Spilling the tea! The drama on TLC’s hit reality TV franchise 90 Day Fiancé is through the roof, which sometimes leads fans to wonder if the show is actually real, if the storylines are fake, if certain conversations are scripted, if scenes have been staged or if the couples are real people or just actors.
One of the first former cast members to speak out about the show and how it’s filmed was Chris Thieneman, and his wife, Nikki Cooper. The couple appeared on 90 Day Fiancé season 5 as part of pal David Toborowsky‘s storyline with his now-wife, Annie Suwan. They also returned when David and Annie continued their storyline on season 3 of the spinoff, 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After?
Shortly after their appearance on the show, Chris and Nikki filmed a mukbang video in May 2018 for their YouTube channel, which is a type of content in which personalities eat a large quantity of food while talking to their audience. For their chat, Chris and Nikki chose the topic of reality TV and answered fan questions.
“Is it scripted?” one fan asked during the video, titled “Our ‘Reality’ TV Experience.” Chris responded, “Well, absolutely part of it is. No question. Some of it is real and then teased with and added to, subtracted from.”
“I wouldn’t say that there’s a written script that’s like, ‘Hey, read this line, read this line,’” Nikki added. “But there are times where there are different people or producers that come up to you and say, ‘Oh, I think it would be cool if you do this,’ or ‘I think you should say this.’”
One of the most shocking scenes in franchise history happened between David, Annie, Chris and Nikki. At the time, David had been living abroad in Thailand, which is where he met Annie. The Louisville, Kentucky native was hoping to move back to America with Annie to start their American dream, but he did not have a job lined up back home. Since Chris was well-off financially, he offered to let David and Annie crash with him and Nikki in their family’s home during a group dinner. But in exchange for a place to stay while they got on their feet, Chris asked Annie if she would give him regular massages, which shocked his wife, who was pregnant at the time.
Nikki previously spoke out against the scene on Facebook shortly after and claimed it was scripted. During the mukbang, Chris explained why he decided to go along with requesting a massage from his friend’s wife in front of his own wife.
“There isn’t any other excuse than stupidity,” he said. “The first scene, the original scene I never asked for a massage. Not until Adrienne, the director, encouraged me to say it in front of the whole cast and crew did I let a little peer pressure set in. Once I knew it was an open request, I didn’t have time to think (which in hindsight I obviously didn’t think at all). I wanted to be a team player and just went with it. Afterward, I even told Nikki, ‘I never felt comfortable saying that.’ But it was too late then. I was naive to think that since I wasn’t a real cast member that I wouldn’t be singled out. I will own up to my mistake. But as I have said before, we have been nothing but respectful and helpful to Annie.”
TLC and Sharp Entertainment have not responded to In Touch‘s previous requests for comment.
Keep scrolling below for more 90 Day Fiancé stars opening up about their experiences on the show and whether or not it is scripted or fake.
While the 90 Day Fiance: The Other Way season 1 alum hasn’t been onscreen for some time, she claimed that scenes are planned out ahead of time by production.
“Everything is planned out in advance. Any time we filmed at a location, it was booked and prepared by a location manager,” she wrote via her Instagram Stories in August 2023. “We would just show up. Same thing with restaurants or food. Everything was ordered in advance by producers. Or our orders were taken earlier in the day.”
The Utah native brought up the infamous scene during season 2 when she was struggling during her move to South Korea and “accidentally” ordered bugs while at lunch with her mom and kids.
“All the locations had been hand-picked in advance [by producers]. We didn’t decide, ‘Oh, let’s go to the market today for food.’ No, it was, ‘OK, tomorrow we are planning on taking you to a fish market and you can act surprised and culture-shocked,’” she continued. “They need to plan out scenes and get the permits and contracts for everyone.”
2 of 26
SEAN KAMKI
The 90 Day Fiancé U.K. alum spilled the tea on his relationship with Victoria Halliday, saying they never intended to live in the United Kingdom as it was portrayed onscreen.
“So, instead, we just tried to make crappy dramas for TV show, like ex-wife, divorce, bar fighting and cafe fighting. That was a trash,” he detailed in the caption of a May 2023 Instagram post. “A lot of episodes were removed. Especially the storyline that Victoria wasn’t allowed to enter Japan was removed. That’s why our story doesn’t make sense on the show.”
