The new season of Love After Lockup premieres on Friday, December 16, 2022! To help tide you over until then, we have a new preview trailer plus details on the Season 7 cast — including two familiar couples!

The returning couples are actually from different seasons of Love During Lockup. Justine and Michael (aka Montana Millz) are featured on the current season of Love During Lockup, and Season one couple Gabby and Chris return after a brief WE tv hiatus.

“This season four new couples plus two franchise favorites who were JUST released after their stints on Love During Lockup take the drama to the next level with deeper love, bigger doubts, even more mystery, and unique firsts – from first touch and kiss, to moving in together, to meeting the family,” reads the networks press release announcing the new season.

“As viewers go along for the wild ride of maintaining romance beyond prison walls, they will once again debate if it’s true love or just another convincing con. Although every journey begins with a long-awaited prison release, each of our lovebirds and jailbirds have their own winding path to the altar… or an explosive breakup.”

Here’s the preview trailer:

Love After Lockup Season 6 Couples

MONIQUE AND DEREK
(Chicago, IL)

Monique reached out to Derek after seeing his photo several times in a Facebook pen-pal group. Derek was smitten right away, and the couple started a relationship.

Despite dating for two years, Monique and Derek have never actually met in person. That could be a major issue for the couple because Derek is big into fitness and Monique has been a bit less than honest about her own love of fitness. Hoping to literally balance the scales a bit, Monique wants to have weight-loss surgery.

NATHAN AND SKYLAR
(Zanesville, OH)

Nathan and Skylar have a surprisingly rare Love After Lockup origin story as they started dating while they were both in custody. The two had a “drama-filled connection while she was at a halfway house, resulting in Skylar being sent back to jail,” according to WE tv.

After Skylar went back in, Nathan “moved into his Grandmom’s house and started planning his proposal for their one-year anniversary.” I assume that is Nathan’s grandmother in the preview trailer who points out that Skylar’s previous two boyfriends are both dead. 😬

ARIS AND CAMERON
(Tampa, FL)

Cameron is an aspiring rapper and Aris is a huge fan who slid into his prison DMs. In a story line familiar to fans of Sharp Entertainment shows, Aris experiences jealousy over Cameron’s other female fans. Tensions mount when Cameron makes his music career a priority and Aris feels betrayed.

ASHLEY AND TRAVIS
(Port St. Lucie, FL)

Ashley may be the first Love After Lockup cast member to film the inevitable engagement ring shopping scene at her own business! The “antiques fine jewelry purveyor” has ironically fallen for someone with a resume that would give most jewelry business owners pause — bank robber Travis. “Ashley plans to employ Travis at her jewelry business, but can she trust him around her safe of valuables?”

It appears that Ashley’s story will remind some of Love After Lockup OG duo Angela and Tony because she has a neighbor named Martin “who’s made several advances.” Martin’s freshness does not sit well with Travis!

GABBY AND CHRIS
(Union, NJ)

Viewers will remember Gabby as one of the only cast members in the history of the Love After Lockup franchise who received a lot of money from her inmate boo and not the other way around. Chris received a large settlement after a civil suit accused prison guards of not doing enough to prevent and/or stop an attack on Chris by fellow inmates at Rikers.

As revealed on Love During Lockup Season 1, Gabby and Chris’s family are not on the best of terms, and that tension remains upon his release. If you’re curious to know whether or not Gabby and Chris work out, CLICK HERE FOR A HUGE SPOILER!

JUSTINE AND MICHAEL
(Johnstown, PA)

Justine and her rapper bae Michael (aka Montana Millz) won’t have any time off screen as they move straight from Love During Lockup Season 2 to Love After Lockup season 7!

As we were the first to confirm, Justine and Michael were married on August 5, 2022 — while Michael was still incarcerated. I previously speculated that the couple didn’t wait the extra couple months to get married on the outside so that Michael could live with Justine (his legal wife) upon his release. I’m not sure if being spouses is what allowed for that option, but it appears that the newlyweds will be living together this season.

Making the couple’s first time living together more stressful will be Justine’s three kids and Michael’s four kids! Oh, and of course Michael wants to get right back in the studio and back to living the rapper life!

“On top of managing their family and home life,” the network reveals, “Michael is ready to resume his rap career, and Justine can’t help but worry about what will change when fame and bad habits sets in.”

Love After Lockup Season 7 premieres on Friday, December 16 at 9/8c on WE tv!

I should note that I’m not sure what season WE tv is calling this — Season 3q or something? We break the seasons down by air date gaps and cast turnover, resulting in this being the seventh season. You can see how we break down the various season by looking through our Love After Lockup Inmate Chart posts detailing which inmates have been arrested again and which ones haven’t. My apologies for not creating one for Season 6 yet!

Asa Hawks is a writer and editor for Starcasm. You can contact Asa via Twitter, Facebook, or email at starcasmtips(at)yahoo.com