TLC Claims Jenny and Sumit’s ’90 Day Fiancé’ Drama Was Totally Unscripted
90 Day Fiancé couple Jenny Slatten and her Indian lover, Sumit, blew minds nationwide during their season of the show. Well, mostly Sumit did. Slatten fell in love with Sumit after meeting him on Facebook, during which time he catfished her as Michael Jones, claiming to be a male model.
The two established a real connection despite Sumit’s lies, and have been close since then. However, that wasn’t the only lie Sumit told Slatten. In fact, his next lie was so shocking that even TLC claims to have been caught off-guard.
Sumit’s secret marriage
Jenny Slatten moved to India to stay with Sumit while they worked out their marriage, hoping to eventually earn her a visa to stay as long as she pleased. Unfortunately for Slatten, Sumit was hiding a secret that would prevent any chance at marriage — he was already married.
Sumit’s family didn’t seem to know about Jenny Slatten, and he knew they wouldn’t approve, so he moved Slatten into a new apartment where he would stay with her. However, he often visited home to reassure his family that everything was normal.
Shortly after returning from one such trip, Sumit received a phone call that upset him. He told Slatten to lock the doors and then stepped outside. He returned with a man who told Slatten, “Hello, Jenny. How are you? I’m Sumit’s wife’s father.”
The producers and camera people weren’t on the scene when the ensuing altercation went down. Slatten later said it was like a nightmare, adding, “Why did he marry somebody if loved me? He was telling me he loves me all these years every single day. How did he marry somebody else? How is it possible to do that?”
Sumit’s wife’s family, as well as his own family, showed up and cornered him. They then took him away from the apartment and kept him at home for several days.
Jenny Slatten defends Sumit
After discovering Sumit’s lie, Jenny Slatten prepared to leave for India. Her visa was running out, and it was clear that marriage was not on the immediate horizon. During a video chat, she told her daughter Christina, “This is why he has been keeping all of this a secret from his parents. His parents entered him into an arranged marriage… He doesn’t want to be married to her. He never wanted to be married to her.”
Sumit later told producers, “In other countries, it’s about couples. They love each other, they get married. It’s not the arranged marriage. If they’re not happy and feel the marriage is not going good, they can get separated and divorced… I just want separation.”
Slatten told viewers, “Please, everyone know it’s not his fault. He’s a good guy.”
TLC claims it was all unscripted
Senior VP of production and development at TLC, Alan Orstein, claims the crew was shocked when they found out about Sumit’s lie and the ensuing altercation.
Orstein told E! News, “I will say for us, and maybe because it’s just still fresh in mind, but when we found out that Sumit was married, that really caught us off guard. And I remember vividly where I was in the office when I heard about it and talking about it on the phone with our production partners, Sharp. It was definitely a moment.”
Orstein added, “So, we quickly scrambled a crew and got them out there because we thought it was a very relevant and important part of the story to tell, provided everyone was still OK participating and telling that story. And that definitely was probably one of the most shocking moments, at least in recent memory on the franchise.”
The executive regretted not being able to have cameras on the scene when everything went down. He told E! News, “That’s probably one of our biggest regrets, something along those lines. But it’s possible it may have played out differently if cameras were there too. I think what the crew was able to capture on the heels of that was very compelling. It happens on a lot of shows, not just 90 Day. When we come in right on the heels of something, we do our best to make sure that we tell the story in a compelling way that still gets viewers insights into what happened and what they might’ve missed.”
