Are Ricky And Melissa From 90-Day Fiancé: Before The 90 Days Still Together?
Was Melissa real? Or was Ricky being catfished all along?
Instagram Are Ricky and Melissa From 90-Day Fiancé: Before The 90 Days still together?
The TLC franchises of 90 Day Fiancé sometimes make it look like finding love overseas is an easy way to meet your soulmate.
With the easy access to dating websites and apps from all around the world, the dating pool is literally global. You don’t have to stick to the neighborhood bars to meet suitable partners anymore.
This is exactly what Ohio resident Reyes was thinking when he started looking for love after a divorce. He was interested in meeting Latina women and decided that the place to do that was in Colombia. So, he set up a profile on Colombia Cupid and got to work.
It wasn’t long before he met Melissa. In his intro, he described her as his soulmate, the love of his life, his last chance at love after two divorces. He even hinted that if his relationship with Melissa didn’t work out, he was off the market for good.
So, Reyes hopped a flight to Medellin to meet Melissa in person. Did they end up together? Read on to find out.
Reyes had already been divorced twice before meeting Melissa.
Reyes is a photographer and videographer in Columbus, Ohio. He told audiences that he was in the middle of his second divorce and he has two children from his prior marriages.
Even though his split wasn’t legally final, he was ready for a fresh start, so he decided to test the waters for romance in another country. He started using a Colombia dating app and met Melissa quickly.
There aren't too many details known about Melissa.
We don’t know much about Melissa, except what Reyes has said about her. TLC often lets the Americans do the talking before they meet their foreign flames, so the absence of actual footage of Melissa in early episodes isn’t terribly surprising.
Reyes tells audiences that they hit it off immediately, they have great chemistry, and he’s sure this is the real deal. As we see still shots of a beautiful young woman, Reyes claims that she’s also a nurse, so she clearly has good values in addition to good looks.
At first, they only communicated through texting.
For all of Reyes’s assurances that he and Melissa were a match made in Colombia Cupid heaven, he also admitted their communication was limited to texts.
He says the one time they attempted a video chat, the screen seemed frozen, almost like instead of a real person, he was seeing a GIF on an endless loop. His excuse was that Melissa had limited internet connectivity.
His friends weren't sure if Melissa was even a real person.
You can always count on TLC to bring in a skeptical friend and Reyes has a bar full of them. When he told his social circle that he wanted to fly to Medellin to potentially propose to Melissa, they all expressed immediate skepticism.
Their alarm only grew when he admitted that he had been sending her money every week for several months. Some even questioned if Melissa was real, given the paucity of communication.
He eventually went to try to see her in person.
Setting aside all concerns, Reyes boarded a plane to Colombia to embark on what he hoped would be a romantic trip. His confidence was shaken by the fact that Melissa stopped returning his texts a couple of days before his flight.
He took to the air not knowing if his planned meeting with her was even going to happen.
They got off to a rocky start.
Undaunted, Reyes texted Melissa when he was on the ground and invited her to join him at a restaurant. She texted back and they planned to meet at 7.
Reyes bought flowers, dressed nicely, did a shot at the bar to settle his nerves, and settled in to wait. And wait. And wait. And wait some more. It was after 8 PM by the time she finally texted him to say she was coming. She didn't even arrive until well past 9.
Then, Reyes finally met her.
Melissa finally walked in and appeared to be exactly the same women Reyes has been texting with for months, only with the addition of a full mouth of orthodontia.
The two of them chatted for a while before she got a cab home, having not explained her lateness or committing to seeing him again. There is no contact beyond an awkward goodbye hug.
Melissa ghosted Reyes after the first date.
The following day, Reyes invited Melissa to join him for some sightseeing, and she declined, citing university homework she needed to do. Reyes, ever hopeful, continued with his day, texting and reminding her that she’s welcome to join him. She never joined him.
But there was a twist in the story.
While this situation may seem like a real heartbreaker in the annals of 90 Day Fiancé, don’t feel too bad just yet. It turns out that Melissa wasn’t the only woman in Colombia that Reyes had been talking to.
He regrouped and invited a woman named Ximena Parra to come join him, and she happily took him up on the offer. Her enthusiasm about Reyes was far and away greater than Melissa’s was, and she seemed excited to spend some time with him.
However, Parra and Reyes are no longer together.
It looks like Reyes romance with Parra didn't work out, either. In the Tell All episode, he admitted that he and Parra had broken up after he returned home.
He revealed that the reason for the split was because he wanted to focus on his family and had briefly reconciled with his ex-wife, Natalia. Parra revealed that Reyes had even given her an engagement ring, but she got rid of it after he broke her heart.
Reyes current status seems to be single, judging from his Instagram. He appears to be focused on his kids and his work, instead of pursuing romantic endeavors.
Reyes has been getting fit.
Recently, he made a grand return to social media with a shocking new bod! In fact, his entire Instagram handle seems to be about his fitness journey.
Take a gander at the photo — he's barely recognizable! Congrats, Reyes. New physique/who dis?
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. Her work has been seen at Ravishly, Babble, Scary Mommy, The Mid, Redbook online, and The Broad Side.
Editor's Note: This article was originally posted on September 6, 2018 and was updated with the latest information.