The second season of TLC’s Before the 90 Days is only a few weeks in, but the show’s new and old cast members have inspired TONS of headlines and speculation among fans — so much so that there seems to be a great deal of confusion and misinformation. We’ve been covering (and breaking) a lot of the stories, and I thought it would be helpful to create a single post that contains all of the major stories about the cast this season. I will try to maintain the post throughout the remainder of Season 2, so just bookmark this url if you fall behind!
Also, any time you see some mysterious photo you haven’t seen before (whether it is a photo of Ricky having froyo with an unknown woman in Colombia, Paul and Karine getting married, or an old photo of Darcey in some supposed reality show called The Twin Life), just check here and chances are you will find out the context. You can also just scroll through our Before the 90 Days category and get pretty much all caught up.
OK, so here are most all of the relevant stories, starting with the returning cast members before moving on to the new couples. As I mentioned, I will try to continue to update with any major news, even if we do a separate post about it.
PAUL AND KARINE
There has been SOOOOO MUCH going on with Paul and Karine since last season! I will include just the major highlights here, but you can get a complete timeline of pretty much everything that they have been up to in our previous post about the new season’s returning couples. That timeline includes all the multiple break ups and reconciliations, as well as details about Paul’s prior arrest for arson and violating a restraining order. OK, on with the highlights!
Are Paul and Karine married? It seems so! After a wedding photo of the two of them leaked online in February, it was later confirmed that the two tied the knot in Brazil — or at least that the two of them had a wedding ceremony. (I don’t believe anyone has actually uncovered any documentation proving that they got married. I wouldn’t even know where to begin researching those kids of records in Brazil.)
Is Karine pregnant? Once again, it appears so — at least judging from multiple photos of Karine with a baby bump that were posted and quickly deleted by Paul in June.
Is Paul back in the United States? Yes, Paul is back in Kentucky, and although he has tried to create the impression that Karine is with him, we don’t believe that is the case.
DARCEY AND JESSE
Is Darcey and Jesse’s story line real or fake? I don’t have a specific link for you on this, but as a seasoned 90 Daytective veteran as well as a licensed Jesse and Darceyologist, my take is that I don’t believe any of their Season 2 story. That being said, these two are so entertaining that even if they are frauding us with their story line, I still love having them on the show! (That’s not usually the case when I suspect fraud, as in the cases of Cortney and Patrick.)
I will admit that my enjoyment of the #TwinFlame drama this season has been derailed a bit by the confusing notion that we are seeing Jesse’s first visit to New York City. Jesse was clearly in New York City in September of 2017 to film the Season 1 Tell All special. So was this filmed at the same time as last season’s Tell All? Was it filmed later and they’re just over-the-top pretending, even though viewers saw Jesse and Darcey together at the Tell All? Producers of this show are master story tellers, but this aspect of Jesse and Darcey’s story this season is just as messy as their relationship!
And just in case the topic comes up this season, Darcey and her sister Stacey Silva have released a song titled “Lock Your Number” — click the link for details as well as our review.
Speaking of Darcey’s sister Stacey, there is rarely a week goes by that I don’t see one of our screen caps from their reality show pilot The Twin Life go viral on social media with all kinds of questions about where it came from and what the story is on the show. You can find out EVERYTHING you need to know about Stacey and Darcey Silva’s The Twin Life here, including a 10+ minute video! Something I see far less often is reference to the fact that Darcey made a brief appearance on Million Dollar Match Maker as well. You can click here to answer any questions that may come up about that.
ANGELA AND MICHAEL
If Angela looked familiar to you when you met her this season, that might be an indication that you are a daytime trash talk show fan because Angela has appeared on Maury twice (plus an update episode) as well as the Maury spin-off Trisha before that. All of Angela’s appearances were to dispute the paternity of her daughter Scottie’s children, and in all of the appearances paternity tests showed that Angela was wrong. You can click the link and see multiple video clips of Angela on Maury, and it will be obvious to you that she has absolutely NO PROBLEM making a fool of herself on national television!
Angela has the obligatory mug shot photo stemming from a 2015 arrest, and she also has a history of CUH-RAYZAY family drama playing out on social media — a clear indication that her over-the-top no-holds-barred personality is not all for the cameras.
RICKY AND MELISSA AND XIMENA
We were the first to share the now-infamous on-set photo of Ricky enjoying what looks to be a cup of frozen yogurt with a mystery brunette woman that doesn’t look like the Melissa from the photos we have seen. (Although it could still be.) I have since seen this photo all over social media with all kinds of questions about where it came from, etc. Well, now you know. In addition to the photo, we also shared a MAJOR Ricky spoiler from the synopsis of Episode 6 of the show! Click the link to find out what that was and see the original photo that has been causing such a ruckus. 😉
If you are curious to know more about Ricky, we shared a lot of background info on him in our first profile post — revealing that his name is Ricardo Reyes and that he recently relocated to just outside of Austin, Texas where the mother of his oldest daughter had previously moved to.
Well, for those of you able to wait as long as Ricky did, then you were probably as shocked as me when it was revealed during the August 19 episode that Melissa wasn’t a catfish after all!
After Melissa stood Ricky up on their second date, Ricky reached out to another woman he had been communicating with on Colombian Cupid named Ximena. Ximena takes a five-hour flight (including a long layover) to be with Ricky the very next day, and the two of them hit it off big time. Of course, it’s extremely unlikely that all of this could have been as impromptu as viewers are led to believe. Producers would have needed more than 24 hours notice to approve Ximena for filming, and I just can’t believe she bought an airplane ticket for the next day to hang out with a guy she didn’t even know was coming for more than a week. So many are speculating that the whole Melissa thing was just a silly story line put together by producers to spice up Ricky’s story. I am guessing that perhaps they did exchange a few messages on Colombian Cupid, and that it was explained to her that she would simply be playing a potential catfish that was only obligated to show up (extremely late) for one date.
