90 Day Fiance couple Chantel Everett and Pedro Jimeno seem unclear about the future of their marriage on Season 4 of 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After? after Chantel learned her relationship may have been a set up -- so are they still together or have they split?
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Problems have been plaguing Chantel and Pedro's romance ever since Pedro moved to the United States.
The couple met online over four years ago when Chantel was looking to learn Spanish and a friend connected her with Pedro, who was also hoping to better his English-language skills.
Chantel and Pedro's love story started on Season 4 of TLC's 90 Day Fiance and continued on through Seasons 2 and 3 of its Happily Ever After? spinoff.
After getting to know each other better online and over the phone, Chantel chose to act on her feelings by traveling to the Dominican Republic to meet Pedro in person.
It only took a couple of more visits overseas for Pedro to propose marriage to Chantel, a proposal which she had been thrilled to accept.
Pedro then moved to the United States on his K-1 visa when he was 24 years old.
Although Pedro and Chantel were engaged, Chantel lied to her family and downplayed the significance of their relationship.
Chantel, who was 25 at the time, told her loved ones that Pedro was just visiting on a student visa in fear of what they might think.
And Chantel's family was definitely suspicious of Pedro and his motives, but the couple claimed to be in love and got married anyway -- whether their families approved or not.
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RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE' COUPLES NOWChantel's family was concerned Pedro was only interested in marrying Chantel for her money and an eventual Green Card.
Chantel's parents therefore forced Chantel and Pedro to sign a prenuptial agreement in order to protect Chantel's financial interests before their wedding.
Drama escalated when Chantel's parents subsequently hired a private investigator to research Pedro's family background and determine if he already had a wife or any children back in his native country.
They thought it was strange Pedro was constantly sending money home to his mother and sister in the Dominican Republic and wondered if he was hiding something.
Pedro hated that Chantel's family didn't trust him, and Chantel found herself in the middle of her relatives and the man she loved.
As fans may recall, Season 3 of 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After? concluded with Pedro getting into a blowout fight with Chantel's family at the dinner table.
When a conversation at the table got heated, Pedro apparently told someone to be quiet and then River yelled at Pedro for being disrespectful.
Pedro then ran across the table and seemingly tried to hit River, which resulted in a broken light and food scattered about. Tempers flared, weaves were pulled off, and the scene culminated into Chantel crying in a chair.
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Chantel revealed on the season's subsequent Tell-All special she was not ready to try for a baby and expand their family due to all the chaos and family tension.
Chantel couldn't imagine welcoming kids with a man her family didn't respect and basically couldn't stand -- and vice versa.
Chantel believed Pedro was out of line, regardless of who had started the fight, and she was angry he refused to apologize to her family and take some responsibility. Pedro, however, was waiting for Chantel's brother to say sorry.
Pedro also wanted Chantel to fix her relationship with his sister and mother. Pedro thought his sister Nicole deserved an apology as well from Chantel and her relatives.
As shown on the new season of 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After?, family ties continue to burden Chantel and Pedro's relationship.
Pedro and Chantel even considered moving to Savannah, GA -- which would require Chantel to transfer to another school to continue her education -- to separate Pedro and her family with greater distance. (But plans fell through).
At one point, the couple once met with an immigration attorney to discuss the renewal of Pedro's U.S. green card, and Pedro mentioned potentially opening a business in his home country while continuing to live in the United States.
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The immigration attorney revealed if Pedro ends up receiving his 10-year Green Card renewal, he and Chantel could get divorced and he'd still be able to stay in America.
But that means Chantel would still be financially responsible for him, regardless of whether they had signed a prenuptial agreement.
Chantel would have to prove Pedro didn't enter their marriage in good faith in order to not be on the hook for him financially.
"Was this your plan all along? To come here and marry me just for a green card so you can leave me, use me and start your business?" Chantel vented in a confessional.
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"If I feel really good, I'll come back to [Chantel]. But right now, I am tired and have no fight," Pedro said in an interview.
Chantel -- who worried her marriage was "doomed" when she dropped Pedro off at the airport -- then told the cameras, "Right now, I feel like my marriage could be lost."
