Spoilers for the Love is Blind season 8 finale ahead. Ever since its early seasons, politics has come up in Netflix’s reality TV hit Love Is Blind in some capacity, from interracial dating to birth control to more direct discussions about political parties. However, politics has rarely been the main factor in whether a couple makes it from the sight-unseen pods to their wedding day, a month later.
Enter 29-year-old oncology nurse Sara Carton and 28-year-old developer Ben Mezzenga, two members of Love Is Blind season 8’s Minnesota-based cast. From the first moment viewers meet them in the pods, it’s clear that the pair are in different places on the political spectrum, but they love each other to get engaged and try to build a life together. Even as an off-screen TikTok scandal threatened to break them apart, their eventual “I do” or “I don’t” came down to whether they could compromise their faith.
If you’re behind on Love Is Blind season 8 or need to catch up on the season before the March 9 reunion, here’s a refresher on all things about Sara and Ben’s relationship—including their responses to the TikTok allegations, and whether they may still be together after the show.
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What happened between Sara and Ben in ‘Love Is Blind’ season 8?
When she arrives on season 8, oncology and bone marrow nurse Sara admits that she doesn’t have a type in terms of looks, with her exes’ only common denominator being that they’re funny. She seems to find an easy banter with developer Ben, as they bond over their childhood memories and try each other’s dads’ steaks one day. However, they quickly discuss religion and politics and find out that they have differing views.
Ben tells her he grew up in a “strong Christian household” and attends church every Sunday. Meanwhile, Sara was raised Catholic but is no longer religious. Her sister Lisa is lesbian, and Sara is uncomfortable with the church’s stance against LGBTQ+ people. When she asks if he’ll be her straight husband at Pride, Ben says “100 percent,” but he also sounds a bit stilted. “No discomfort around that community at all,” he says before explaining that he became open-minded after meeting more people at college. He later adds that he “supports that community” and has friends who are “that way.”
Still, this openness means a lot to Sara, who tells him she’d be okay going to church with him if they find one that “accepts all people and others.” (Sara also alludes that she’s been dumped by other guys in the pods after having a similar conversation with them, which is…interesting.)
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Even though the pair have fun together—Ben accidentally says, “[I] love you” by episode 4—Sara wants to be able to talk to him about politics. She says that she didn’t become interested in politics until Donald Trump came into office, and later with the police killing of George Floyd, which happened in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Ben responds, “I’m kind of ignorant towards that stuff. Like, I didn’t vote in the last election. As long as I don’t know, it’s not gonna, you know, do much, so…I’ve kind of just been staying out of it.”
Sara immediately calls him out and says that’s “so annoying.” She’s not calling him “actively racist,” but she points out how it’s “not right at all” that he keeps his head in the sand. (Fans have been divided on how little she pushed back.) Ben asks if Sara could marry someone if they didn’t “fully believe” in her views, and she doesn’t say no. “I love to learn about other viewpoints. As long as there’s a discussion,” she responds, adding that she does need someone to be “on the same page” with her about “basic human rights, equality.” Later in a confessional, Sara says she “can’t teach” fundamental values, but it doesn’t seem to be a dealbreaker.
It’s a bummer that we mostly see these heavy conversations about Ben and Sara’s relationship in the pods, as they don’t have many cute speaking moments onscreen. The biggest one is in episode 5 when they lay on the floor with their heads against the pod wall to get as physically close as possible. Still, there’s something there.
During their final date, Sara says she likes him but needs reassurance because social causes have been a big part of her personhood over the past years. Ben responds that he’s motivated to learn more and thinks they “will be on the same side.” Ben tells her to envision him on his right knee as he proposes, and she says yes!
Ben and Sara during their reveal.
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Ben and Sara have a very joyful reveal—him sprinting towards her is quite cute—and they’re shaking as they say how excited they are about each other. They also have a natural physical chemistry that’s helped by how conventionally hot they find each other. Ben keeps pulling Sara in front of mirrors so they can look at their shared reflection, and he acknowledges that they’re probably not the best couple to prove the “love is blind” theory. (Once again, Netflix, consider casting other kinds of people!) Their time in Honduras is honestly the textbook example of cloud nine.
They’re still flying pretty high when they arrive back in Minnesota, assuring their friends and family offscreen that they don’t feel pressured. They’re excited! Sara even meets some of Ben’s friends, who are super nice to her. One of the women mentions that she has a girlfriend, and another is agnostic and has never gone to church. It goes so well that some fans even theorized that Ben could’ve coached the group before filming. (His friend Lana came forward to shut those rumors down and confirm they weren’t paid actors.)
Ben and Sara (far left) meet Ben’s friends.
