90 Day Fiance couple Ashley Martson and Jay Smith will be one of the couples viewers will see on Season 4 of 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After? when it premieres Sunday night on TLC, but what's their status now?
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RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE' COUPLES NOW: WHO'S STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT?! (PHOTOS)
Prior to filming the new season of 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After?, Ashley and Jay appeared on Season 6 of 90 Day Fiance, which finished airing on TLC in January.
Ashley, 32, and Jay, 21, met at a bar when Ashley was vacationing in Jamaica for a friend's wedding.
Although they parted ways after a whirlwind romance in Jamaica, Jay -- who Ashley called "the life of the party" and the "light" in her life -- contacted her on social media after she returned to the United States and they began talking frequently and getting to know each other better.
Six months later, Ashley left her home in Mechanicsburg, PA and returned to Jamaica to visit her man, and then Jay proposed marriage after only eight days together.
Jay eventually received a K-1 visa, and 90 Day Fiance's sixth season showed Jay getting settled in Ashley's home and adjusting to life in Mechanicsburg.
However, the couple eventually decided to cancel their plans to get married in Ashley's hometown after they allegedly received online threats from people who didn't approve of their interracial romance.
According to a wedding registry that was subsequently deleted, Jay and Ashley had originally planned to the knot on May 26, 2018 in Mechanicsburg.
Instead, the couple tied the knot in Harrisburg, PA on May 16, 2018, before traveling to Las Vegas to also celebrate their union with a more traditional ceremony in Sin City.
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Ashley and Jay then returned home from Vegas, but their relationship quickly hit the skids when Ashley caught Jay messaging other women on dating apps only a couple of days after their wedding, and 90 Day Fiance's sixth season ended with Ashley unsure whether she wanted to continue the marriage.
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE' COUPLES NOWSo what has happened since viewers last saw Ashley debating whether to stay together with Jay on 90 Day Fiance? A lot!
Given 90 Day Fiance's Season 6 filming and broadcast schedule, about six months elapsed between the season finale's filming and TLC's December 30 broadcast of the finale and early January broadcasts of the two-part reunion show.And just before Christmas, speculation that Ashley and Jay may have suddenly split began swirling online after Ashley made a cryptic Instagram Stories posting about not being about to "fake" things anymore and 90 Day Fiance viewers noticed she had also deleted all of her photos of Jay from her Instagram account.
"You can only fake that things everything is ok for so long. Then you just hit that point... - ME!!!!!" the December 22 posting stated.
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In addition, fans also noticed Ashley and Jay no longer appeared to be following each other on Instagram.
Then on December 30, Jay shared a GoFundMe campaign to help him "get a place to stay" -- seemingly confirming the couple's split.
Prior to the December 22 posting, Ashley and Jay's social media postings had regularly featured each other and shown they were still together and living in Mechanicsburg.
After a few more weeks of split rumors and gossip, Ashley filed for divorce in Pennsylvania on January 11. However, she withdrew the divorce paperwork only eleven days later, further confusing fans about the real status of their relationship.
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Just two days after she filed for divorce, Ashley was hospitalized for kidney failure and lupus complications and remained in the hospital for almost a week. Jay still visited Ashley in the hospital even though they appeared to have already been separated since before Christmas.
But then in early February, Ashley went on a lengthy Instagram rant and claimed she and Jay had actually never separated and the 90 Day Fiance couple had staged and leaked a lot of the alleged problems and issues in their relationship.
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Ashley, however, blamed TLC and 90 Day Fiance's producers for allegedly pressuring the couple to create an interesting storyline.
"Since I'm such a 'money-hungry scammer,' I'm breaking the NDA and surprise: Jay and I have never separated since the day we were married. Breaking the NDA means I won't be paid a dime for future shows. We were made to act as if our relationship was no longer active," Ashley wrote.
"We have been asked to be very deceptive about many things during our run with the show. We have been asked (and agreed for some time) to fake our relationship by not posting anything that makes us appear that we are together," she continued.
