90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days star David Murphey has been shown pushing his romance with Lana a little too fast for her liking, so did he crash and burn -- and are David and Lana still together now, and what's their current engagement status?
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[90 Day Fiance Spoilers Warning: This report contains shocking spoilers which reveal whether David and Lana are still together or engaged based on reports and leaked footage from 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days Season 4's reunion.]
David, a 60-year-old from Las Vegas, NV, and Lana, a 27-year-old from Ukraine, met on a foreign dating website seven years prior to filming 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days.RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE' COUPLES NOW: WHERE ARE THEY NOW? WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT? (PHOTOS)
David claimed Lana was "aggressively interested" in and pursued him, and then he quickly fell in love with the blonde beauty.
However, since Lana doesn't speak any English, she essentially forced David to communicate through a very expensive website chatroom, which cost David over $100,000 over the course of their relationship.
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Friends warned David that it seemed like Lana was scamming him, but he stood up for Lana every time and maintained hope their relationship was sincere and would last forever.
David said he and Lana had even talked about marriage and living together in the United States in an RV, allowing them to also travel, and so he picked out an engagement ring for Lana and flew about 8,000 miles and over 22 hours to Ukraine.
David waited at the train station in Odessa the next day because Lana said she had a 10-hour train ride from her hometown, but she never showed up.
"I can't believe this is happening again. This is the fourth time that I've come to Ukraine to meet Lana, and this is the fourth time it hasn't happened," David said in a confessional.
"This one is different. There is no excuse for this one. The others had excuses, and logical excuses -- she had a medical operation and one time her brother died."
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In a desperate attempt to find his love, David decided to drive to her alleged home address in Pavlohrad, which was on the outskirts of a war zone. Lana had given David this address when he wanted to book them a cruise the previous year.
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Once David arrived in Pavlohrad, David searched for Lana in local florist and candy shops.
After Lana promised to meet David at a restaurant once he reached her online but was once again a no-show, he decided to show up at her alleged apartment building and confront her once and for all.
David found the address, knocked on the door and discovered a strange man inside. The man claimed to have never seen or met Lana, insisting she did not live in that complex.
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David wanted to be angry and quit his romance with Lana, but he wasn't sure he was strong enough to let her go.
"But I know if she just writes to me and suddenly invites me into a chat, that's it!" David told the cameras.
"That's all it takes and I'm hooked again. Everything inside me says I'm done with her, but I still love her, so I don't know what's going to happen. I have a lot of thinking to do."
Once David returned to the United States, he hired a private investigator to hopefully track Lana down and give him some information about the mysterious girl's whereabouts.
After conducting some research, the private investigator warned David it seemed like he was being scammed because Lana was on several dating websites, sharing the same pictures of herself under different names.
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David grew irritated, angry and defensive, venting to the cameras, "He doesn't know her, as I do... I'm not giving up until I actually get to meet her... I have to find out from her the real truth," David said in a confessional.
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE: BEFORE THE 90 DAYS' COUPLES NOW: WHERE ARE THEY NOW? WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT? (PHOTOS)
After two or three weeks of not speaking to Lana, David said they finally reconnected and Lana opened up about what she was going through. Lana allegedly said she felt overwhelmed and "horrible" about what had happened and would make it up to David.
David, however, was done waiting and believed in his heart Lana was "not scamming" him, so he decided to fly back to Ukraine, where Lana said she had moved in with her sister.
"This will be my fifth attempt to meet Lana face to face. I'm putting myself out there again because we have spent seven years planning our future together, and I'm going to do all that I can to make that future a reality," David told the cameras.
When David arrived in Ukraine, his mind was still set on proposing to Lana, who said she lived on the outskirts of the city Kiev, which was about 10 minutes away from his hotel.
When David checked into his hotel room, he received a message from Lana saying she had her nephew's hockey games over the weekend and so they couldn't meet until Monday. Given it was only Friday, David was so frustrated he'd have to keep waiting and Lana's priorities seemed totally off.
"I really committed to this trip, but if Lana doesn't meet me on Monday, I really have to put my foot down and say, 'This is it,'" David told the cameras.
David then met with the private investigator he had hired, and the PI warned David, "Lana is on seven or eight different dating websites. She can have at least eight men like David. The lady appears to be a scammer."
David said he didn't ask for "an opinion," that he wanted facts. David didn't think Sergey was listening to or understanding his story, and so he fired Sergey without hesitation.
