Teen Mom 2 star Briana DeJesus went Instagram official with her new boyfriend John Rodriguez this week, as the 24-year-old mother of two shared a pair of photos with him at the Cyclone roller coaster located on Coney Island in Brooklyn. “My sweet love, thank you for shining your light into the darkness that was surrounding me,” she captioned the two photos, adding “?? #wealmostdiedonthatridetho lol.”
Soon after posting the pics, Briana spoke with The Hollywood Gossip about her new boo. “I decided to go public with it because I’m on TV and have thus elected to share my life,” Briana said. “This is part of my life so that’s it.” Briana said that John has yet to meet her two daughters, saying that “it’s too soon” in their relationship.
Here are the pictures Briana shared:
I should point out that initial reports indicated John’s name is Johnny, but that doesn’t appear to be what he goes by. “His name is not even Johnny smh,” Briana tweeted after the stories were published. (Unfortunately, John also occasionally goes by the nickname Papi, which will certainly make the Javi haters cringe.)
So who is this John Rodriguez? We did some investigating and can reveal that he is a 26-year-old US Postal worker from New York. John is an actual driver and mail delivery man — or at least he was until fairly recently.
Unlike Briana’s most recent ex, Javi Marroquin, John comes with “no ‘other baby mama’ craziness to deal with,” Briana told Radar Online in a separate interview.
The long distance relationship comes as a bit of a surprise to many Teen Mom 2 viewers, who saw how difficult it was for Briana and Javi — and especially given how tight Briana is with her sister Brittany and mother Roxanne. “It’s tough because I wish I was able to see him more,” Briana told The Hollywood Gossip. “So far we have been making it work. He comes down here, I go up there.”
Although John and Javi do have the distance thing in common, Briana mentioned one characteristic that the two men definitely don’t share. “He’s not someone who was on TV seeking to get more air time,” she pointed out.
John may not be seeking more air time, but he did joke on Instagram a few years ago when he posted a photo looking exhausted in his USPS uniform and captioned it with: “Maaaaannnn ? I need me a sugah mama.”
As far as whether or not fans will get to meet John next season, Briana would not say. However, Radar spoke to a “show insider” who reveals that “[Briana] is currently filming, and the pair are filming together, so this will be next season.”
I know it’s difficult to tell what someone is like based solely on his or her social media presence, but John sure seems like a funny and smart dude who is close to his family and his longtime guy buds. I don’t get any really bad vibes or red flags — like, say, Briana’s ex Shoc.
Here are a couple more photos of John living that J-Rod life — hopefully we will get to see more of that on MTV soon:
Asa Hawks is a writer and editor for Starcasm. You can contact Asa via Twitter, Facebook, or email at starcasmtips(at)yahoo.com