"We will be working with the necessary parties to find a solution to the constant deception and lies we are being asked to participate in as it is not conducive to the very real consequences that potentially exist for us. Immigration, K-1, etc: all real. Personally, I thought this show was just for entertainment & that's what we were told. Since the show has ended, I never confirmed the status of our relationship due to the contract."
Ashley's social-media appeared to have been provoked by an incident several days earlier in which Jay had accidentally broadcast live from an anonymous Instagram account that was supposedly leaking information about the couple without their permission.
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Screenshots of Jay live on the account circulated online and shocked fans because they suggested Jay and Ashley were leaking personal details about their lives for media attention but blaming it on other people, such as Ashley's former friend Natalie.
Not only were fans outraged, but Ashley and Jay's 90 Day Fiance co-stars also slammed the couple for allegedly lying about their relationship and leaking their own stories for press headlines.
Ashley then fired back at her 90 Day Fiance co-stars in additional Instagram postings.
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"Most of you from Season 6 went on a social media TIRADE about the editing and fraud of the show, so don't suddenly act like you have no idea how this goes."
Ashley accused 90 Day Fiance of being fraudulent "from the top down," and claimed that's why viewers were able to pick out inconsistencies while Season 6 was airing.
"The show ruins relationships and people's overall image for less than the Pennsylvania minimum wage and I do not elect to continue the Three Ring Circus unless MAJOR changes are made. I hope this clears things up -- you are the believers," she wrote.
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However, in mid-April, Ashley suddenly made new social-media postings in which she threatened to file for divorce from Jay again.
"It's all fun and games until I get your disgusting cheating ass deported," she wrote on Instagram. "Have fun at the strip club with MY money and MY car you're driving around without a license!"
After Ashley's postings, she and Jay also unfollowed each other.
A few days later, Ashley made additional Instagram postings that appeared to confirm the couple had split and suggested she had caught Jay cheating on her.
"For all you thirsty girls in my soon to be ex husband's inbox, he's all yours. Please do me the favor and take his nasty ass off my hands," Ashley wrote.
Ashley also briefly updated the bio section of her Instagram account to read "Reality TV (star) on TLC... Happily Ever After... Mommy of Two... Single AF."
Ashley then subsequently filed for divorce a second time on April 23.
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Rumors have circulated on social media recently claiming Jay cheated on Ashley and got another girl pregnant; however, Ashley has not revealed any additional details about the infidelity allegations.
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In the meantime, Jay appears to have an even more urgent legal matter he needs to address: his possible deportation!
In March, Ashley conducted an Instagram Live session with blogger Johnny Yates in which she claimed an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official had come to her house and served Jay a notice to appear in court.
Yates then posted photos of arrest warrant and removal proceedings documents on Instagram that are dated February 4 and order Jay to appear in court in Philadelphia, PA on May 8, 2019.
The immigration official's appearance occurred before April's new divorce and cheating drama and was likely sparked by a January 11 incident in which Jay was ticketed for speeding and driving Ashley's car without a driver's license in Mechanicsburg.
(In most U.S. states, an immigrant can not get a driver's license without a valid green card, which Jay has apparently not received.)
While public records indicate Jay quickly plead guilty and settled the court case, the incident still generated a district court record that appears to have alerted immigration officials that he is still in America.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security documents notify Jay that he may be deported under the Immigration and Nationality Act because he has overstayed his visa and remained in the United States longer than he was permitted.
According to the documents, Jay arrived in the United States on March 6, 2018 on a K-1 visa that only allowed him to stay in America until June 3, 2018 and he has been living in the U.S. without any legal authorization since then.
As a result, Jay is "removable" and the Department of Homeland Security has initiated removal proceedings against him.
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Given Ashley and Jay did end up getting married after he arrived in America, the documents seem to indicate Ashley never filed the additional adjustment status paperwork that would have allowed Jay to legally remain in the United States following their wedding.
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About The Author: Steven Rogers