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Despite all this, Ben and Sara aren’t one of the golden couples of this season. At this point, the pair are due for a speed bump, which arrives at the end of episode 9. The conversation begins with Sara gushing over how happy she is that she met Ben and how much she loves him before he gets up and she scrolls through her phone. She emits an audible gasp as she tells Ben that an unknown girl has posted a video on TikTok crying about reality TV “celebrating shitty men.” It has leaked that Love Is Blind is filming, and after Sara pulls up the video, Ben admits that he saw the clip earlier and thinks the woman is referencing him and how he ghosted her. He claims the woman is “making stuff up [and] overreacting” and doesn’t have to explain anything to Sara. He claims he briefly dated the woman four years ago, never hooked up with her, and “doesn’t even remember” why he ghosted her.
“How could you not remember, Ben?” Sara asks. “Why was she crying if you just ghosted her?” After rightfully grilling him a bit—at one point he says he “wouldn’t be surprised” if there was a DM between him and the woman over the years—Sara says that his story doesn’t make sense. She says she’ll trust his word for now, adding, “If I find out there’s anything at all, I won’t be able to trust you. I need you to tell me everything.”
Sara and Ben chat at their apartment.
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What are the TikTok allegations against Ben from ‘Love Is Blind’ season 8?
The TikTok video referenced in the show was posted on March 2, 2024, by Minneapolis content creator Andra Berghoff, a.k.a. @hopeyoufindyourdad, per Vulture. Andra later posted a second video that same day, in which she gets into Minneapolis’s extremely-small dating scene and discusses her interactions with a cast member in the future eighth season who goes unnamed, but is clearly Ben. She accuses Ben of being a fuckboy who ghosted her when she was in college—which matches his story in the show—and that he and his friends would allegedly make fun of how horribly they treat women. She also claims that she had deployed a test to see if Ben would block her and he did; Ben told Sara on LIB that he blocked the TikToker after seeing her video.
When the Love Is Blind season 8 trailer was released on January 27, 2025, Andra posted another TikTok calling out Netflix for not editing Ben out of the show. (Fans may recall the series did something similar with season 5’s Renee and Carter.) She addressed the streaming giant directly, saying, “I was not planning on talking about any of this because I was hoping that after all of those women, including myself, came forward about that horrific man, you would have the sense to write him off of the show.”
In the January TikTok, Andra also alleged that Ben heavily promotes his Instagram and would “do anything for fame.” She even claimed she heard tea about the then-unreleased season through the surprisingly mighty Minnesota grapevine. She said that Ben allegedly described Sara as “mean” and planned to reject Sara at the altar, but the pastor asked Sara first, and she said no.
As of March 6, 2025, Andra has not addressed Ben nor Love Is Blind further.
Ben and Sara discuss the TikTok.
(Image credit: Courtesy of Netflix)
Has Sara responded to the Ben TikTok allegations?
In a February 25 interview with Us Weekly, Sara addressed the TikTok timeline herself. According to her, she first saw Andra’s TikTok during the brewery meetup with Ben’s friends. “I left him and his friends to have their own chat together, I go outside…I’m scrolling [on my phone], I see a TikTok come through on a Love Is Blind girls group chat,” she told the outlet. “At this point, it’s been posted for a couple hours and there were hundreds of comments tagging Ben specifically. I was really confused because she never specifically said his name, but I’m like, ‘How are all these people pinpointing that it’s him? And how do all these people know who he is?'”
Ben and Sara discuss the TikTok.
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Sara explained that she confronted Ben after filming ended at the brewery, but the show’s producers split them up so they could “go back to the apartment and film.” She added that she didn’t have “enough context,” as the allegations were “pretty broad.”
“She didn’t say anything specific other than him treating girls shitty—and that can be taken in so many ways,” she said of the clips. “I was like, ‘Okay, what extent are we talking here? Should I be concerned for my safety?’ I didn’t feel unsafe by any means, but don’t want to take this lightly if it’s something serious. But I also, like, I don’t want to take this super seriously if he was just a d-bag or something.”
When asked about Ben claiming that he didn’t remember what happened to the woman, Sara said, “This is the thing: I knew I had to take it seriously and it was always in the back of my head. But also, I’m an enneagram 2—naturally a caregiver….He was protecting himself and I felt bad that he was in this situation. I thought, ‘I’m not going to dismiss her with what she says, but I fell in love with you today—not four years ago.’ And I believe people can change and evolve. That’s who we are. We’re growing people. I didn’t want to discredit him and our relationship.”
Sara and Ben kiss in their apartment.
(Image credit: Courtesy of Netflix)
Do Sara and Ben make it to the altar on ‘Love Is Blind’ season 8?
After that TikTok cliffhanger, episode 10 catches up with Sara and Ben the morning after, where she admits to being a bit worried, but says that she believes that he’s grown since four years ago. However, the TikTok isn’t the only concern Sara faces before the altar.
When Ben meets Sara’s sister, Lisa, and her partner, Kelsie, it starts well. Sara’s very animated as she talks about how Ben makes her feel “the best and most comforted,” and that Ben “accepts equality.” Kelsie teaches Ben about the U-Haul lesbian joke. She also has her sister pause her rant about finding a church that “accepts” LGBTQ+ people because the language of “acceptance” applies that there’s something wrong with them. (Kelsie saying, “I have to accept you every goddamn day,” should be the official slogan of queers watching Love Is Blind to keep up with the straights.)
