Yahoo Sports Bartise Bowden From 'Love Is Blind' Explains the Timing of His Announcement That He Welcomed a Baby Boy
“I did ‘Love Is Blind,’ I did ‘Perfect Match,’ I had a son, and the timeline of all that, how it plays out on camera doesn't make any sense," Bowden said
Bartise Bowden/Instagram
Bartise Bowden is clarifying the timing of his announcement that he welcomed his first baby, son Hayden.
The Love Is Blind and Perfect Match star, 27, explained why he waited to publicly reveal he is a new father, on an episode of the Talk’R podcast published Thursday.
“I did Love Is Blind, I did Perfect Match, I had a son, and the timeline of all that, how it plays out on camera doesn't make any sense," Bowden said. "What actually happened was, I filmed Love Is Blind, I had a whole relationship between Love is Blind and Perfect Match, filmed Perfect Match, came back, conceived a son."
“Perfect Match had not been out yet, had not aired, so I knew if I would make the announcement that I had a son before Perfect Match airs, it’s gonna make no sense to anybody,” he added.
Bartise Bowden/Instagram
“That’s why I made the announcement at a time where I felt it was the safest for everybody involved and specifically, with my life, I had done these TV shows,” Bowden said.
Bowden also talked about protecting the privacy of his baby and the baby's mother. "There's a difference between privacy and secrecy," the reality star added. “I want to keep my private life as private as I can get it to be, or as private as I needed it to be for my son and my baby mama and for everybody involved in my close circle."
However, Bowden admitted: “I want to share his life because I am so proud and I’m so proud of his mother. I'm so proud of the relationship that we all have, the three of us together.”
Related: 'Love Is Blind' Star Bartise Bowden Welcomes First Baby
“Even though we're not dating, we are friends. I say this all the time: We are single parenting and co-parenting at the same time,” he said of his dynamic with the mother of his child.
“I hang out with my son alone, I hang out with his mom alone, we'll hang out with the three of us together, I'll hang out with her family,” explained Bowden. “We are very involved together and separately, which is beautiful, and I wouldn't want it any other way given our circumstances."
During the reality series' live season 4 reunion in April, the new dad appeared with his son in tow.
"This is my son Hayden," Bowden said in the video while holding the infant, where he shared his son's name for the first time. "He's also a massive fan of the Love Is Blind franchise."
He also added that baby Hayden "has not watched daddy's season, and he will not ever watch daddy's season, hopefully."
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"Might've been the villain on tv, but I'm gonna be the hero for him. Instagram, meet my little man," Bowden wrote on Instagram to announce that he had welcomed a baby boy.
In terms of identifying himself as the "villain" on his post, Bowden previously told Entertainment Tonight in November about his time on the series as a season 3 hopeful, and how he was "absolutely, 100 percent, definitely the villain."
"I looked like a dumbass, I looked arrogant. I looked insensitive. I looked selfish," he said at the time. "It is what it is. I can only learn from it. I can only grow from it."
Bowden connected with both Nancy Rodriguez and Raven Ross in the pods. He ultimately chose to propose to Nancy, 33, over Raven, who ended up getting engaged to Sikiru "SK" Alagbada. (Ross, 29, and Alagbada, 34, recently split for the second time.)
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