On Sunday night’s premiere of the second season of Before the 90 Days, viewers caught up with Season 1 stars Paul, Karine, Darcey, and Jesse as well as three new couples. But, there are still two couples viewers have yet to meet — including 30-year-old exotic dancer Marta from Milwaukee and her 26-year-old online Algerian love interest Daya. It’s unclear when Marta will make her debut this season (more on that below), but we thought we would go ahead and get you properly introduced with some background info and some potentially HUGE spoilers!
As her TLC bio states, Marta is a stripper and single mom from Milwaukee with two children: an 8-year-old daughter and a 6-year-old son.
As far as Marta’s exotic dancing career, she was a regular dancer at Silk Exotic Milwaukee for three years before leaving after allegedly violating the club’s policy of not giving out personal phone numbers in November of 2016. But, Silk was not the only home for the hard working Marta as she spent time in the clubs in Chicago and even in Florida, where she bared her assets in January of 2016 at the famous King of Diamonds strip club and at least one other establishment.
Despite her success dancing, Marta has consistently been working towards establishing another career for years. She is a fashion designer who loves to create blinged out stripper wear in addition to offering her services for more traditional jobs like wedding dresses, prom dresses, alterations, etc. Actually, Marta almost got her first taste of reality success as a designer instead of an international romance seeker as she formally applied to be a contestant on Project Runway in April of last year. I could find no indication that she made the cut, however.
On top of stripping and fashion design, Marta also owns and operates a pole dancing studio! After months of preparing the location, and even launching a GoFundMe campaign in October of 2017, Marta was able to officially incorporate her studio as an LLC in April of this year. It appears to still be open at a location in downtown Milwaukee.
Unfortunately for Marta, court records indicate that her personal life isn’t going nearly as well as her professional life appears to be. In April of this year, Marta was charged with a felony count of Interfering With Custody Beyond Visitation. The alleged incident took place on April 2, and a criminal complaint was filed on April 11. A warrant was issued for Marta’s arrest on April 12.
A summary of the case from court records:
Marta was in court on April 13, and a no contact order was put in place between her and her two children.
Marta officially entered a plea of not guilty on May 3, and the no contact order was modified to allow supervised visits “with an agreed upon third party by both parents.”
Marta missed her pre-trial hearing on June 18 and her $1,000 bond was ordered to be forfeit as a bench warrant was issued for her arrest.
Marta was back in court on July 12, and on July 19 the case was updated: “Parties are prepared to enter into a deferred prosecution agreement. Defendant was advised of constitution rights and maximum penalties, waived all rights and entered a plea of GUILTY…Court found the defendant guilty as charged in the Complaint/Information. Court WITHHELD entry of judgment of conviction. Deferred Prosecution Agreement received, signed and filed.”
There is a review hearing scheduled for December 20.
Marta previously expressed her opinion on her custody arrangement on Facebook in an irate post from early 2016:
If my kids want and rather be with me, they should have that freedom and right! F**k what the courts say and the threats of being reported to the law!!! I am the law over them! A mother and her childrens love and bond should not be interrupted or torn. I will take that risk and have them know my love for my children will not have any boundaries, limits or laws above our love. I’m over it! A loving mother always knows what is best! So get over yourself!! Let her do her job and don’t get mad because she can do hers and still the job of a man by providing for her family! How about you give her praise for being able to lift your weight, then maybe she will give you the respect you feel is deserved! Children know true love and will always want to be around it! If you can’t give her that, then stay out her way! It’s as simple as that!
Marta posted a couple of brief videos clips with her kids and a film crew on May 2. It looked to be just the three of them at home.
It’s unclear how much of Marta’s custody issues will be featured on Before the 90 Days this season. Actually, it is unclear how much of Marta’s story will be featured at all! Unlike most of her new co-stars, Marta’s scheduled trip to Algeria was relatively recent. She posted a photo of her passport as well as her Algerian visa application on Instagram on April 15. “In God’s hands at this point!” she captioned the photo. “I’ve done my part and now I await the visa! If it’s God’s plan and not my own things will be GOOD, not only for myself but those that I love and depend on me! Love never fails ♥”
If you’ve been paying close attention, you will notice that Marta’s post was made just two days after she was in court over the felony custody violation charge!
Although part of Marta’s visa application was covered up by her passport, you could clearly see that she had filled out the form stating she planned to be in Algeria for 12 days and it appears that she has listed a scheduled return date of April 28. So, April 16 through April 28 — right in the middle of all the legal issues. Here is the photo with the projected length of her stay and return date circled in yellow:
I researched this post quite extensively, and I could find no evidence that Marta ever made the trip to Algeria. I have my doubts that she could have gotten the approval regardless given her pending felony charge. Please note that I am not 100% certain that Marta did not go to Algeria, but I am more certain that she didn’t than Azan was in love with Nicole! In other words, more than 55% sure.
In addition to potentially not making the flight to Algeria, I could also find no evidence suggesting that Marta was at the Before the 90 Days Season 2 Tell All taping in New York City a week and a half ago. Of course, even if she wasn’t in New York, she could have skyped in her segment.
I was able to get access to the episode synopses for the first six episodes (out of 10 I believe?) and Marta is not listed in any of them. Out of the five upcoming episodes, there are two with only five couples listed instead of six, so I suppose there is some flexibility to add Marta and Daya in. It is clear that TLC still plans to feature her this season because they used her in the preview trailer and even posted a promotional clip just for her on Facebook on Sunday:
“She’s a Catholic exotic dancer, he comes from a strict Muslim family in Algeria,” reads the caption. “Will their online love translate to a first date? Find out this season on #90DayFiance: Before the 90 Days…” So they are asking whether or not there will even be a first date in the caption! That seems odd, right? I think for most Before the 90 Days cast members the question is how the first date will go, not whether or not there will even be one.
I should also point out that Marta and Daya are one of only two couples to not have an official promo photo taken together — the other being potential catfish victim Ricky and his too-good-to-be-true Colombian love interest Melissa. (More on that soon!)
If Marta didn’t even make the trip to Algeria, then the only thing that would make much sense is if her custody issues provided another compelling story line that TLC thought was enough to merit keeping her on this season. Once again, this is all speculation on my part.
To find out more about what happened with Marta and Daya I will be just like you and tuning in for new episodes of Before the 90 Days on Sunday nights at 8/7 on TLC!
Asa Hawks is a writer and editor for Starcasm. You can contact Asa via Twitter, Facebook, or email at starcasmtips(at)yahoo.com
