Time to buckle up: the 90 Day Fiancé franchise spinoff series Love in Paradise set against the backdrop of the Caribbean is back for a second season and things are getting even more interesting with VaLentine and Carlos joining the cast.
Ushering in a new set of on-the-rocks couples, Love in Paradise takes viewers away to beautiful lands of Jamaica, Panama, Costa Rica, and Barbados to gawk to watch four Americans try to salvage relationships with their holiday loves.
In Love in Paradise season two VaLentine viewers were introduced to VaLentine and Carlos whose love blossomed online, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the pair was forced to date for over a year without meeting face-to-face. Despite VaLentine and Carlos’ obvious connection when they finally meet in Colombia, their differences quickly lead to communication issues.
While VaLentine and Carlos are bringing the drama, fans hope they are able to overcome their differences to become one of the couples who stay together forever. But with vastly different views including VaLentine living a polygamous lifestyle, anything can happen. The Koalition spoke with VaLentine about what fans can expect from the show, how VaLentine will navigate dating Carlos despite Carlos not approving of polygamy, his music career and more.
“I really didn’t have any misconceptions [about Carlos nor the relationship when we] met in person for the first time. Literally what I expected is what I got but the only thing we were up in the air about was who was who was taller. He had a hard time translating his height into inches and feet for me, and every time he tried, I would get a different answer. I was like ‘I don’t know we’ll just wait and see who’s bigger’ and his hope was that he was bigger than me and I said, ‘Why? Because does that mean you can be the top because that doesn’t mean that, and he was like, ‘I just want to be bigger’ and he ended up being bigger than me.”
Carlos, who appears to live in Barranquilla, Colombia, is a social media influencer and when Carlos isn’t working out at the gym, he can be found relaxing at Colombia’s wide variety of beaches and national parks. As for VaLentine , he is an entertainer with his own production company, VaLentine Entertainment Inc. who moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a singer-songwriter. Since establishing roots in California, VaLentine has started a podcast, Comedic Mines, a talk show, Crucial Conversations, and is partnered with the fundraiser Red Ribbon Affair.
Despite their different upbringing, what keeps them together is their ability to fight through their communications issues and address their troubles with each other on and off-camera. “We are both very assertive and very confrontational, like neither one of us has the ability to ignore what we may perceive as the elephant in the room for too long [is what makes us stringer]. Although that can get on each one of our nerves sometimes because either one of us might not be in the mood at the time for all the energy that’s coming our way but what I found is it has caused us to hit milestones [faster than] couples who live in the same city and date for months.”
Despite not meeting for two years because of the pandemic they have achieved many milestones others haven’t. “It was two weeks ago we hit so many milestones really quickly because we always challenging each other. It’s just our nature, so I think that’s definitely a strength that kind of helped our weaknesses. Not being able to actually touch and feel each other on a day-to-day basis even though we yearn for that, that’s definitely a strength that I always look at.”
While the show is watched by millions with people commenting about VaLentine and his relationship across social media platforms, VaLentine doesn’t pay attention to what outsiders have to say and finds is easy to block out the cameras when filming.
“I knew people would comment and things like that, I didn’t know the magnitude and the intensity of those comments or opinions, but I don’t care. To me that’s one more cross to bear in here in America and as an openly gay Black man. You know how many things I had to overcome in my life just growing up having to come out to my family? Get in line please, I don’t care I’m [going to] still do what I need to do. I will be honest and say oftentimes I forgot that people were around me [filming] because you get so used to the cameraman. It is not just the cameraman, you forget that these people are around you with cameras pointing on you all the time and again this goes to Carlos’ personality, we are so passionate and confrontational, all that matters in the moment is I want to be heard. You forget everything else around you. I’m just focusing on Carlos and trying to work out our situation and then literally there are moments where I’m like, ‘oh people are around me,’ but it’s easy to forget.”
To learn more about VaLentine , his music and how he tackles being polyamorous, check out our full interview in the video above.