Chantel feared Pedro's trip home would become a permanent one, and she had every reason to be concerned, as Pedro's family and friends later attempted to convince him to leave his wife.
One of Pedro's sister Nicole's friends was also interested in Pedro romantically, so she hoped his marriage would fail and claimed Chantel didn't deserve him. (This is the girl who gave Pedro a lap dance during his night out as a "single" guy).
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Chantel then told Pedro that she was going to come to the Dominican Republic -- but he pushed back, saying he didn't want her to join him. Pedro thought Chantel visiting was a "selfish" move since he was supposed to spend time with his family.
But Chantel booked her flight against Pedro's will and decided to stay in a hotel room.
Chantel later had an awkward and somewhat heated meeting with Pedro's mother, which Pedro deemed "rude" on his wife's part.
Pedro then set up an awkward reunion for Nicole and Chantel, who promised to be "cordial" for her husband's sake. Pedro wanted "a new beginning" more than anything.
"If she can't support me and will be disrespectful again, this marriage could be over," Pedro told the cameras.
But once again, neither side apologized or took ownership of the events that had unfolded in the home of Chantel's parents when River and Pedro physically brawled.
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"I'm not going to listen to you anymore. I am done. Bye," Chantel noted, before leaving the table.
Pedro wanted the ladies to understand each other's points, but it didn't seem like that was going to happen. Chantel believed Pedro should have "put his sister in check" after Nicole put a finger in her face.
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Chantel didn't feel like Pedro cared about her, and she wondered what she was fighting for.
"Why is he trying to get me to apologize to her for something I didn't do? How about the time his sister talked about me behind my back? And what about the time she said my hair was ugly?" Chantel vented, adding about how a lot had happened between them off-camera that fans never got to see.
"I mean, my marriage is over. It's done, and I don't want to film anymore," Chantel cried.
Chantel thought Pedro turned into "a little b-tch" when he was around his family, and she was tired of having no support.
The pair then returned to their shared hotel room, and Pedro packed his bags to leave.
"He's not the husband I thought I married," Chantel noted. "I'm going to put it out of my mind as much as possible, and tomorrow, I'm going to figure out what to do."
Pedro was upset because he said he loved his wife but there seemed to be no end to the drama in sight.
In a recent episode, Pedro felt "embarrassed" about running away from his problems with Chantel.
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Chantel then met up with her friend Obed, a family friend of Pedro's whom she had met when she first came to the Dominican Republic, for lunch. The last time she spoke with him, Obed insisted he didn't trust Pedro's sister and mother, and so Chantel thought he had some information for her.
"I know how bad they are, and she needs to know what she's gotten herself into with Pedro and his family," Obed told the cameras.
Obed then shared with Chantel, "If you came here to fix your marriage. You should know the whole history. I feel that it was a setup; they arranged Pedro to meet you and for you to fall in love with him."
"Who?" Chantel asked.
"His family," Obed noted. "I heard they were finding an American for him to marry... Any American. I don't think [Pedro] knew about it."
A mutual friend had introduced Chantel and Pedro online when she was looking to learn Spanish. Once she got to know Pedro, she traveled alone to see him -- but the mutual friend had asked Chantel to visit with some of her girlfriends.
"Now I'm wondering if he just wanted Pedro to have more options to choose from," Chantel said in a confessional.
Obed said Pedro's family wanted Pedro to move to the United States and get a better life. Obed claimed Pedro's mother and sister wanted Pedro to be able to help them out with their business as well.
Pedro's mother had previously been accused by Chantel's mother of running an operation in which she helped women from the Dominican Republic find American men for money -- a venture Pedro had denied.
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Chantel was upset because she thought her relationship with Pedro had been a fairy tale.
"The reason I feel like his family doesn't like you is because you guys fell in love for real," Obed said.
"So you think Pedro was only a means for them to move up in the social status here?" Chantel asked. "And that he fell in love with me, and because I'm the woman in his life now, they're jealous of me or something?"
"Yeah," Obed said.
Chantel wanted to believe she and Pedro genuinely fell in love despite the "conniving, evil, malicious" beginnings of everything.