3 of 26
NATALIE MORDOVTSEVA
After appearing on 90 Day Fiancé and 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After? alongside her now-estranged husband, Mike Youngquist, the Ukraine native returned to reignite her dating life on the spinoff, 90 Day: The Single Life.
After being unlucky in love, viewers watched the former TLC couple reunite after Michael helped Natalie’s mom flee Ukraine during the season 3 finale in November 2022. However, the aspiring model claims it didn’t happen how it appears on TV.
“I want to say about Michael. Some things are not true. Just TV show needed to connect why all of a sudden, he came back on the show,” the 90 Day Fiancé alum explained in a leaked Cameo, captured by 90 Day Fiancé bloggers, Kiki and Kibbitz. “The truth is, he was refusing to shoot. When he could agree to be shoot [sic], they needed a reason to bring him back but me and Michael never stop actually talking.”
4 of 26
DEAVAN CLEGG
After finalizing her divorce from Jihoon Lee in May 2022, the Utah native had a lot to say about how her relationship played out on television.
“Season 1 … 96% of was fake. I wasn’t seeking (honor/approval) when you saw us in Vegas, we were already married on paper. It wasn’t either of our ideas to get married but his parents insisted we make it work,” the mother of two wrote in her Instagram Stories. “I never moved to Korea in season 1. We planned a 7 day trip because filming insisted we had to film in Korea because it’s The Other Way. I was never going to move. We got casted for season 2 and agreed to stay in Korea for filming … We knew if we didn’t finish the season and spoke out, we wouldn’t get paid.”
In another slide, she admitted she didn’t think there “was a romantic connection to begin with” when it came to Jihoon. “We did everything for the show because he had debts and I had medical bills to pay,” Deavan wrote. “When I moved there, we never slept in the same bed, we faked it for YouTube and the show.”
She added, “We both had ended the relationship in November but decided to finish the season. We both knew we had to continue filming.”
5 of 26
MIMI SHIBRE
Following an episode of 90 Day Fiancé that ended with her brother’s fiancé, Ariela Weinberg, getting a drink thrown in her face, Biniyam Shibre’s sister Mimi called out TLC producers for their editing of the moment.
“When they kiki with u just to go and edit the narrative,” the Ethiopian native wrote on her Instagram Stories following the intense scene’s premiere in May 2022. “When they begged to give u a platform to reveal some insane ass secrets. #anythingforviews I guess.”
6 of 26
BEN RATHBUN
“It is very real,” the Before the 90 Days season 5 star said during an Instagram Q&A in February 2022. “It has to be … no one would watch [if it weren’t]. If it’s not real, then it’s boring. So, yeah, they keep it real.”
7 of 26
ERIKA OWENS
On August 16, 2021, 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days season 3 star Erika Owens participated in the TikTok “Questions I Get Asked” trend. For her video, she answered questions related to her experience on reality TV with ex-girlfriend Stephanie Matto.
“Is it scripted?” the question on the screen read. “Nope, it’s real,” Erika responded.
8 of 26
DANIELLE JBALI
When a fan asked Danielle if anything was staged in Dember 2020, she simply said “nope.”
9 of 26
CASSIA TAVARES
Season 2 cast member Cassia Tavares (who married and later divorced Jason Hitch) reportedly said that the couples featured are “real” but that the network does “produce” certain situations for the television audience. One example she gave was when she took a pregnancy test on camera. According to the Brazil native, the producers asked her to take the test even though it was clear she wasn’t pregnant. Cassia claimed the editing made her “look like someone she isn’t.”
10 of 26
ASHLEY MARTSON
The 90 Day Fiancé season 6 star exclusively told In Touch that since the production crew films so much footage, fans only see so much of one couple’s storyline and it’s heavily edited.
“We know that they do editing and things, and we sign off on that so it is what it is,” Ashley Martson said in August 2019.
“The Tinder incident that happened, that was staged because without drama you don’t have a show,” he exclusively told In Touch in February 2020. “The Tinder scandal, it was just an act so it was easy to move [past it] because you know, we just act on the TV and after … that was it.”
