version of masculinity that's that's what i hope and um i want to continue to be that and i'm still learning like meg's taught me a lot in in the last year um being with her about you know what what she expects of a man and you know what i think i'm still learning i don't think i'm the perfect example of it but i like to think that i'm not a bad example of it yeah fair enough you know what's your take on it because oftentimes when especially uh in this podcast i have conversations with men about masculinity yeah i love to have it with a woman if i could right I find it really, really difficult to articulate myself in this area.

1:06:58But yeah, I think we all should expect more. Yeah. And to answer your question, I think you're doing an amazing job. Yeah. Thank you. I think, you know, I didn't listen to your podcast until I was with Megan. And now I've listened to, you know, the John Stevens episodes, the Youngblood episodes. I love those guys. And I think they're brilliant examples of masculinity. and I think you articulate it much better than I will ever articulate it but um yeah I now feel a bit more of a responsibility I would say to um yeah to educate young men on like how to handle themselves and not to fall into the trap of watching people like Andrew Tate and all these absolute um yeah expletives insert here people that that are just versions of toxic masculinity Yeah.

1:07:49Well said both of you. I was flustered then, sorry. No, no, no. Because it's interesting, you've both been thrusted into this role, a role that you probably didn't ever think that you would have. But now you do. Yeah. And it's interesting, you know, with the platform comes responsibility. Yeah. And I like that you're stepping up to that responsibility. But it's only since you get the messages below, you know, I'm trying to experiment a bit more with my fashion, right? Since meeting Meg, not just since the show. And, you know, the comments that you get are just like, are we in like the 1800s? Like, what's going on here, guys?

1:08:27What are the comments that you get? Oh, Kieran's a homo. You know, he looks like a lesbian. And it's just like, do you know what? You're not actually who I care about. You're not my target audience. if you can't appreciate what I'm trying to do here then sorry to you I feel sorry for you I think what you're doing is amazing Bab I love it I love it it's so nice to see like a man who's like brave enough to go out and be like no actually I'm gonna wear something totally different to everyone else like no matter what anyone says I feel good therefore I'm just gonna rock with it and like people who matter will give you the approach to them with Rubel won't they You're like, yeah, great.

1:09:08Like, if people don't like it, they don't like it. You're not going to please everyone. And I think at the end of the day, you just got to roll with it. Yeah, you got to roll with it. So I'd say I am so there. I am so there to the point where I do the same thing. I have actually refused to wear a blazer for the next year. Oh, I love that. Oh, damn. Yeah. Proud of you. And actually, for the last year, I haven't worn a blazer. It's very hard to do as an expert on television to not wear a blazer. Yeah. It's hard, actually. But it's the same thing. I think, you know, I always say I want to express myself and how I feel.

1:09:43And when I walk out of the house, I want to feel good. And I don't need anyone else to tell me you look a certain way. Like, Paul, that's terrible. That's ridiculous. Why are you wearing this? You know, I get comments all the time. You know, there was one show where someone said, I'd like to burn Paul's wardrobe for the entire series. Like, I just want to burn his wardrobe. and when I read that I was like yes yeah yeah I'm kind of loving that I'm kind of loving the hate comments because I'm like okay we're changing people are talking about it it's like going back to the masculinity thing it's hopefully shaping people's views on what masculinity is which is ultimately whatever you bloody want it to be yes so yeah it's cool I'm up for it yeah throw the hate yes yes but obviously you're taking your cue from your style icon exactly I mean she was always on it really yeah i i give i give meg a 10 10 on her looks on love is blind 10 10 across the board uh so but you said that you get some comments that are a little bit off yeah like especially well the first images that came out of us um they were edited they did they did my girl dirty i was done quite dirty but yeah my outfit choice see i thought i was going bold i was like right I'm going bright pink, blazer two-piece, diamond-teed hearts all over it.

