In early October, Michael Jessen and Juliana Custodio confirmed their split to 90 Day Fiance fans.
It was not a new development, as Juliana had already moved on.
Now, Juliana has gone Instagram Official with her new man, introducing him to the world.
What’s more is that they are having a child together. Juliana is pregnant!
Over the weekend, Juliana Custodio took to Instagram to share some major news.
"So excited for our new adventure," her excited caption began.
For the first time, she shared photos with her new man, a German gallery owner who goes by Ben Obscura.
"Words aren’t enough to tell you how wonderful you are," Juliana gushed.
"I’m forever grateful for the happiness and joy you have brought into my life," she expressed.
"And," Juliana continued, "for [making] one of my biggest dreams come true."
That news, Juliana made clear with an emoji, is that she is pregnant.
"We can’t wait to meet you," she expressed to their future child.
Juliana then gushed: "I am the luckiest woman to be able to call you mine @ben_obscura."
Juliana’s happy news also came with a casual but sincere suggestion for weirdo trolls.
"Pls: if you have nothing good to say, please just leave," her caption concluded.
As you can see in the screenshot above, 90 Day Fiance legend and fellow Brazilian Larissa Lima congratulated her on the good news.
"Baby on the way!" Ben shared in a message on his own Instagram. "A new adventure is about to begin!"
"We are super excited," he raved, "and we can’t wait to welcome our new addition into the family!"
"Babyzinho we can’t wait to meet you!" Ben expressed.
"We are now preparing for the most beautiful blessing we could ask for!" Ben praised.
He concluded his caption by writing: "The best is yet to come!"
That is all very sweet.
Naturally, between general curiosity and Juliana’s famously incredible body (she is a model, folks), some wonder if she has a baby bump yet.
The answer appears to have been revealed in her Instagram Story.
Juliana appears to either be very early in her pregnancy, to be one of those people who has a very discreet baby bump, or both.
It is not actually a surprise that Juliana has moved on.
We didn’t know about Ben specifically.
But, when Juliana and Michael Jessen announced their split, he did acknowledge that she had moved on.
Unfortunately, Michael and Juliana’s split was not as amicable as one might have hoped.
Michael’s initial message about the breakup was sad and respectful.
Juliana made it clear that, though she shares many of those feelings, there was more going on that he wasn’t saying that led to their split.
It’s interesting, because their storyline was labeled as "boring" by some viewers who wanted the outrageous behavior and drama of some other couples.
When you see creepy clowns like Big Ed Brown or rotten sideshow acts like Angela Deem, seeing a sincere couple dealing with normal problems is … different.
But in the end, what brought Michael and Juliana’s marriage to an end was just … real problems.
Well, real problems and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some couples were brought together on lockdown. Others were torn apart.
But to call Michael and Juliana’s marriage a "COVID casualty" isn’t telling the whole story, Juliana explained.
More than once, she felt like a maid — not just for Michael, but for his ex-wife and for her new man.
There is already a level of awkwardness when suddenly two couples are under one roof.
Was it the right call for the Jessen kids? Almost certainly. But it did not work out so well for the (new) Jessen marriage.
There was another factor, another measure of the impact of COVID-19, and that was Michael’s finances.
While he was not the wealthiest 90 Day Fiance star in the franchise, Michael was certainly in the Top 10 or so.
Case in point: in 2019, he purchased a new home in Connecticut for $1.19 million.
In April of 2020, like countless other Americans, Michael abruptly saw his finances dry up.
Because of that, he stopped paying his mortgage. On July 1, there was a foreclosure filing against him.
While we have every confidence that Michael can and will land on his feet, we hate to see that happen to anyone.
Even so, our heartfelt congratulations go out to Juliana and to Ben, even though we don’t really "know" Ben.
(We don’t know Juliana either, except seeing her on television and Instagram)
We had hoped for a different happily ever after for her, but sometimes reality is full of surprises.