After Varya and Geoffrey’s relationship status seemed up in the air following his proposal in Russia, which Varya turned down, she decided to surprise him at his home in Tennessee. But she didn’t know Geoffrey had already moved on with Mary, which led to a big fight between the ladies. Fans speculated production set up the awkward run-in for ratings, which Varya denied.
“Neither Geoffrey nor Mary were [wearing microphones], and nobody [knew] what was coming,” Varya explained during a tell-all video on her YouTube posted in June 2020. “It was a total surprise for all of us — for me, for Geoffrey, for Mary, for the crew. It was crazy. I even looked back several times to [ask] the crew, ‘Are you serious, guys? Did you just throw me under the train? Did you know that?’”
13 of 26
KALANI FAAGATA
Kalani Faagata was very vocal about the show’s editing shortly after she made her debut on season 6 of 90 Day Fiancé. After getting backlash for the comments she and her dad, Low Faagata, made about their Samoan culture, she took to social media to clear things up.
“First, the part where I say, ‘My dad didn’t want us to struggle so he wanted us with white guys.’ That is not what was said. Rule of thumb when watching reality TV: if you don’t see it being said, chances are it was spliced together,” she explained in October 2018.
“Secondly, after my dad says, ‘my kind of people,’ he talks about not liking how he was raised. That’s addressing men born and raised in Samoa, like my dad, not Samoan people as a whole,” she added.
She claimed that because of the way the incident was portrayed, it led to a ton backlash online which included death threats toward her, Jihoon, Drascilla, and her mom.
“I know that editing can make things look more dramatized and I know I signed up for this and I agreed to editing that may be a little more dramatized,” she said during an Instagram Live in August 2020. “But I didn’t agree to editing that puts my family’s life in danger. And these past two episodes have put my family’s life in danger.”
“I see a lot of people saying ’90 days is not enough to get married,’ ’90 days is not enough to get to know somebody,’ or asking ‘Did you guys date before getting married?’” she wrote via Instagram in 2018 “What they don’t understand is how the show actually works.”
She explained the show only finds couples who have already started or are hoping to begin the process of applying for the K-1 fiancé visa, which means the couples have already been involved in long-distance relationships with their significant others and have already met in person at least once, since it is a requirement in order to apply for the visa.
“The show doesn’t help with anything related to immigration,” she continued. “They just start filming on the day foreign fiancé(e) arrives to the USA and continue until the couple gets married.”
She also explained that the visa allows couples to wait 90 days before tying the knot, they don’t have to wait the full 90 days to wed. As long as they get married before the 90 days has passed, it doesn’t matter if the couple weds before the allotted time frame.
“This ’90 days’ are definitely not to get to know your partner because you already know the person you’ve had long enough relationship with and decided you want to marry them,” she added. “That’s why all of the couples end up married every season.”
16 of 26
MICHAEL JESSEN
Michael Jessen and his wife, Juliana Custodio, appeared on 90 Day Fiancé season 7. In their storyline, Michael and Juliana were considering a prenup and his ex-wife, Sarah, was vocal about wanting Michael to get one to make sure their children would not lose out on their inheritances. The couple and Sarah got a ton of backlash from fans who took sides, and he slammed editing while denying that the couples on the show are “actors.”
“This is the biggest bunch of manufactured bulls–t … shame on you Sharp Entertainment and TLC,” he said via Instagram in December 2019. “We’re not paid actors. This is still our real lives. But when there’s such distortions of concepts that are happening in our life and end up not only misrepresenting who we are but actually affecting our lives, that’s something that becomes upsetting. I hope you can understand that.”
17 of 26
STEPHANIE WOODCOCK
While most cast members can vouch for the fact that the couples on the show are real and are real people, certain scenes may be set up by production to stir up a bit of drama. At least, that’s what Stephanie Woodcock claimed.
She appeared on season 7 in couple Robert and Anny‘s storyline. Stephanie is the maternal grandmother of Robert’s son Bryson and was portrayed as the overbearing former mother-in-law who overstepped boundaries in Robert’s life when it came to his relationship with Anny.
In one scene, the Florida native and her husband even offered to write Anny a check for $10,000-$15,000 to pay for a plane ticket so she could leave Robert and go back to her native country of the Dominican Republic. When Anny refused, Stephanie accused Anny of only being with Robert for a green card.