1:11:02It's giving love. Love is blind. People were ripping into me. What the hell is she wearing? This is outrageous. Who do you think you are? I was like, what? I thought I slayed. Yes. But yeah, throughout it as well, I got told I looked like a runner bean on fire at the reunion. We had gigging at all. I did love that, to be fair. I thought that was so funny. I was like, fair play. I was like, actually, that was quite good. But yeah, people are always going to hate it. I think we're learning that quite quickly. Yeah, yeah. No matter what you put out there, like, not everyone's going to love it. So now, can we go back to Cyprus?

1:11:36Yes. Oh, yeah. All right. So just between Cyprus, which was your honeymoon. Well, no, no, I'm sorry. That's not your honeymoon. That's your pre-moon. Pre-moon. Yeah. Pre-moon. Okay. It's your pre-moon all the way through to you then see each other's family, friends, et cetera. And then ultimately it leads to the wedding. And Meg, did you say that's a three-week period? Roughly, yeah. Roughly. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So in that time, was there anything that really shocked you, like really surprised you? Not necessarily about your partner, but maybe about the process, maybe about love, maybe the preparation of getting married.

1:12:10Was there anything that truly stood out to you during that three-week period? I think there was only kind of a one sort of like two-day period, I want to say, where we felt a bit overwhelmed throughout the whole process. what was encouraging was that we both felt overwhelmed at the same time and we would like go on walks together off camera to like discuss how we're feeling and again just communication really strong and i think it was at the time it was quite early on after cyprus we just moved in together in in manchester we're just sort of getting used to living together although that was pretty easy to be fair um and you just get thrown like guys because of uh how long you need to um give notice to have a legal uh wedding you need to sign some stuff now you need to start picking things for the for the wedding like flowers and like all of this stuff before we even know whether we're actually going to get married and we were like well scary what are we actually signing up to here and i think we had a it wasn't a wobble necessarily because we were so good at communicating through it but it was like a i'm a bit overwhelmed i think i was like staring into the abyss and you're like you're okay meg and i was like we're just we're picking out a wedding cake like my brain can't process that like that's crazy yeah um but did you at any point especially during that period think about walking away i think we had a conversation didn't we i think we were like right we've got two weeks from now to learn as much about each other do what we need to do and if we don't feel like we're ready to get married we'll leave the experiment together but like an off-screen agreement yeah we would never go to the aisle and and be like oh yeah like is someone going to say no we were never going to do that to each other again that comes back to like what the producers would want you to do and what actually you have to do you have no obligation to go to that aisle we'd built such a connection clearly i never i never would have put megan a wedding dress if i wasn't gonna see yes to her firstly because i just think what a traumatic experience to put someone through that you just don't need to put them through that i never would have asked her to bring her family there if i wasn't gonna see yes to her and i think she felt the same you know back and we basically had an agreement we said if we're not doing it we're not doing it so by the time we were there i was 99.9 sure that we were we were doing it um obviously there's always the the slight risk of these things but yeah i was i was not so sure so then And going into the wedding then, where is the wedding?

1:14:43In Aberdeen. We actually did it up in Scotland. Scotland. Yeah, so those family members are actually flying. They're flying up. To Aberdeen. Yeah. It's not even around the corner. It's like they're taking the day off work. Yeah. Some of them are paying themselves to go up there. My mates, bless them, because it was such like last minute. They took the day off work on the Wednesday, and they were getting the flights back the Thursday early morning, the 6 a.m. flight, to then go to work in the office at 9 a.m. Yeah. I was like, fair play, guys. Yeah, loads of friends. of families with that. Sacrifice.

1:15:11Yeah. Are you limited in how many people you can invite? Yeah. You are, okay. 20 each side. So it's like a 40-person wedding, which actually, we are going to, by the way, we're going to renew vows and we're going to do a bigger one, which is going to be really fun in April. A love party. Yeah, we're calling it a love party. A love party. Yeah. So we're calling it, which is going to be fun. But we, but if I was to do it again, that is the amount of people I would have. It was so nice to have it quite intimate. We weren't going around talking to people we hadn't spoken to in years. it was all of our closest people um obviously some people couldn't make it and we'd love them to be there but generally it was it was all of our closest people and yeah i would have done it like that again yeah netflix absolutely smashed it we were like this is unreal it was beautiful yeah it was beautiful we were so happy and especially once you get past that altar part is there a the preamble i would imagine there's that one percent the point zero zero 0 ,1 % of tension comes because there's the walk.

