The smash hit series 90 Day Fiance follows couples from around the globe on their international journeys for love and family.
Sometimes, it’s love at first sight and it lasts forever.
Other times, it takes months of courtship and convincing for two people to realize that they’re head over heels for each other.
But other times … no matter how long it took to fall in love, or what that courtship entailed, they ultimately fall out of love.
And sometimes, the fallout is downright brutal.
Cheating, betrayals, using people for fame, manipulation. You name it. Some cast members run a gauntlet of misery.
Take a look at some of the most heartbroken stars in the franchise’s history. Think it was worth it for them?
Ashley Martson
Jay Smith cheated on Ashley right after their wedding by downloading Tinder and chatting with an 18-year-old girl. A few months later, he cheated on her again, boning a random girl in a barbershop bathroom. A few months later, Ashley learned that he was sleeping with a mistress. Several months later, they reconciled, only to break up when a girl Jay was sleeping with (of course) claimed to be pregnant. They got back together the next year and vowed to make it work, only for Jay to once again cheat on Ashley. So not only did that story end in heartbreak, it had a lot of heartbreak along the way.
Rosemarie Vega
Rose couldn’t have known what to expect from Big Ed Brown except, hopefully, a lot of love, a future together, and a better life for her son. Instead, he lied to her. He lied about his appearance, he shamed her over her body hair, false claims about her dental hygiene, and was weirdly insistent that she and only she take an STI test. The biggest lie, the one that broke them up forever, was his intention to have a vasectomy — something that Ed had hidden for months despite knowing that Rose wanted to have more children. She was devastated.
Danielle Mullins Jbali
Mohamed Jbali wanted to come to America from Tunisia. Danielle Mullins wanted a hot, younger man to have sex with. They could have had a perfectly equitable exchange, except for a lot of backstabbing and insults and hurt feelings. A lot of those hurt feelings were Danielle’s. Was she using him? Of course. But it also seems like she loved him in her own way, and was devastated by their ugly divorce — to the point where, years later, she was still hung up on him.
Molly Hopkins
Molly met Luis Mendez while she was on vacation. Despite the age gap and a lot of suspicions, they got married. But though they both had their issues and got divorced, Luis was the one who was suddenly remarrying just five months later. Molly, on the other hand, took her time before moving on.
Jorge Nava
There’s no good way to get dumped, least of all by your wife, but allegedly being ghosted while you’re in prison because your (incarceration) weight loss is getting too much attention in comparison to your wife’s social media posts is … harsh. Now, Anfisa has strongly rejected that characterization of their breakup, but Jorge didn’t exactly have a wife waiting for him when he got out of prison, and yeah, that was rough.
Larissa Lima
On camera, Larissa was an over-the-top dramatic woman who turned on a dime and was emotionally volatile. To some extent, sure, that’s true. But the truth is that she fell in love with a man who pursued her online — even after she blocked him a couple of times. They met up, and she was blown away when he proposed to her on their vacation. She came to the United States, leaving her family behind, to be with a man … and his mother. Larissa quickly discovered that despite Colt’s sex drive, he didn’t seem to show her affection like a normal boyfriend would, let alone a husband. After months of manipulation and being cheated on, their marriage ended in an ugly conflict, and she was left with $38 to her name. She was beyond devastated.
Nicole Nafziger
This one is a little enigmatic, but she invested a lot in her relationship with Azan Tefou (real name Hassan M’Raouni). She invested a lot of time, a lot of energy, and thousands of … minutes spent in contact with her fiance, even getting stuck in Morocco for five months during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, suddenly, in early 2021, it seemed that they were no longer engaged. Nicole doesn’t have to confirm anything, and she hasn’t, but fans can only conclude that Nicole going totally radio silent (not even mentioning an engagement in her bio anymore) means that it’s over. Even if that’s good news, it sounds very sad for Nicole.
Jess Caroline
Neither the first nor the last woman to get the Colt Johnson treatment, Jess was strung along by Colt, though he later admitted to having cheated on her throughout their entire relationship. He lied to her, cheated on her, told her that she was imagining things when she was 100% right, and then for good measure, sent pics of his dick out to a whole bunch of women before he and Jess actually ended things for good. Jess didn’t deserve that. No one does.
Amira Lollysa
Speaking of manipulative dudes, Andrew Kenton and Amira have very different versions of who was the villain in their relationship, but some things cannot be disputed. One, that Andrew clearly piled on the pressure with Amira throughout their relationship. Two, that he added even more pressure right before her flight — he says in response to Amira getting an agent, she says that it was his insistence that she commit to having kids right away. Three, that Amira was heartbroken and tearful on camera in the aftermath.
Erika Owens
Erika Owens and Stephanie Matto hit it off online, like so many people — particularly within the LGBTQ+ community — do. Unfortunately, they lived on opposite sides of the world, but they still committed to meet each other and, possibly, to marry. But they did not get what they expected. In particular, Stephanie had some serious insecurity issues that tore their relationship apart at the seams. Erika has moved on, but at the time, she was very hurt — with neither woman on speaking terms with the other.
Deavan Clegg
Deavan already had enough reasons to be heartbroken when going to South Korea and finding out that Jihoon Lee had lied to trick her into going there and ending up at an unacceptable apartment with their two children. Things got much, much worse later, after cameras had mostly finished filming their season — with Jihoon accused of violent child abuse against Deavan’s daughter. Deavan fled with her children to the United States, having to suddenly figure out a new plan for her life after her dreams of a married life with Jihoon were destroyed.
Natalie Mordovtseva
We do not yet know the final straw that broke the marriage of Natalie and Mike, but we all know that they shouldn’t have even tied the knot. From Natalie’s perspective, Mike was a poor communicator, he dragged his heels, he was unsympathetic to her feelings and hurtfully dismissive of her concerns or any efforts to get him to commit to, well, anything. He also canceled their wedding two hours before it was supposed to happen, two days before her visa would expire, in the midst of a global pandemic.
Mike Youngquist
From Mike’s side of things, Natalie taunted him with cruel insults, tried to micromanage his diet, called him “low class” among other things, and to him, she felt pushy in a way that ruined moments for him. Neither of them are the good guy. Neither of them are the only villain in the relationship. Both of them were certainly heartbroken — more than once — during their ill-fated romance.
Steven Frend and Olga Koshimbetova
This is another weirdly enigmatic thing, because they are committed to co-parenting, even traveling to Russia together (temporarily; the rumors that they planned a permanent move to Russia were bogus). Are they together? Well, they never divorced, but they did announce a breakup in late 2020. This couple’s one real issue on camera was Steven’s toxic attitude (one learned from family, but we all sincerely hope that he no longer speaks this way), and truth be told, it was possibly fans who were most heartbroken by their breakup. A lot of people have rooted for these two and their precious baby boy.
Darcey Silva
Darcey has ended up heartbroken more than once. Jesse Meester was as narcissistic as he was handsome, and seemed to love public fights on Instagram and flirting with fans just to get a rise out of Darcey more than he ever loved his fiancee. Tom Brooks seemed similarly fascinated by becoming famous, even suspected of stringing Darcey along to appear on another season with her.
Liz Marie
Liz thought of Big Ed Brown as just a friendly older man until he stunned the single mom by asking her out. About his daughter’s age, she never expected that, but said yes. They actually hit it off for a while … until it became clear to Liz that Ed was interested in airing all of their dirty laundry with public fights in front of cameras, no matter Liz’s feelings on the matter. He used nasty manipulation tactics on her, leading to her ditching him in Vegas and flying home, even as a single mother on a budget, because she had to get away from him.