Given some of the uncomfortable situations shared on TLC’s “90 Day Fiancé,” some may wonder why the couples continue to allow the show to continue filming.
According to Molly Hopkins, whose marriage to Luis Mendez memorably fell apart on the spinoff “Happily Ever After?,” the desire to share one’s life story with the world doesn’t always go away just because the story is an unhappy one.
“For me personally, when I started this journey I certainly was in love with my fiancé,” Hopkins told reporters at the Television Critics Association summer press tour on Thursday. “It didn’t work due to a bevy of things, but that was part of the reason that I wanted to do ‘Happily Ever After?’, because not everybody’s ‘ever after’ is happily.”
Hopkins and Mendez were first featured on the fifth season of the original franchise after meeting during her trip to his native Dominican Republic. Their attempt to make a marriage work ultimately came to end with a bitter divorce — including allegations of domestic abuse — documented in the most recent season of the spinoff.
Hopkins said she wanted viewers to know what came next, and to be able to share the story with them on her own terms.
“You want to give them the follow-up,” she said. “It’s really about being able to explain myself and go through what’s happened after … really continuing the story and the journey.”
And even though the show didn’t result in the fairytale ending she’d envisioned, Hopkins said she’d be open to doing it all over again.
“Whether it was someone from another country or someone from the United States, I think I would, for sure,” she said, adding that the TLC camera crew never really bothered her or affected her behavior.
“I didn’t really realize that they’re there. You’re really living your life and really going through the motions.”
“Everyone wants love, everyone wants to find someone. I have a great business, I love my kids, but do I want someone to spend the rest of this journey with? Absolutely,” she said.