Last week, 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After? star Jay Smith was arrested and placed in ICE custody.
He was arrested for violating Ashley’s PFA – an order put in place to prevent domestic violence.
Now, Ashley has revealed why she was advised to take out the order and just how quickly Jay violated it.
A GoFundMe has been started in Jay’s name and it has already raked in thousands of dollars.
Two of Jay’s 90 Day Fiance castmates have spoken out in some degree of support of him.
But with this latest accusation – of sexual assault – it’s unclear how many supporters he still has.
Jay is not having a good July
He went from being a free man with more than a month before his alleged deportation date to being locked in a cell awaiting deportation, and every day new information comes out that paints him in a worse light.
It started when Ashley left home for a while
Her mother watched her two children while she went to a women’s wellness retreat, and then she joined her family on a cruise. After all that she’d been through, including a health scare just days earlier, it sounded like exactly what she needed.
Unfortunately …
Ashley has since revealed that, during her absence from home, Jay allegedly broke into her house. We’ve heard multiple accounts of disputes over property during their split, but obviously, breaking and entering is a crime.
Police advised Ashley to seek a protection order
On Monday, July 1, she obtaineda PFA — prevention from abuse — order against Jay. The order required him to stay away from her and her home, and it included a measure enjoining him from speaking of the PFA.
Wait, abuse?!
Ashley later revealed to Celebuzz that “Our relationship has been very toxic from the beginning, and I just never did anything about it, because I knew if I contacted police that Jay would be deported.”
This sounds very serious
“There was a lot of abuse going on in our relationship,” Ashley reported to Celebuzz.
Jay, for some reason, did not comply with the order
Literally the next day, on July 2, Jay took to Instagram to refer directly to the PFA. According to Ashley, police caught wind of this without her assistance.
Jay later shared this Instagram Story
It seemed clear that, having been caught violating the PFA by discussing it, he was required to turn himself in to authorities. And that’s what he did.
Jay was arrested
However, because his K-1 visa had expired and because Ashley withdrew the paperwork to grant him further residency (after he messed up two weeks after she filed it), he is not a legal resident.
So he’s not in regular jail
Instead, Jay is in ICE custody. Given current political events and the controversial nature of ICE itself, many 90 Day Fiance fans were alarmed to hear that he is locked away by the organization linked to multiple concentration camps on American soil.
No one was more upset than Ashley
One of the things that has kept this toxic marriage going for so long — remember, they didn’t end things for good until April, and according to Ashley, there was at least one other attempted hookup even after that — was that Ashley really loved Jay. For better or for worse. She was devastated that he was locked up.
(What hookup, you ask?)
Remember how Ashley admitted to having yeeted a fire extinguisher through Jay’s window? Not her finest moment, to be sure. But her explanation for that was that Jay had invited her over for a booty call and that she, after drinking, had accepted … only to find him hanging out with a couple of girls. This was in late May and, even if it’s true, was not an excuse for retaliating with a fire extinguisher.
That’s all behind them
Now Ashley is getting over her toxic marriage while Jay is doing the same — from a prison cell. And his loved ones fear that he could be in that cell for months.
Now, Jay has a GoFundMe
It’s been set up by an acquaintance of his, who is a local stripper named Kayla. Notably, back in April when Ashley first revealed that they had split, she had mentioned that he was spending time (and her money, while using her car) at a strip club.
Kayla seems really worried
Kayla claims that “Jay fears for his life if he is returned to Jamaica.” She also worries that his incarceration could last for months.
Donations have been pouring in
This GoFundMe was started on July 4. As of the morning of July 8, here is how much he’s raked in. That number is sure to go up … though, as more information comes to light, some may have mixed feelings about their donations
Jay’s Instagram is still active
Now, it’s being run by a loved one who wants to emphasize that his GoFundMe is “not a scam.”
Apparently, incarceration is getting to him
He would probably be much happier now if he had obeyed the terms of the PFA. Something that Jay and Ashley have in common is that they both speak and act very impulsively when they are feeling strong emotions.
Is this the “payback” that Jay deserves?