1:16:10You know, you see friends and family are there. You know, so that heightens. I was an emotional wreck. I don't know if you saw that, but I couldn't get my words out. I literally couldn't speak. I was, yeah, I was blubbing, wasn't I? You were cute. I mean, you got emotional with your father. Yes. Yeah, that was the first time in the day that I got emotional. and it's weird because you know it's it's tv it's reality tv so like i can see my dad standing there waiting to get his cue to come speak to me so it's not completely natural but then as soon as we were in that conversation it just like you i didn't even think about the cameras it just felt like really real and it was real because i was getting married and my dad was speaking to his son who was getting married that day so that's the beauty of reality tv it's bloody mad isn't it right the emotions and the stories that it pulls from you yeah you know meg a story that you told that was just it broke my heart and then i thought about i thought about it of course when you mentioned it earlier in the pods but then um later at your wedding is when you were when you were your father you were working somewhere oh yeah when i was working in the pub in the pub yeah father you know so you were working in the pub how old were you at that point I must have been 18 you were 18 yeah and this is your biological father yes comes into the pub and you had not yet met him is that what's the story I don't want to I hadn't seen him since I was about six years old um so yeah my mom and him broke up when I was a baby um I'd only see him like on Wednesdays and then from the age of six I didn't see him anymore I just knew it was him um very strange experience like very surreal and I was serving them I was like hello what would you like like pouring them a beer um he didn't say anything his partner was just speaking to me it was just very odd like I think he was looking around didn't know what to do with himself and yeah it turned to my best friend I was working with like I think I've just served my dad and she was like she knew the whole situation she was like you go home do your thing um came back the next week and it left me a card and it just it didn't really have much in it it was just like hey meg there's lots of people wish they knew you have a good christmas and birthday because it was around christmas time um yeah and i was like okay like what do i what do i do with that like it's just it's such a surreal moment like even now i was wrong about it i'm like yeah that did happen but again I feel like I just blocked it out yeah so you hadn't so then for what I understand you you didn't speak you haven't spoken to your father no since that moment no his partner did actually message me on Facebook after that which was a very interesting situation um she messaged me saying you really look like your dad that was it and I was like such an like odd thing It's an odd thing to send someone that you don't know.

1:19:13And I don't know if he speaks about me. I don't know. So, yeah, just very surreal situation. But never spoken to him. He lives in Brighton, where I've always lived, around the corner. Like, we could have had a relationship quite easily, I feel. But it's just never happened. So, yeah, I think that probably has had a big impact in my life without me really realizing. I think you realize. Yeah. I think you realize. but I'll tell you why I thought about that story at your wedding because I thought wow there's a good chance your father is watching yeah this yeah did you think that that he could be yeah I don't I don't really think about it too much but I do remember them asking like would you like him to come and I was like no I'm not speaking to him I wouldn't want him to come but yeah I have thought about if he's watched it and like what he's thinking I but again I don't know him he's a stranger to me I don't know anything about him I don't know what he does I don't know he might have kids I might have siblings that I don't have a clue about so yeah to me I've I didn't I don't really need to have a relationship with him anymore I've gone through my life I've gone through my childhood i've had a father figure who has been amazing and my mom's always been amazing and yeah so i just kind of again i blocked him out a bit yeah fair enough fair enough it was one of those where that's what came over my mind watching the the wedding and i think i think about these things now because i am a father and i don't and and there's there's a part of my calculation of being a father that I don't understand how you can be aware that you have a child that you don't see and talk to and look after and care for and the impact that it makes then on that child.