However, there’s a bit of a pause when Ben says that Sara had described herself as fiscally conservative and socially liberal. That’s word to word how Ben describes himself, but Kelsie pushes back and notes that that framing doesn’t match Sara’s voting record (especially considering the way the country is going with women’s rights). Kelsie encourages the pair to really talk about how politics affect them differently but admits that she’d be struggling with any guy Sara had decided to marry so quickly. Lisa ends the scene by telling Sara, “I see that you have a strong connection, but I caution you, as your sister, it just is not real right now.”
Sara and Ben (right) have drinks with Lisa and Kelsie (left).
(Image credit: Courtesy of Netflix)
After Ben and Sara breeze through the pod reunion party, we see them attend church together for the first time on camera. Sara looks quite uncomfortable as the pastor gives a sermon encouraging more people to come to Jesus. During their final date (glamping with a hot tub), she brings up an online sermon from Ben’s church, which claims to be open to LGBTQ+ people, but the content still had transphobic (and maybe fatphobic?) dog whistles. Ben says he disagrees with the sermon she describes, but he adds that he wants to keep going to that church and focus on “the other things that pertain to everyone.”
Sara disapproves of the church but says she’d go on holidays or with Ben’s family. However, she’d be more interested in finding another church, and Ben says he’s open to it, but he points out how connected he is to that church community and adds, “It’s not my job to convince someone or tell them that I’m right. It’s my job to be excited for everyone.” It seems like nothing’s really been resolved as Sara keeps trying to make her point and Ben keeps agreeing with her but he doesn’t plan to change or commit to anything in the moment. Ben also points out that talking so much about their differing values on this subject diminishes how many values they have in common. Sara agrees because she loves him. (Allow me to yell into the void: Politics matter in dating!)
Sara and Ben on their final glamping date.
(Image credit: Courtesy of Netflix)
Do Ben and Sara get married on ‘Love Is Blind’ season 8?
Sara and Ben are the first wedding we see in season 8. The back half of episode 12 follows their pre-wedding preparations to Sara’s walk down the aisle. Ben’s confident ahead of the ceremony; though he mentions “outside noise” putting Sara in a “tough spot,” he says he has more “performance nerves than decision nerves.” Meanwhile, on the women’s side, Sara says she’s thinking about regret before her mom notes that she knows her daughter won’t settle. Right before the wedding starts, Lisa says she’s worried that Sara’s trying to please everyone. She tells her sister to do what feels right for her and not anyone else. (A sweet note: Lauren and Molly attend the wedding together!)
Finally, Sara and Ben make it to the altar. In his vows, Ben talks about how they’re both physically and emotionally connected and how he loves that people can see and validate the spark between them. Sara adds that Ben is everything she could’ve hoped for in a lifelong partner and that they were meant to choose each other. However, when the pastor asks Sara whether she takes Ben to be her husband, she pauses.
“Ben, I love you so much, but I’ve always wanted a partner to be on the same…wavelength,” she says. “And so today, I can’t.” Ben’s smile doesn’t drop, and when he says he wants to keep dating her, she says, “We’ll talk about that.”
Before she leaves the altar, Sara explains, “I know that the connection we have is so real, and my heart is there, but when we talked about a lot of the values I hold so close to my heart, making this decision, my mind is telling me I can’t.”
Sara and Ben at the altar.
(Image credit: Courtesy of Netflix)
Sarah’s laughing seems sad and panicked as she heads to the getaway car with her mom and sister. Explaining herself, she goes back to Ben saying that he had never really thought about Black Lives Matter. In a confessional, she alludes that he had non-responses to a lot of topics, name-dropping “equality, religion, the vaccine.” She said, “There was no curiosity coming from his side. I’ve always just thought that I’d wanna be with someone who was curious about my brain and how I think about things…That would’ve changed everything if he had really shown priority.”
As for Ben, after some sad shots of him sitting in the wedding venue alone, he tells his friends that he didn’t think their differences would keep a relationship from working. “I did my best, and I was myself the whole time, so I can’t really think of a certain situation that I wish I did something differently,” he says in a confessional. Both of them seem to agree that if it didn’t work then, it wouldn’t work after more dating. Ben’s friend wraps things up with a prayer—making for one of the most chill altar break-ups in LIB history.
Sara ends up telling Ben no at the altar.
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Are Ben and Sara still together after ‘Love is Blind’ season 8?
We’ll have to wait until season 8’s finale on Sunday, March 9, to see whether Ben and Sara made it work post-filming. However, it seems very unlikely. In a second Us Weekly interview, Sara recalled being “conflicted” before the wedding, especially regarding his religious views.
“At the time, I thought he was being truthful saying like, ‘It’s okay. I don’t want you to ever feel obligated,’ I also know it’s important to him,” she told the outlet. “It’s very interesting watching the episodes back because I realize how important religion really is for him in the last couple of episodes, and I never heard that from him [during the experiment]…You would think someone religious or with that [level of] spirituality would want their partner to have the same level.”
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