According to Ashley’s spokesperson, “Ashley has been suffering for a long time– it’s payback. Jay thought she was joking, but no. He made his bed, now he has to lie in it.” It sounds like Ashley’s rep is feeling less sympathetic than Ashley is. Probably because her rep was never in love with the guy.
Larissa has weighed in
“My thoughts are with Ashley at this difficult time, and I pray for her safety,” Larissa wrote after Jay’s arrest. “As I myself have been arrested and know the fear Jay must be feeling, I [have] some empathy for him.”
Empathy isn’t the same as saying that he’s innocent
“However, if he violated any laws, he must go before a judge and respect the judgment handed down to him. I believe many aspects of immigration laws regarding the K-1 visa have to change,” Larissa notes. She is speaking from personal experience on both topics.
Larissa has a suggestion
“Despite the applicant contributing to the household as allowed,” Larissa wrote. “Many feel like prisoners as they are solely reliant on the people that brought them over to the U.S. The K-1 applicant is left at the mercy of his or her sponsor and it is leading to more and more abuse of the immigrant.” Very true, though it’s not clear how applicable that may be to Jay’s situation.
Fernanda also spoke up
In a now-deleted post, Fernanda showed highlighted excerpts from the GoFundMe post, including: “Jay has not received his share of the money for being exploited on this tv show and we are asking help to obtain him a lawyer.”
Fernanda knows what it’s like to be a younger spouse and misrepresented
“This young man has been exploited on national television,” another highlighted portion read. “And as any real person knows TV is always far from the actual truth.” Fernanda then wrote: “Where are the producers now?”
She’s had her own experience with all of this
That said, what motivated Fernanda to express sympathy for Jay’s plight may have also been behind her decision to delete. She recently shared her story of why she and Jonathan had divorced. In that tell-all video, she accused him of abuse. As she learned more about what Ashley had to say about Jay, Fernanda may have begun to sympathize more with Jay’s ex.
Here’s where this story gets even more upsetting
We’ve already heard Ashley accuse Jay of abuse during the relationship, claiming that she avoided calling the police for so long because she feared that he would be deported. Love can make people do crazy things, but it is never the victim’s fault.
Content warning:
What’s coming up are screenshots of text messages — messages allegedly exchanged between Jay and Ashley. We cannot authenticate these, even though they have been shared by another 90 Day Fiance star. However, whether they are genuine or not, the content is very upsetting and includes a description of domestic abuse and of spousal rape.
Jon Walters has spoken up
Jon is another 90 Day Fiance star and he is (in)famous for never holding back when speaking his mind about other 90 Day Fiance stars. And he is sharing the alleged text messages, saying that Jay is not the sort of person who deserves the sympathy of fans.
Here are the alleged texts:
Like we said, this is upsetting stuff. In the texts, it appears that Ashley confronts Jay about allegedly pinning her down shortly after a hospitalization and sexually assaulting her despite her protests. In this photo, the alleged texts from Jay appear to present confusion. Let there be no confusion: spousal rape is rape, and it’s also a crime. Pinning someone down and bruising their wrists without their consent is assault.
That is bone-chillingly horrific
Ashley has endured so much already — including being kidnapped and assaulted when she was 19 years old. She is also ravaged by lupus. It is heartbreaking to think that this may have allegedly been happening behind closed doors.
However:
Again, we cannot authenticate these texts. Text messages and DMs and tweets and headlines and just about anything else under the sun can easily be faked, in minutes. We cannot imagine Jon Walters doing so, but we don’t know where he received those messages (which appear to be photographed, possibly on a piece of paper).
Clearly, this was a toxic couple
We are so, so glad that they have gone their separate ways and we hope that they never meet face-to-face again.
Is Jay’s life really in danger?
We do not know why his life might be in danger if he returns to Jamaica. He has not hinted at this — and recently received a facial tattoo that appears to be of the silhouette of his home country.
Ashley, at least, is better off this way
No matter what went down on camera or behind closed doors between Ashley and Jay, being out of a toxic marriage is for the best. As we mentioned, Ashley has spoken about abuse within the relationship. Ashley has not yet spoken about the alleged text messages.
We’ll keep you updated
When Jay’s deportation status changes, if his GoFundMe reaches its goal, if he gets released from prison, we’ll be sure to report on it.