'90 Day Fiancé Spoilers': Is Stephanie Really Bisexual — Or Is She Faking It For The Cameras?
She flew to Australia to meet her girlfriend Erika but doesn't seem that into her.
This season, TLC made franchise history by featuring the first same-sex couple on 90 Day Fiancé: Before The 90 Days. American YouTuber Stephanie Matto fell in love with Australian photographer Erika Owens online. Now fans are watching as Matto takes a trip across the world to see Owens in person for the first time.
Everything about this couple seems made for television. Both young women are attractive and outgoing. Matto knows how to work an audience after years of social media fame and Owens is an artsy type with bright pink and purple hair. It's hard not to root for them to fall in love and have an amazing, stylish future together.
But the path to true love isn't running smooth and they're finding that they aren't as compatible in real life as they were online. Matto, in particular, is reluctant to move ahead with a physically intimate relationship, which is making audiences wonder if she's not that into Owens. Or maybe she's not even into girls and this is just a stunt to gain more attention.
Is Stephanie from 90 Day Fiancé really bisexual — or is she faking it for the cameras?
Who is Stephanie Matto?
Matto, who is also known as Stepanka, is a popular YouTuber, who identifies as bisexual She has about 350 thousand followers on the video platform and 56 thousand followers on Instagram. She also has a Patreon page where people can pay to see sexier photos and videos that she posts. In 1994, she was on the Nickelodeon show All That. She has also authored a memoir called Mean Boys and Memories and says she is now working on a documentary about aplastic anemia, a rare, life-threatening disease with which she was diagnosed in 2016. Aplastic anemia is a serious condition where a person's bone marrow stops producing blood cells and Matto has been open about her diagnosis and treatment.
Matto and her girlfriend are the first same-sex couple on 90 Day Fiancé.
On 90 Day Fiancé, Matto has traveled down under to meet Erika Owens, a 24-year-old photographer from Port Augusta, Australia. Owens was a fan of Matto's YouTube channel and they got to know each other based on that. While Owens identifies as gay, this is a first same-sex relationship for Matto. Now audiences are wondering if she's actually interested in women at all or if this is just the kind of stunt that YouTubers pull to take their careers up a notch.
Owens shared a slideshow of herself and Matto at an animal park.
Fans don't really believe that Matto is she's interested in Owens.
Usually, when couples on 90 Day Fiancé meet for the first time, they head right to a bedroom and shut the cameras out for a while. Matto and Owen haven't done that — not there's anything wrong with that, of course. Rather, Matto just doesn't seem that physically into Owens. After a rather dramatic first kiss on camera, Matto and Owens haven't been very lovey-dovey or physical on the show. The lack of physical interaction and affection bothers Owens who wants the intimacy and sexual contact as part of their relationship. On film, Matto begged off saying that she needed time to feel comfortable, leading fans to wonder what the real deal is. The obvious answer is that Matto isn't actually as attracted to Owens in person as she was online. But some Twitter fans go even further, speculating that Matto is in this for the attention and she's not interested in Owens — or girls in general.
One Twitter user said, "I seriously doubt Ms Instagram fame wanna be Stephanie Matto is interested in a relationship feel bad for Erika Owens SHe got used abused and got nothing out of it." Another user noted that "Stephanie has sucked the entire fun and joy out of poor Erika. She looks so sad and defeated. Go home Steph so Erika can get back to her fun self!!" Another fan of the show tweeted, "Stephanie isn't gay. She's misleading Erika, and is only there to promote her online porn business."
But Matto swears she really is bisexual.
Fans have been asking her for some honesty about her sexuality and she opened up in a now-expired Instagram story. One fan asked her, “On the bisexual spectrum, which gender do you feel drawn to and a connection with?”
Matto replied, “70% women 30% men. I know I have only had serious relationships with men in the past but I do feel more comfortable with women and I do find myself more attracted to them. However, hypothetically speaking, I wouldn’t go as far as saying I’ll NEVER date men again.”
She defended herself on Twitter, saying she is confident in her own sexuality and that she thinks the rumors about her not being bi are funny.
Matto doesn't mind the haters.
So why doesn't she want to be intimate with Erika on the show?
As the show has been airing, Matto has taken to Instagram to share more details about herself. She discusses having intimacy issues due to the psychological effects fo her chronic health problems. She also says that a medication she has been on takes away her sex drive completely.
"If you don’t know what lupron is, its a sexual suppression medication that stops your period, amongst other things...Lupron, along with my other medication made me a robotic, asexual being for the past 2 years. Add into the mix that I have had some pretty traumatic sexual experiences in my life that make me nervous when just meeting and opening up to someone in that way. It’s not that I don’t care or love them, it is simply a mental thing for me. To be truthful, I have had difficulties with sex in the past" she explained.
"..But I know sex can be beautiful, and it can be a bonding experience. Despite my feelings about sex, I do experience love, connection, and physical attraction. And it is SO embarrassing to tell partners this and usually always leads to disappointment or your partner feeling inadequate (when it is really quite the opposite). This is something people have a hard time grasping, especially when you’re in the “business of being sexy” online. So please be aware that upon meeting Erika, my lack of sexual openness was nothing to do with apprehension of my bisexuality. I am FIRM and confident in my sexuality. It was nothing to do with anyone pressuring me. I was incredibly nervous, tired, and insecure: It had been a long time since I had human touch, and it had been a long time since I felt those feelings."
She also says that the persona she conveys online is only part of the picture.
In a recent Instagram post, she explained to fans that her online person is, "I pick and choose what I share. It’s a hobby and it’s fun but it’s also a business to me. I still keep a level of privacy, and being outgoing in front of a camera is a lot different than being outgoing in front of a group of people." She continued, "I talk a lot about sexual topics and relationships on my channel, but I also have a lot of videos about celibacy and how painful sex can be for me. I have enjoyed intimacy through the years and I also have deep scars that only close friends know about."
So is Stephanie Matto really bisexual? She says yes, no matter what fans of the show may think.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. She is the creator of the blog FeminXer and she is a cohost of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.