1:21:12Yeah. And how they then show up in the world and then how they love. And I think you've done an extraordinary job of showing up in this world in a full way. You know what I mean? Without having that particular aspect of love from your biological father, but you've had love, obviously, from so many other incredible people in your life. And I think that's why this union is so special to me, because now you not only have a partner who you are in love with, but I can imagine that you two are going to have a massive family like massive i like truly you might like am i just saying this or are you going to have a massive family i think yeah we feel very passionately about we could have a massive family we could have a good size family i don't know i have to pop them out about you can pop some out as well that'd be good so then you get married you're officially married right but that's a year before the show comes out yeah so then you have to keep this relationship secret yeah for a year yes oh yeah how do you do that it's so mad isn't it like i mean i i introduced uh meg as my girlfriend to everyone right so she was my girlfriend and we had a whole um backstory as to how we met um which was that i was sat having a coffee in a um in a coffee shop in king's cross and meg walked in to order a coffee and i was like wow she's she's hot i'm going to get a number and i walked up to her approached her in the coffee shop and got a number and that's how we met that's that's what we tell people we thought we'd make it a bit spicy and someone was like just say like hinge or and i was like no we may as well make this fun you know like cute yeah keep keep you know keep the excitement alive because everyone we told were like that never happens oh my gosh you're so lucky oh my gosh i hope that happens to me and we're like at least we're like keeping you know the like yeah the spark alive like giving people We were like, that's nice.

1:23:12I think people now watching it are like, oh, it never happened. You lied. You lied to us. You lied to us. You met in a pot. Yeah. I think how we met was even cooler, to be fair. Yeah, exactly. But yeah, it's been really hard keeping it a secret for a whole year. Yeah, there's been a few viral TikToks that have managed to figure out. Like when the show first came out a few weeks ago, they'd gone through our Instagrams and managed to find, like, we're wearing the same wristband, which actually was a hotel wristband in Ibiza that you needed to get back into the hotel. Oh my gosh. I've seen it. And even though I tagged that photo as me being in Greece, to throw people off the scent, like they'd figured it out.

1:23:47And also my stepmom has a painting that manages to creep into the back of a couple of photos that we've got on our own Instagrams. And she was very excited that her painting was in Cosmopolitan. Or even people were zooming in on like, Kieran had sunglasses on and I'd taken the picture. People had zoomed in. Oh, to see the reflection. To see the reflection. It was really faint of me in my Brazil top. It was mad. Yeah, and they were like, Megan took that picture. I was like, oh my gosh, we've been done in. We thought we were so good. We thought we'd smashed it. Not as good as you thought. We can't fool them.

1:24:19But I think the beauty, though, is you had a year as a couple together before all of the fanfare. I think we maybe accelerated in that year to try and experience as much as we possibly could because we knew we were going to be in the public eye in a year's time. So we were like, let's go on as many holidays as we can. Let's go to as many gigs as we can, festivals, just like let's experience as much as we can together. Because even now, like when we're out together, we are getting recognized. We're getting pictures taken. Like it's a new, that's a whole new thing for us. It's crazy. And we knew that was potentially happening.

1:24:54We didn't know how big that was going to be or how much it was going to block. We knew that was potentially coming. So we had this year of not being in the public eye, which we were so grateful of and just helped solidify our relationship really. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's been a yes, yeah. Like, we're just... Yeah. We've not stopped, have we? No. Yes to everything. Yeah, we'll go here. Yeah, we'll go there. Let's just experience as much as we can. It's so important to say yes. Yeah. Now, I have a gift for both of you. Oh. And knowing that you two are geniuses, you both are geniuses. What is this?

1:25:27This is my gift. Oh. This is a gift that I have not given to any other guest here on We Need to Talk. Oh. This is a letter that I wrote to both of you. Oh, my God. And if you would allow me, I'd like to read it to you. I'm going to cry. I'm going to cry. Oh, that is amazing. Okay. You ready for this? Yeah, we're ready. I need to sit up. Get ready. Get ready. Okay. Okay. And I'm thankful that Meg allowed me to call her Meg because I start the letter Meg. Ciaran. Meg and Kieran, I'm going to give this to you right after I read this. Oh, thank you so much. First off, congratulations are in order.

1:26:10Saying yes to a marriage is always a bold move. But saying yes, sight unseen, well, that takes courage and faith on another level. Now, you've joined a very rare group of people. You talked about this earlier, Kieran, who have literally chosen love before seeing the face in front of you. Now, that's powerful. As you step into this next chapter, I thought I'd pass along a few lessons from over 20 years of marriage with my wife, Jill. Consider these less like commandments and more like tools. All right? Use them. Remix them. Laugh at them. You need to, but don't forget them. Okay, don't forget these.