Naturally, Stephanie got a ton of backlash online for the way she treated Anny, which led her to spill some tea about the scene on her Instagram Story.
“It’s f–king TV people. TV!!! It’s fake. It’s scripted. I had to borrow a checkbook because the producers asked me to do this. I have screenshots to prove this,” she wrote in January 2020. “The amount of hate messages I’ve received is pretty wild. I’m astonished that a show about love has brought such tremendous hate out of people. It’s truly amazing how people will only hear one side of a story and immediately attack other parties. It’s sad that we live [in] a world like this. I know the truth. I know who I am as a person, parent and grandparent. And really, that’s all that matters.”
18 of 26
AVERY WARNER
Avery Warner documented her first in-person meeting with online boyfriend Ash Naeck on season 4 of 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days. Shortly after the season ended, a fan took to her Instagram to comment on how different her personality seems on social media vs. how she was portrayed on the show. The Seattle, Washington native took that as an opportunity to share some reality TV wisdom.
“Can’t always believe what you see on TV [heart emoji]. You guys get 5 [percent] of the real story, and that’s constructed how the network wants the people to view the person,” she wrote. “I encourage everyone not to get so caught up with any kind of TV show as the truth, it’s not worth it LOL, it’s all very constructed.”
19 of 26
KENNETH NIEDERMEIER
Kenneth Niedermeier made his franchise debut on season 2 of 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way in June 2020 with his long-distance love, Armando Rubio. They documented their love story as Kenny relocated from Florida to start a new life with Armando and his daughter, Hannah, in Mexico.
The couple’s story line is so sweet and wholesome, that fans tried to pick apart certain scenes and even accused the couple of being “actors” who played up drama for ratings — like Armando’s family’s reaction to their engagement or the heartbreaking scene when they were denied a marriage license in Mexico because they are a same-sex couple.
The rumors didn’t sit well with Kenny and he took to Instagram on November 12, ahead of the November 15 episode to respond to the trolls and set the record straight.
“I have seen so many negative comments out there on Armando and my journey to get our marriage license approval from people who obviously are not watching the scenes clearly, as they are saying ‘Why didn’t we do our research?’ (I’m wording it much nicer here) and we are ‘obviously acting’ as it was all scripted,” Kenny wrote via Instagram Story at the time. “We are not actors and nothing was scripted. It’s clear in the scenes if you watch clearly and without judgment … We did research and knew the Supreme Court of Mexico ruled same-sex marriage legal throughout Mexico, we even checked to make sure our state in which we live. It was indeed legal, it is. (34 same-sex marriages have been performed at that time).”
He continued, “We called the marriage office in the large city, we were going to let them know you were coming, a same-sex couple. We asked what we needed, they told us what documentation we needed to bring and because we are a same-sex couple, we needed to write a letter of our intent to marry. They gave us no indication we were going to be denied, so it was a shock when we were.”
“The promo scene you see coming up is us picking up our official letter of denial and the wording in it was horrible, you only get part of it so far in the clip coming up,” Kenny added. “So my reaction is mixed with pain and being pissed. Nothing scripted nothing acted and our research diligence was done.”
He concluded, “I wish people would watch the scenes fully so they get a clear picture, or others wouldn’t jump onto these comments as fact when they see them and judge for themselves when they watch the scenes in full.”
20 of 26
ANDREW KENTON
Andrew made his debut on season 8 of 90 Day Fiancé on December 20, 2020, with his French fiancée, Amira. But after he appeared on their first episode, he was already bothered by the way their story line was edited.
“I’ve got my best clothes on for our big premier [sic]vtonight ! It seems as if they’re going to try very hard to make me look pretty dorky. That’s alright! Bring on the Memes!!!! Just know I hate that interview shirt, the kids at my school are angels, and my tennis skills are way better than shown lol (I’ll make a video to show everyone, it appears they had to carefully edit it to get it to look like that, I can do shots behind the back and under my legs and I performed many tricks but they wanted to go a different direction, and with that goofy music, geez , I can see the box they want to put me in.)” he wrote in his caption of a series of two selfies.