On a surprising note, the second Colombian love of Ricky’s life Ximena is currently living in Tampa Florida where she is enrolled in college!
TARIK AND HAZEL
If you’re wondering if Hazel is a catfish, that question was answered by TLC’s official promo photo of the couple above. Hazel is clearly real, and she has created several social media profiles over the past couple weeks under the full name Hazel Cagalitan.
I haven’t seen it become much of a topic online yet, but after Tarik’s debut in Episode 2, I have to say that I am leaning towards this whole relationship being a bit forced just so that Tarik (and his brother) could score a trip to the Philippines. In a preview clip it is revealed that Hazel is concerned that Tarik was more excited to see his ex in Bangkok, so perhaps we will get to see an interesting love triangle twist with the rest of Tarik’s story.
If you are seeing talk about Tarik being a rapper, that is absolutely true! Tarik previously recorded under the name Dirt DayOH as a tribute to his hometown of Dayton, Ohio, but he currently raps under the name Dirt Bourdain. That name comes from the fact that Tarik often refers to himself as “The Black Anthony Bourdain.” Click the link to hear numerous tracks by Tarik!
MARTA AND DAYA
Marta and Daya are the only Before the 90 Days Season 2 couple that has yet to appear on the show. That is apparently because Marta, a 30-year-old stripper and mother of two from Milwaukee, never made the trip to Algeria to see Daya. In addition to having very serious legal issues over the custody of her two kids at the same time as her scheduled flight, there is also a report that Daya never signed the paperwork required to allow Marta to visit the country. Of course, it could be that Daya never signed the paperwork because Daya isn’t real. It appears a though Daya is actually a catfish who was using photos of Moroccan instagram star Aboubakr Ziani to pitch his online woo at Marta.
In addition to missing her flight, Marta was also reportedly not at the Tell All special and she is not listed in the episode synopses for the first six episodes (out of ten). It’s really unclear at this point how her story will play out, or how many episodes she will be on. It is also unclear why TLC has opted to keep Marta on this season if she didn’t even leave the country.
It has since been revealed that Marta will make her debut in Episode 7, set to first air on Sunday, September 16.
RACHEL AND JON
Rachel Bear from Albuquerque, New Mexico and her British bearded beau Jon Walters are BY FAR the most controversial and most talked about couple so far in online forums and social media. Most of the conversation is about whether or not Rachel and Jon deceived viewers (and potentially producers) by lying about whether or not they had already met in person. There is also the question of whether or not they were engaged prior to filming the show, as well as questions about a GoFundMe campaign the couple launched prior to being cast on the show that raised over $1,800 before vanishing from the internet.
I will start with what we know for sure. Rachel did receive a Claddagh ring from Jon in July of 2017, which is a traditional Irish ring that Rachel later wore in a fashion that suggested she was engaged. Rachel posted photos of her and daughter Lucy’s passports in early August, and her trip to see Jon (as recorded by TLC) was in mid-December. The passport photo included a nearly four-month countdown to when she would be arriving in the UK.
Jon and Rachel do appear to have launched a since-deleted “Support Our Fairytale” GoFundMe campaign that looks to have raised $1892, according to this photo that was first posted on the 90 Day Fiance subreddit:
It is unclear what happened to the funds that were allegedly raised by the campaign. More on Jon and Rachel’s relationship controversy, which is a lot of speculation and unverified claims, in a minute. First, we will wrap up what we know for sure.
As we exclusively revealed, Rachel and Jon got married in England in May, which is well after they filmed the current season back in December of 2017. There has been some confusion online as many news outlets have reported that the couple had a second wedding in New Mexico in June, but as far as I can tell, that is completely erroneous. Rachel officially filed the record of her UK wedding with her local County Clerk on June 8, but there is no record of any second wedding.
Also, Rachel was definitely in New York City at the beginning of August to film the Tell All, and there is no indication that Jon was with her. So she has definitely returned to the United States after what is assumed was her second trip to England to get married in May.
As far as the relationship fraud speculation, most all of it is unconfirmed and revolves around “clues” based on what and how Jon and Rachel posted online. Some believe that the couple met prior to their December trip, with a subset of those folks believing that Lucy is actually Jon’s baby. I have seen zero hard evidence to back up these claims, although I will admit that there is a lot of suspicious circumstantial evidence. Of course, it is not hard for me to dismiss that evidence because it seems completely reasonable to chalk a lot of it up to Jon and Rachel being a bit, ummmmm, eccentric?
Also interesting is the growing suspicion that Rachel was a 90 Day Fiance superfan, and that she roped an unsuspecting Jon into being on the show without him really understanding what he was in for as far as potentially being portrayed badly — which was certainly the case early on! 90 Daytctives are currently working hard to uncover proof of Rachel’s superfandom, but as yet we do not have a smoking gun.
Now, there is another controversy surrounding the couple that has gotten A LOT of attention online that reportedly involves Lucy’s real father. There is a lengthy post that was allegedly made by Lucy’s grandmother on her father’s side that calls out Rachel for being a little less than a nice person. I want to iterate that this post IS NOT VERIFIED! But, since it has gotten so much attention and sparked so much debate, I wanted to include it here — if only to make sure it is presented in a context that emphasizes that it is not verified:
OK, that should get you all caught up! As I mentioned above, I will continue to update this post with any major stories or additional info that comes to light. If you are looking to keep up with the day-to-day developments in the 90 Day Fianceverse, then I recommend you subscribe to the 90 Day Fiance subreddit. Be forewarned that it can be addictive!
Meanwhile, you can continue to get your two-hour fix with new episodes of Before the 90 Days airing every Sunday night at 8/7c 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