1:26:54Now, here are the seven tips for both of you. Number one, and this is in no particular order, okay? Keep the fights clean. Keep the fights clean. Conflict is healthy. Stonewalling isn't. Argue as teammates against the problem, not opponents against each other. And learn the magic word, sorry. Use that often. Number two, passion is a practice. It's not solely about sex. It's in the small daily acts, compliments, quality time, gratitude that build intimacy. And here's a hot take that many people will disagree with me on, but I know this to be a fact. And that is scheduling sex is not always unromantic.

1:27:42Okay? It can be strategic when you are busy and you have all those adopted kids, okay? Trust me. Trust me. All right. Number three, trust is built in the small things. Call when you say you will call. Show up when you say you will show up. Deliver on your word. Consistency equals safety. And I would argue that's how you fell in love with each other is through your consistency to each other. Number four, stay curious about each other. Stagnation is the silent killer of marriages. Relationships don't stay the same. They grow or they wither. Keep asking almost every day, how are we doing as a couple?

1:28:29We had Nadia Hussain on. Phenomenal conversation. And she talked about how her husband, her and her husband, rate each other every night. Wow. Zero to 10 scale. That's amazing. But they're checking in. It's very important to check in. How are we doing as a couple? That's cool. Number five, don't outsource your relationship. Your friends are not your marriage therapists. Seek proper counsel, not casual advice. There's a big difference. Number six, boundaries matter. Know them. Hold on to them. even with the most loving partner, ignoring your boundaries invites resentment. And number seven, last but not least, keep the sex dirty.

1:29:23Enough said on that. That was my favorite. Of course it is. Of course it is. Dirty dog. I saw those hips moving. I saw it. I saw it. I get to work. I'm sorry. Sorry. He's going crazy now. He's carried away. I'm sorry. He's going crazy. He's on my day. He's off. All right. The key to a successful marriage isn't avoiding challenges. Far from it. You want to face those challenges together, hand in hand, sometimes with tears, sometimes with laughter, but always with intention. Jill and I are still figuring it out after decades. And honestly, that's the part of what keeps things exciting. I wish you both nothing but joy, growth, and plenty of clean fights and a bit of dirty fun along the way with love and respect, Paul.

1:30:24Oh, my God. Thank you so much. That's beautiful. To both of you. That's so nice. We're going to have to frame that. That is to both of you. That is getting framed. Thank you so much. Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much. I think you both are exceptional. I've truly enjoyed watching your love story. I like how you've stood on, you've spoken truth to power through your, you know, through at least what I saw. Can't imagine what was not aired. I think there were some very hard moments where you, where many people would have backed down in those moments. but you stood up. But most importantly, you stood up together.

1:31:07And I think that you two are one of the most outstanding love stories I've ever seen depicted on television. Oh, wow. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I wish you so much good fortune in the future. So then last question, everyone gets this and I want to remix your question a little bit. So the question typically is, if you think back throughout your entire life, what's the most memorable conversation you've had? who was it with what did you learn but i want you just to think about love is blind okay the experiment during that time what was the most memorable conversation that you had who was it with what did you learn it doesn't have to be with each other it could be with a producer it could be with someone else that you dated in the pod it could be with now uh you know if you're on a press run talking to a journalist yeah uh but it could be with each other what was the most memorable conversation that you had in the experiment throughout that experiment who was it with what did you learn i mean there's probably for me two that jumps to mind one i won't talk about because half of it is depicted on television which was when we start talking about our families um in the pods that's probably the most memorable conversation i had with meg throughout the whole and it goes a lot deeper and a lot longer than you see on tv but a lot of it is to pitch on tv so i won't delve into that one the other one is when we were in manchester um living together and we just started to be slightly overwhelmed by the experiment for the first time one of my best friends harry uh rang me and i took the conversation away from meg so i went out onto the balcony so it was just me talking to harry and he really quizzed me on why i was continuing with the experiment so he was like look you found someone you like that's great why on earth are you continuing this experiment and thinking about getting married that's ridiculous and he really quizzed me and he'd written notes bless him and he went through his page of notes of like all the things i've like that he would like to ask me before he feels he can back this and he's really considered in the way he approached it and he went through all of these things and i was so grateful because by the end of it i felt sure that i was doing the right thing by staying in the experiment whereas i had felt a bit overwhelmed at that point and a bit wobbly after basically talking him through all of the reasons i was like almost then like started to believe it myself and was like thank you for asking those questions because now i think i'm right where i need to be Yes, look at that.

