*”90 Day Fiancé” fans are dedicated. The question that always comes up, what happens to the couples after they leave the show? Do they stay together and make it work? Or was heartache always on the horizon? Season 8 of the hit TLC show has provided some of those answers for a few of the fan favorites.
Tarik Myers, 46, and Hazel Cagalitan, 28, met on an Asian dating website. Fans of the franchise remember first being introduced to the couple back in 2018 during season 2. Fast forward to season 8, Hazel and her son officially moved to America to live with Tarik.
Not only will we see Hazel adjusting to life in the U.S., but she will also have to pass the test of meeting Tarik’s daughter and, the fact that Hazel is bisexual and wants to add a girlfriend to her relationship with Tarik.
EURweb correspondent Jill Munroe chatted with Tarik about how he ended up on the franchise, his biggest concern with Hazel coming to America, his thoughts on Hazel exploring her sexuality, and his family’s thoughts on it.
Jill: What made you want to appear on the show?
Tarik: This had been my life for about six years prior to doing the show the first time. I had been traveling back and forth to Southeast Asia – Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, and Cambodia. I dated a couple of times in Thailand. I had a friend that watched “90 Day Fiancé,” and she said there’s this show about people that travel overseas to find love, you should call them. There’re people just like you… I was bored one day, flipping through the channels and “Before the 90 Days” popped up. There was a couple, Sean and Abby. He’s from Springfield, OH which is about 30 minutes from where I’m originally from, Dayton, OH… there was a scene when he was traveling through the Dayton airport, and I was like ‘wow, this is my airport,’ I might just try this.
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Jill: Let’s talk about this season, what were your concerns leading up to this 90 Days?
Tarik: My biggest concern was that my daughter and Hazel would be able to bond. I had been worried about that since Hazel and I got serious years ago. It’s just been me and my daughter the whole time. With bringing someone, anyone else into the house. My daughter is going to be jealous, she doesn’t want anyone near her father. But to my delight, they took to each other like fish to water.
Jill: Hazel introduced some interesting information this season, that she is interested in bringing in a girlfriend. Is this something you were aware of before you got serious? And how does it make you feel, now that you two are taking the steps towards marriage?
Tarik: “Hazel is brutally honest. So, when we were just chatting online during the first few weeks, she hit me with it. Something to the effect of, what if I told you I like women. I said ok, I like women too. She said no, I like women too. I said, like, like, like? She said yes, like that. I said ok, I would be really lucky… as time went on, I knew she was bisexual, but we never actually considered having a second person.
But as we got more serious, she started to tell me that she had to stay in the closet in the Philippians, because she comes from a very religious family. She felt like she had to suppress who she really was. That bothered me, so I told her, I just want you to be yourself. I don’t care what anybody thinks or says about you. I love you and I just want you to be yourself. That prompted her to say, I really can be me? I said yes, she said well, my ex derided me for this, and it caused problems. I told her, ok that’s cool for him, but I want you to be yourself. That also means you’re going to try having a girlfriend… I would be insane to say no. that’s how it all came to fruition.”
Jill: It sounds like a dream situation for most men. But this sounds like it’s not just the physical aspect, it sounds like a relationship that she wants to build and make a part of your own relationship. Do you have any concerns about jealousy?
Tarik: Yeah, I was a young guy once, I was on the rap scene in Ohio, so sometimes I dibbled and dabbled in some debauchery. Socially, I’m a very liberal thinking guy. A live and let live type of person. But, it isn’t just a physical thing for her, and I think the misconception about bisexual women, in particular, is that they are just sex-crazed and it’s really not that. She is attracted to women like I am attracted to women. That means everything, the softness, the spirituality. She says it all the time, Tarik I love you, but you have hard man hands. She likes a women’s touch. It has less to do with sex, and more to do with self.
The drama continues each Sunday at 8 p.m. on TLC.
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