After discovering the news, Stephen Richardson tells PEOPLE he was determined to learn “more about this,” especially Nigerian, Ghanaian and Congolese cultures, “where most of the bloodline comes from”
Warning: this story contains spoilers from episodes 1-6 of Love Is Blind season 7.
Love Is Blind‘s Stephen Richardson is addressing his recent ethnicity discovery.
In the first batch of episodes from season 7, Stephen revealed to Monica Davis in the pods that he has some African ancestry in his family line after his sister recently did a 23andMe DNA test.
Though Stephen admitted that “for the most part, I identify as white,” he noted that his father is “three-fifths or half Black,” and as a result, he’d been learning more about the Ghanaian and Nigerian cultures. Monica seemed to be receptive to the news, telling Stephen it was a “cool experience” for him to “dive in” and learn more.
Speaking to PEOPLE about the discovery now, Stephen, 34, says his family “found that interesting to know,” especially after they were told they had Italian roots for most of his life.
“For years, I always knew, my mom even said, ‘You’re a mutt, you have a lot of stuff in you.’ But okay, what does that mean? I was told I was Italian. And so it was so cool to finally be connected to a culture versus just having, you’re a mixture of things,” explains the electrician. “So I grew up just being so proud, hanging on to whatever little bit of Italian I had that I could pretend to claim.”
“That’s just what it was until my sister did a 23andMe [test] and suddenly there’s not a drop of Italian in us. We’re all just like, ‘Wait, wait, wait, what?’ ” he recalls. “And my grandmother, who was the one who told us we were Italian, had passed away three, four years prior, and she was the only one on my dad’s side we had left. So just a bunch of questions, no answers. It was very weird.”
Related: Love Is Blind: Stephen Discloses a Major Secret That He’s ‘Not Very Proud of’ in Season 7 Pods (Exclusive)
Stephen also says people would ask him about his ethnicity while bartending — and often suspect he had some sort of African heritage in his line.
“It’s interesting because I would bartend in this one area where I get a lot of people of African-American descent asking me if I was mixed. An interesting amount,” he notes. “So usually they could tell. And even I was like, I had get to a point where I was like, ‘I don’t know, maybe I am.’ “
“When we found out, I was like, ‘Oh wow. So there are actually people out there that could see it before I could see it.’ So yeah, I thought that was interesting,” he adds.
Since the discovery, Stephen says he’s actively been researching more about the African cultures his family had ties to.
“I went into taking an African studies class to try and figure out some of that while I was in college because I was a ancient history major, looking into Roman and Greek and mostly Italian-European areas because that’s what I thought I was connected to and I love the history there,” he explains. “So once I found out, oh, there’s a whole other side, I was like, ‘Well, now I have to know a little bit more about this.’ Especially Nigerian, Ghanaian, Congolese, which is the central part of West Africa where most of the bloodline comes from.”
Despite being proud of his newly discovered roots, fans began calling him out for it on social media and joking about him being “a Nigerian White king” after the season 7 episodes dropped.
“Stephen can’t be a real person. What is this white man talking about?” joked one user, while another wrote, “Stephen on Love Is Blind saying he Nigerian??? Pls.”
Stephen has since responded to the backlash in an Instagram Stories post, captured by The Reality Ashley, posting the results of his sister’s DNA test, in which it says they have 13% Sub-Saharan Africa ancestry in their family line.
“Here’s the math for everyone that is upset at me for finding interest in my families [sic] lineage that I never got to connect with and then trying to be respectful and research into it more…. or thinking I can’t do math,” he wrote beneath the chart.
Stephen also added, “It ain’t much… like at all… but I actually am very proud of it all the same.”
After hitting it off with Monica in the pods, Stephen proposed and the two got engaged sight unseen. So far, things seem to be going well for the duo, although Monica got agitated with Stephen in Mexico for talking a lot and not letting her get in a word.
In the next batch of episodes, the two will head back home to Washington, D.C., and integrate their lives as an engaged couple before heading to the altar for their wedding day and deciding whether love truly is blind.
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Episodes 1-6 of Love Is Blind season 7 are now streaming on Netflix, and episodes 7-9 will drop Wednesday, Oct. 9.
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