Red flags went up in Chantel's mind because Pedro did send money home to his family on a tight schedule every single month.
In the latest episode, Chantel was waiting for the right time to address Obed's concerns with Pedro.
"We are in a delicate place in our relationship right now," Chantel told the cameras, "and if I say the wrong thing, it could be over."
Chantel and Pedro then met with his friends again, and things exploded between Chantel and Nicole. Nicole even showed Chantel a video of Coraima grinding on and dancing on Pedro.
Chantel stormed out of the bar, and Obed told Pedro, "Seriously, Pedro? You let your own sister destroy your marriage?"
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"I feel betrayed by Pedro and feel he doesn't value our relationship and he doesn't respect me. He needs to come clean and tell me the truth about everything. I cannot be subjected to this type of behavior from my husband," Chantel said in a confessional.
Later on, however, Pedro apologized to Chantel for the video, and both individuals said, "I love you" to each other.
It appeared the couple had turned over a new leaf, but Chantel was still waiting to confront him about their marriage being an alleged set up.
So what happened since Chantel traveled to the Dominican? Are Chantel and Pedro still together or have they split?
It appears Chantel and Pedro are still together and married.Chantel and Pedro are secretive about their relationship and largely refrain from posting photos and updates of themselves together on social media -- presumably due to their contracts with TLC -- but it seems pretty clear their relationship hasn't ended.
The apparent evidence is the fact Chantel and Pedro's time on reality TV won't end with Season 4 of the Happily Ever After? series.
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE: BEFORE THE 90 DAYS' COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT?! (PHOTOS)
TLC just revealed in late June that The Family Chantel will premiere on Monday, July 22 at 10PM ET/PT, a week after 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After?'s Season 4 finale airs on Sunday, July 14. (Happily Ever After?'s two-part Tell-All reunion will then air on July 21 and 28.)
TLC announced the series back in April and revealed at the time The Family Chantel would air on Monday nights beginning in July 2019.
"Viewers will follow this unique modern family as they try to move past their differences and come together as an extended family, but as Chantel's parents Karen and Thomas try to protect their brood, will they push their children too far?" TLC teased in a press release announcing the new show in April.
"This is an awesome moment for TLC, as we create a family show based on one of our most popular 90 Day couples," TLC executive Howard Lee added.
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According to TLC, The Family Chantel will pick up exactly where Season 4 of 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After? leaves off, with Chantel and Pedro trying to work through their issues and attempt to create a happy life together in Atlanta, GA.
However, the transition back home won't be an easy one "after Chantel reveals all of the explosive information she learned on her trip to the Dominican Republic to her family," according to the network.
Chantel's family will race to confront Pedro in search of some answers. And Chantel's brother River and Pedro will come face-to-face for the first time since their brawl at the dining room table.
"And secrets are revealed as the family is forced to open up. Will the divide between Pedro and Chantel's family grow even more, or will they be able to get over their differences and become closer than ever?" the network teases.
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Meanwhile, Chantel's sister Winter will be shown struggling in her own relationship with her boyfriend Jah.
Chantel and Winter's parents, Karen and Thomas, feel like they know nothing about Jah, despite their five-year relationship.
Karen and Thomas will therefore enlist a private investigator to uncover "some shocking secrets," according to TLC, which is what they had previously done to Pedro.
In addition, Pedro's grandmother will fall ill, forcing him to return to the Dominican Republic. But this time, Chantel's entire family wants to join him.
"As relationships are tested and apologies demanded, will this face-to-face meeting end in happiness or total destruction?" says TLC.
The Family Chantel is being produced by Sharp Entertainment, the same production company that produces TLC's other 90 Day Fiance programs.
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However, rumors recently swirled Chantel and Pedro may have split, and Chantel posted a May 4 comment on Instagram that prompted speculation her relationship is in trouble after all.
When a fan speculated Chantel and Pedro have split, Chantel just replied, "Seriously."
It's unclear however whether she meant "seriously" as a question out of disbelief or as a statement confirming it's true.
Chantel also posted a cryptic message last month on Instagram in which she wrote, "When the storm has passed, put your energy into rebuilding your life, don't waste time looking back."
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