“Not everyone fits so easily into archetypal boxes, we are not all stereotypes, the cast is not merely clones of each other and I certainly do not easily fit into a pre-contrived personality construct, but the world will try hard to squeeze me into one anyway, so f–k it let’s have some fun with people’s incongruent perceptions,” the California native continued. “If you want to know the real me — the fun-loving, funny, generous, adventurous, active, way more attractive Andrew (haha) follow me here on Instagram, we are going to have a blast with this content!!”
On his Instagram story, he also disputed two things he got backlash for on the show. In one scene, he brought a baby gift for his sister, Connie, for her baby shower since he would not be able to attend because he would be traveling. The gift he presented her with on the show was a child-sized beret from Amira. Many fans felt that was not a suitable baby shower gift, and Andrew clarified it wasn’t the only present they got for his nephew.
“I bought a pack & play, never ever bought a beret in my whole life, ask Connie!” he wrote on his story.
He also got backlash from fans because of his travel plans for Amira. The couple’s K-1 visa was approved just days before the United States imposed a travel ban from European countries including France. The couple was racing against time as they scrambled to find a way to get Amira into America before her visa expired. In a scene with her father, Amira said Andrew found a loophole that would require her to fly to Mexico, where he would meet her. They would self-quarantine for 14 days and then they would travel into the U.S. together. Amira said she was worried about traveling during the coronavirus pandemic, especially since Mexico was experiencing a rise in cases at the time the scene was filmed in June 2020. But she told her father that Andrew gave her an “ultimatum” and if she didn’t agree to the plan, he would “resent” her “forever.”
Andrew disputed the scene via his Instagram Story. “I’ve never been on a K-1 message board, but someone else was active,” he wrote in a screenshot of the online group, showing Amira’s profile on the site. “Mexico loophole was not my discovery. #frankenbiting.”
According to The Chicago Tribube, the term “frankenbiting” is when a producer on a show decides to “improve” a story line by using “highly selective editing” to fit with a specific narrative.
“Everyone saying the embassy taking Zied‘s passport and us not knowing if it was approved was staged or fake … it 100% was not,” Rebecca wrote in response to the rumors via her Instagram Story on December 29. “They interviewed him for only a few minutes, then took his passport and told him to come back in seven days, without saying approved or denied. The scene was real. We were very confused as we both expected an answer immediately.”
“Zied is the only one who remembered we could check the status of his case online, so I just constantly checked until it suddenly said approved,” Rebecca added. “And I was so excited that I got to tell him! I just wanted to speak up after seeing several comments online thanks! [red heart emoji].” She drove her point home by adding a clip of Sean Paul and Dua Lipa‘s song, titled “No Lie” as well as the hashtag, “#NotStaged.”
22 of 26
LANA
90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days star David Murphey‘s online girlfriend, Lana, claimed the show was “90 percent” scripted in a Q&A on Instagram Stories. When asked if they were still engaged, the Ukraine native said it was just to enhance their storyline on the TLC spinoff.
As for what she likes about David, the reality star revealed that “he is a Scorpio” just like her.
Stephanie claimed she and Ryan were a couple when they joined the cast in May 2020 but split in mid-August. Her scenes with Ryan were filmed in October of that year, several weeks after they broke up. She alleged that a producer urged her to fly to Belize so they could film their breakup on camera.
She also said the only reason why Harris entered the story line was so she could continue to film in Belize after they captured her scenes with Ryan.
24 of 26
TELL-ALL FAKERY?
Andrew took to his Instagram Story in April 2021, shortly after part 1 of the 90 Day Fiancé season 8 tell-all aired, to reveal some behind-the-scenes secrets.
“Fun tell-all fact: I was only there forMike [Youngquist]andNatalie [Mordovtseva]‘s segment. They are stretching my reactions so that it appears I was there longer. They have me reacting to things I didn’t even know about! You are not watching a documentary! [laughing with tears emoji,]” he wrote via his Instagram Story.
25 of 26
PAUL STAEHLE
The 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days alum revealed in April 2023 that the international versions of the series look different than the ones aired in the United States.
The TLC star looked back at his journey in season 1, where he famously packed heavily to travel to Karine’s native of Brazil.
“This scene was one of many scenes never shown in the U.S.A.,” he wrote via his Instagram Stories, alongside a clip of the scene. “Did you know we had scenes on the international version never show on the original U.S.A. release?”