Warning: This article contains spoilers for the Love Is Blind season 8 finale.

When Sara Carton rejected Ben Mezzenga at the altar in the Love Is Blind season 8 finale because of how they didn’t align on important values, he told her that he still wanted to be with her to grow their relationship — if she’ll “let” him. But once filming ended, everything changed. Sara tells Entertainment Weekly that she tried to continue dating Ben after the finale, and he ghosted her after a week.

“Going into wedding day, I was very hesitant — I knew I couldn’t say yes, but I still was very hopeful,” Sara tells EW. “I was thinking, Without the cameras and the chaos all around me and us, would we be able to work? And so I was excited to get back to just regular life, a routine, get structured, and see how that is with Ben.”

Even though she had told Ben, “We’ll see,” when he asked to continue dating at the altar, she was excited to give it a shot; however, his stance flipped immediately after the cameras went away. “We lived together for about a week or two, and then I got back to my home, and then he actually did drop me,” Sara says. “He removed me from Find My Friends, and I didn’t hear much from him. I was very confused. It was out of nowhere. I was shocked. That’s when I had the most clarity of who Ben was.”

Sara reveals she reached out to him to find out why he ghosted her, and she was not satisfied with his response. “I texted him, ‘Hey, just letting you know, I would’ve appreciated you talking to me about this rather than me finding it by surprise, and I hope we can continue on a good page and continue to support one another,'” she says. “And he just sent pretty scripted apologies back. There was no weight to these words. And yeah, didn’t hear from him after that. It was interesting.”

As of now, Sara says that she and Ben “don’t talk, but we’re cordial. If we run into each other, we’ll give each other hugs, say hi, talk for a couple minutes.” She adds. “I want the best for Ben, but yeah, ultimately, just not my person. It’s no bad blood, but it’s just my understanding of just who he is. It is what it is, and we just move forward.”

As for what inspired her to say no to Ben at the altar in the finale, Sara admits “the TikTok was huge” in her decision, referring to the video she saw accusing Ben of mistreating women in the past.

“At that moment I was like, ‘I have so much more I need to learn just for this to be the safest and smartest decision for myself,’ but I still carried through because I was giving 100 percent and I wanted it to work,” she says. “But that was a big one. Going into wedding day, I still felt pretty conflicted. I loved him. I felt like he loved me. And it felt like, with this whole experience, knowing that they purposely put people in these pods to match our personality tests and everything, honestly, this has to be my person.”

While she wanted it to work, she couldn’t ignore all the red flags. “I could feel my heart and my mind torn in so many directions,” Sara says. “I just knew with all those hesitations that there’s no way I could say yes to and have it feel right. I would’ve loved to and be married, have my person, and have a new chapter in life, but it did not sit right with me. So I ultimately knew deep down on wedding day.”

It wasn’t just the TikTok video; she knew that they weren’t a “good fit” because of the different ways they viewed important issues (a.k.a. how Ben thought, or more accurately, didn’t think, about Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ+ rights, or even the COVID vaccine). She felt like she never really got to know the real Ben during filming.

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“There were many other things that were coming to my attention,” she says. “Ben would always say the right thing and the perfect response, and I would feel reassured, and he told me he loved me constantly, so I felt very good with him. But then I’d step away from the conversation and ask myself, Was there any weight to those words? It’s just little things like that, like, Huh, maybe this is Ben. Or maybe this is a whole [other person], maybe I’m confused.”

Plus, she reveals other people reached out to warn her about Ben. “There were quite a few people that reached out to me, told me that they had an experience with Ben and who he was in college or something,” she says. “It was never anything like something he actually did that was bad that I’d hear, it was just more like his personality. There was enough for me to think, What’s going on? And then also, I was sent the YouTube subscription card at some point, so I was like, Ooookay, this is interesting. I’m learning a lot about Ben.”

Regardless of how her Love Is Blind journey ended, Sara doesn’t regret anything. “I’m very proud of the person I am and being able to figure this out on my own, but also with all the support that I had through family and friends,” she says. “I wouldn’t have changed anything. It’s such a unique experience and it’s vulnerable, and you’re putting yourself out there, so of course you’re going to change and realize things about yourself and the people around you and who you want to be surrounded by. That’s ultimately what I’m taking in, and also a newfound confidence within myself and my intuition.”