’90 Day Fiancé’: Colt Johnson Reveals the Heartbreaking Reason He’s So Close to His Mom In New ‘Happily Ever After’ Sneak Peek

90 Day Fiancé star Colt Johnson and his mom, Debbie Johnson, have always been closer than the typical mother and son. And she’s always had a hand in her son’s love life—perhaps even more than he might have liked.

Debbie never got along with Colt’s Brazilian ex-wife, Larissa Dos Santos Lima. And, in a new sneak peek of an upcoming episode of TLC’s 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After, it was clear that Mother Debbie left the same bad impression on Colt’s new Brazilian girlfriend, Jess Caroline.

When the 34-year-old Las Vegas software engineer visited Brazil to meet 26-year-old Jess’ family, Jess and Debbie immediately began to clash due to Debbie’s grumpy attitude and bad temper. When Jess confronted her boyfriend about his mom’s behavior, Colt opened up about a tragic part of his past that had left him more dependent on his mom than the average man his age.

Jess confronted Colt about his mom’s behavior

After Colt and Debbie arrived in Brazil to greet Jess, things quickly went south. Both women were shocked to learn that Colt had booked only one hotel room for the three of them. (Luckily, he booked a second room at their request.) Later, exhausted from her 14-hour flight to Brazil, Debbie started slamming doors and yelling.

On a dinner date that night, Jess confronted Colt about his mom’s behavior. “Your mom just meet me for first day. First day. First,” she pointed out. “And the situation, it’s crazy.”

Colt agreed that Debbie had “embarrassed” him with her antics. Still, he insisted she was “just tired” and wasn’t normally so angry. “My mother wasn’t mean to you. She didn’t yell at you. She was just mad,” he told Jess sheepishly.

But the 90 Day Fiancé star told TLC producers that he did have deeper concerns about his mom’s temper. “I knew going into Brazil that my mother being there could jeopardize my relationship with Jess,” Colt admitted. “And now she’s slamming doors, she’s yelling. And she’s just doing the same s*it she did with Larissa.”

Colt opened up about his dad’s death

Colt told his girlfriend that there was a particular reason his mother was so “overprotective”—and that he allowed it. “We both lost people we love,” he reminded Jess sadly, referring to his father and her mother. “We both lost parents.”

“Your father died for cancer?” Jess wanted to know.

“My father died of a heart attack,” Colt told Jess.

Jess looked sympathetically at her boyfriend and explained what had happened to her own late parent. “Oh. My mom died for cancer,” she told Colt. “It’s hard.”

Colt explained that he felt especially close to his mother because he had lost his father earlier in life than he expected. Without his dad in his life, the 90 Day Fiancé star said, he had often felt alone. Afterward, he forged a close bond with his mom.

“We have the same story,” Colt told Jess gently. “We both care about our parent and would do anything for that parent that we still have.”

The 90 Day Fiancé star explained to TLC producers, “Losing a parent really affects you. Suddenly, you don’t have that person you love anymore. You don’t have their experience and wisdom. And there’s a hole in your heart. You’ll never get another father or another mother. You have to live your life without that guidance, without that person watching over you.”

Opening up about his mom even more, Colt told Jess that he knew his mom didn’t always act perfectly around others. Still, he wasn’t willing to give up the bond they shared. “I didn’t ask to take care of my mother. I didn’t want that burden,” the 90 Day Fiancé star said as his girlfriend listened intently. “But she’s my mother, and she needs me. And maybe she’s not the best person, but she’s my person.”

Jess shared a similar experience in her past

After Colt opened up about his past, Jess told 90 Day Fiancé producers, she explained his closeness with his mom a little more than she had. Jess explained that she wanted to try to get to know Colt’s mom if she could.

“Me and Colt have the similar, because my mom passed, and your dad passed too,” Jess said. “So I want to give Debbie a new chance.”

Still, Jess worried that their two families—who would soon meet for the first time—were “too different” to get along. “My family is funny and happy all the time…and Debbie, I think, is not the same,” she said ominously.

Colt seemed to share similar concerns about how Jess and Debbie would make things work. “I really think my mother made a bad first impression…So moving forward, I hope these things don’t happen again,” he said.