Warning! The following contains spoilers for the 90 Day Fiancé: Before The 90 Days episode “Head Games.” Read at your own risk!
90 Day Fiancé: Before The 90 Days is currently twelve episodes deep into its latest season, and I think this cast is already worthy of some sort of record. Sure, the TLC franchise is known for its roller-coaster relationship drama, but the level of personal turmoil, couple with other controversies beyond the storylines really sent Season 5 of the spinoff series over the top. Now, with just a handful of episodes left in the season, I’m wondering if this particular cast list will serve as the most scandalous cast of all time.
Don’t get me wrong, other 90 Day Fiancé casts had their share of bad eggs, along with stars who pulled off some pretty indefensible acts. With that said, I’m not sure I’ve seen a cast on the whole that has been so embroiled in drama that it became kind of hard to watch the show as the scandals pile up.
Cast Members' Controversies Outside Of 90 Day Fiancé
Arguably the biggest example here would be Alina Kozhevnikova's social media controversy, a big blight on the season early on that resulted in 90 Day Fiancé: Before The 90 Days scrubbing both her and Caleb Greenwood from the back half of the season. Now, it’s looking like Mike Berk may face a similar result after several of his past social media posts surfaced, leading to racist and transphobic accusations. Presuming things play out comparatively, the franchise might soon cut ties with another cast member in Season 5.
Whatever happens there, it’s still extremely disappointing for such a culturally diverse show to be at the center of two controversies that involve racism and other forms of possible prejudice. Beyond pointing out how underserved the background check process is for the 90DF universe, such problematic cast members making it to air could also be very upsetting for other cast members from this and other franchise shows to see as well.
Cast Members Messing Around With Other People While Dating
90 Day Fiancé is a show about relationships, so occasionally, ex-lovers and other previously unintroduced people come into the story. With that said, I’m not sure we’ve seen a cast so far where outsiders have come into play so heavily. So far, we know Memphis Sandoval has drama with her ex-husband, that Gino Palazzolo sent nudes of Jasmine Pineda to his ex-girlfriend, and that Usman Umar had a relationship with another woman (and wrote a song about her) while talking to Kimberly Menzies.
Now, the latest preview showed that Ella Johnson slept with another man while with Johnny, and it seems possible that Ximena Morales dated another man while still with Mike. Again, these types of storylines aren’t exactly rare over time, but to have so much of this particular cast involved in such situations is pretty surprising.
Multiple Cases Of 90 Day Fiancé Allegedly Faking Storylines
If there’s one thing that 90 Day Fiancé fans dislike intensely, it’s hearing that the relationship drama they're invested in was non-existent and all manufactured with an effort to make engaging television. Unfortunately, we’ve already seen possible clues from Ximena that such fact-fudging was the case with her storyline when she alleged that producers encouraged her children to say they loved Mike, and that they don't actually harbor such emotions for him.
There’s also quite a bit of weirdness happening with Ben Rathbun and Mahogany Roca’s storyline, and that only got more suspicious when The Celeb Talk Guy uncovered a video in which it's claimed that producers reached out to Ben about appearing on the show after seeing his modeling photo in a magazine, as opposed to him sending in an application. We can’t explicitly confirm if the conspiracy theories about Ben and Mahogany's origins are true, but it does seem like fans have some questions about how valid the couple’s relationship actually is.
Scandals create a lot of drama, and that’s often extremely good for reality television, but I have to wonder if this season is a little too forced, when it's not like this franchise's traditional amount of messiness hasn't been enough in the past. Time will tell whether the rest of the season will go more smoothly, and we’ll see if these final episodes don’t provide a bit of redemption for some of these cast members.
90 Day Fiancé: Before The 90 Days airs on TLC Sundays. As the season winds down, be sure to keep an eye out for other new and returning shows on the horizon, and get ready for the next 90 Day Fiancé spinoff.