1:33:52Look at that. Love it. Harry. Harry for the win. Harry. Go on, Harry. Is Harry your genius friend? He's not, but he is very clever. He's very clever. All your friends are very clever, to be fair. Yeah, there's some clever boys. We did a pub quiz. I was like, Jesus. I'm never going back. No, I was like, any questions about the Kardashians? I'm like, guys, I've got this. What? I've got my forte. I feel like mine was quite similar. it was with my best friend as well India she was very apprehensive about me going on the show she was she knows what I'm like she knew that I'm a loose cannon I was gonna do whatever I wanted to do but she was like is that the right thing to do like do you really think this is right like you could get married like she just wasn't sold on the idea um and then when we got to Manchester and I'd finally got my phone back and I got to speak to her and we dove deep about everything that had happened that explained the whole situation with Kieran and she did the same she absolutely grilled me she went in and was asking me every single question under the sun and we got to the end and she was like Meg I'm so proud of you she was like you know what I can hear it in your voice I can hear it I can see how you are you're literally beaming you're glowing and that's all I need to see she was like that's it and she's like I can tell this is right you you ride the wave you do what you need to do she's I'm going to support you regardless so I think yeah it's probably exact same timing for us but I think we were like our besties have got our back and how incredible it was just so beautiful that they all came together at the wedding and they were all so supportive of the whole thing by the time we actually decided we were we were going to do it yeah we were so lucky that everyone was on board I think that's why they didn't show our families and our friends meets either because there was no drama.

1:35:48Everyone was so supportive. And I think they understood me and Kieran to such a level that they were like, we see it and we get it. As crazy as this is, we didn't think we would, but now we've seen it. This makes sense. So that was really lovely. Yeah, yeah. No, I love it. Like, there's so much about not only the relationship that I love, but also how you were able to navigate television. I think that's an entire conversation that's very important because more and more people are getting representation, not just on television, but in digital world, right? Yeah. It's very accessible now. Yeah. But unfortunately, many people allow themselves to fall victim to the machine, if you will.

1:36:31But I think you two did an exceptional job at understanding the mission, right, and accomplishing that mission. And I just wish you so much, you know, love and joy in the future. If there's ever anything I can do to support either of you, please let me know. But continue, continue to most importantly stand together. Thank you so much. Thank you, we will. You're a legend. Thank you. Yeah, you are literally unbelievable. Kieran and Meg. I love them. You know, I was hoping that I would love them. because, you know, I watched them obviously on Love is Blind and really loved what I saw, but I know it's reality television.

1:37:15You don't always get what you see. So I was hoping that I would get what I saw, and I got more than that. They were wonderful. What I loved about how they did it and how they maintained such a strong relationship is through their consistent, frequent communication. The more closed off we are, the less opportunity we have to actually meet and connect with someone. And so what Meg and Kieran represent are two people who are completely open in their methods and willingness to meet someone. That's a place that we could all benefit from. People often talk about the divorce rate is between 35 % and 50%, depending on the country.

1:38:00but the breakup rate is much higher for couples who are just casually dating. It's much higher. So you think, well, why do people break up? Well, the number one reason that people break up is miscommunication. Well, when you add the element of the public and the popularity of a show and the pressure that's placed on you, communication becomes even more important. So you could see where it's very easy for a couple to break up. And I tell you what, I mean, I may have to eat these words one day, but I don't think I will, is that truly they're one of the strongest couples I've ever seen come from a reality television show.

1:38:43And I've been doing this for a decade.

1:38:55Thank you.