’90 Day Fiancé’: Stephanie Matto Speaks Out About the ‘Mob Mentality’ Of Social Media After an Especially Hateful Comment
As the first-ever same-sex couple on 90 Day Fiancé, Stephanie Matto and Erika Owens generated a lot of buzz after it was announced that they would appear on TLC’s 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days.
Erika, a 24-year-old photographer and artist from Australia, fell madly in love with Stephanie, a 29-year-old OnlyFans content creator and social media influencer from Yonkers, NY, online.
They seemed like a perfect match, due to their shared creativity and love of the arts. But when Stephanie flew to Australia to meet Erika in person for the first time, things fell apart quickly—ending in several arguments about Erika’s past relationships and an explosive breakup.
Stephanie took most of the heat from critics on social media, who didn’t think she treated Erika well. Recently, the 90 Day Fiancé star took to Instagram to speak out against the “mob mentality” of social media critics and share how the constant barrage of negative comments affected her.
Stephanie has dealt with a lot of criticism from ’90 Day Fiancé’ fans throughout her season
Stephanie has been open about how social media criticism has affected her throughout the latest season of 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days. After Stephanie arrived in Australia, she and Erika fought constantly, especially about Erika’s past hookups with close friends—with whom she still spends a great deal of time today.
The couple also argued about Stephanie’s refusal to come out to her conservative family. Erika took Stephanie’s reticence as proof that she wasn’t willing to take risks for her, particularly after Erika came out to her own family because of their relationship.
Many 90 Day Fiancé fans took Erika’s side after the couple’s difficult breakup, arguing that Stephanie seemed self-centered and overly jealous.
The TLC star shared one hateful comment that especially got to her
While Stephanie has maintained a sense of humor about the negative comments she’s gotten over the past few months, she recently took to Instagram to share one harsh remark that truly hurt her.
The 90 Day Fiancé star shared a screenshot of a stranger’s cruel comment, which read, “Stop taking your pills that keep you alive!” The comment referred to Stephanie’s medications for her rare and potentially life-threatening health condition, aplastic anemia.
“Got another one today about someone hoping I ‘catch a cold,’” Stephanie wrote in the caption, expressing horror at the bullying comment. “Honestly…people? Really? With all that is going on in the world you’re going to send out this type of stuff?”
The ’90 Day Fiancé’ star reflected on the pain of weathering the constant insults
In a series of Instagram stories, Stephanie wrote about how difficult it had been to deal with hate from 90 Day Fiancé viewers. While she expected criticism, she explained, sometimes it just went too far.
“It’s definitely been hard dealing with these types of comments, and I know fellow cast members get them too,” she explained. “All I have to say is, if you really dislike us, keep it on designated forums intended for discussing the show. There is no need to send horrible messages to us or leave awful comments.”
The 90 Day Fiancé star advised critics not to target cast members specifically, reminding fans that they were real people who were just as easily hurt as anyone else. “I am sure it feels great for you all to feed into the mob mentality and get your daily dose of acceptance because you hate the same person, but again, so unnecessary to post that on our pages,” Erika’s ex-girlfriend argued. “It usually just gets blocked or deleted.”
Stephanie added, “I’ve honestly mostly stopped deleting them because 1. It’s too much to keep up with, 2. Sometimes these people seem so crazy I just keep it there for others to witness.”
Still, she concluded, she knew she’d gotten a lot of support and empathy from sympathetic fans as well. “Anyway, I also recognize the great amount of understanding and support I have gotten from people so thank you for that,” Stephanie wrote gratefully.
