Madison Maidenberg from "Love Is Blind" was 12 when she started noticing her eyesight wasn't "normal."
"I had gone on a camping trip with my sister and my brother-in-law, and they were doing a night-sky viewing. I remember looking through the telescope, and I'm like, 'I'm not seeing stars,'" she tells Popsugar in an exclusive interview.
She dealt with a "TV fuzzy filter" over her eyes until age 21, when she was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), an inherited and degenerative eye condition that causes slow vision loss. Her initial reaction was "devastation, confusion, frustration," she says. But she's learned to adapt, relying on audio cues and friends and family to support her as her vision declines.
Unfortunately, she didn't always feel that support while on "Love Is Blind."
"It was really scary bringing [retinitis pigmentosa] up in the pods. Watching it back, you see me bring it up in the context of, 'What's wrong with you?'" Maidenberg recalls, thinking back to a pod conversation between her and ex-fiancé Joe Ferrucci about why each of them were still single.
"I have to kind of educate any new partner on what my needs are and how they can support me," including Ferrucci, Maidenberg says.
"There was definitely times that Joe was supportive around my diagnosis, but I really don't think we had enough time to truly see how he would have been for the long haul," she says. In fact, Maidenberg says her ex poked fun at the condition a few times when they were alone.
"I didn't necessarily feel like he was fully understanding or fully trying to understand what I'm dealing with on a day-to-day basis," she tells PS. But that hasn't stopped her from looking for love.
"As far as my love life, now I am single and still actively looking for my perfect partner," Maidenberg says, with zero regret for having gone on the show.
"I needed somebody like me on my screen to make me not feel alone in my diagnosis, and having so many people message me that they feel seen and resonate through my story just makes it so worth it to keep going and sharing my truth."
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