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On Monday, David told Lana to meet him at a famous monument in Independent Square at 11AM, telling the cameras, "I am going to get my girl. That's what this is all about. I am going to get my girl. The fourth time, she got cold feet. But hopefully, the fifth time for us will be the charm."
After "thousands and thousands of hours of chat," Lana ended up showing up!
Lana walked towards David, and the expression on his face was priceless.
"Oh my God! That's her. That is her!" David exclaimed with smiles and laughter.
Lana jumped into David's arms and he picked her up off the ground. The couple embraced and David appeared to be the happiest man in the world.
Viewers were then introduced to Lana, who's actual name is Svetlana, in package that taped before she officially met David face to face in Kiev.
Lana said when she met David on the foreign website, she was attracted to his sense of humor and the fact they have a lot in common, like a love of traveling.
A producer asked Lana if she had met other men from the same dating website before, a website that, according to David, cost him $100,000 to use over the last seven years.
"I have met men before from this website," Lana admitted.
But Lana declined to describe what her relationships with those men were like.
"Does the site pay for you socializing?" the 90 Day Fiance producer asked.
"No," Lana responded.
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RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE: HAPPILY EVER AFTER?' COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT? WHERE ARE THEY NOW? (PHOTOS
Under questioning by 90 Day Fiance's producers, Lana explained why she had previously failed to show up for David's four prior attempts to meet in person.
"When David was in Pavlohrad, I was also in Pavlohrad. David waited for me in the restaurant in Pavlohrad, but I didn't come," Lana said.
"Why?" a producer asked.
"I changed my mind," Lana replied.
"The previous times, there were other reasons why it didn't work out," she said.
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"The time you had planned to meet in Odessa, did you buy a ticket for that train?" the producer asked, referring to David's fourth visit where he ended up attempting to track Lana down in Pavlohrad after she failed to meet him in Odessa.
"Of course," Lana replied.
In terms of the three additional times Lana had stood David up throughout their seven-year relationship, Lana promised, "I never lied to David about my reasons for why I couldn't come meet him."
"But now I think I'm ready," Lana concluded. "I want to see what he is like in real life, and then I will decide about our future. I truly feel it is time to meet face to face."
When David and Lana met, David was giddy with excitement and couldn't stop giggling. He hugged Lana and called her beautiful, saying, "I can't believe you're here. I can't believe I'm with you right now."
David felt love with Lana and immediately took out his language-translation app so they could communicate.
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"David is a very attractive man, better than what I expected," Lana told the cameras. "For today, I like everything in David, except his leather coat."
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David gifted Lana a box of chocolates, and then she told the cameras she liked "getting gifts and money from David." But when a producer asked Lana how much money David given her up to that point, she said, "Can we skip this question?"
Lana wasn't pleased to discover David had hired a private investigator to find her, but she agreed to go out on a date with him the following day so they could take photos together and David could apply for her K-1 visa.
The couple then went bowling, and David even won himself a little kiss on the lips.
"I know David wants more physical closeness, but I think we need to spend more time together to see if I want this or not. Of course I want to go to America, but time will tell," Lana said in a confessional.
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Later that night, the couple did some sightseeing and enjoyed a romantic dinner out together. David wanted to show Lana his romantic side and also talk about the potential of getting engaged, and Lana gushed to the cameras she felt "warm" with David.
David asked Lana what she needed from him in order to determine he's "The One" for her, and Lana said she needed more time but could hopefully give him an answer before his trip home.
David then asked Lana to join him in his hotel room that night, but she responded by saying, "I think it's a bit early for that."
A producer asked Lana how she would respond if David popped the question, and she admitted she wasn't sure because although they had communicated for seven years, they had only spent two days with each other in person.
David hoped Lana would open up and show him the affection he needed in order to propose marriage.
So what occurred with David and Lana afterwards? Did the 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days couple get engaged and are they still together now?
90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days' Season 4 cast Tell-All reunion had reportedly been set to film at a studio in New York City in March similar to past seasons, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, those plans ended up being postponed.ADVERTISEMENT
Instead, the show ended up filming a reunion remotely, with everyone participating via videoconference, during the first weekend of May.
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE: BEFORE THE 90 DAYS' COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT? WHERE ARE THEY NOW? (PHOTOS)
About ten hours of raw footage from 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days' Season 4 reunion show subsequently leaked online, including several hours in which David was interviewed by host Shaun Robinson and discusses his romance.
Lana did not participate in the Tell-All at all, and David said it was because Lana had received an unflattering portrayal on 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days and was receiving hateful messages from men on the international dating websites she is still listed on.
"She is going through hell right now because basically she's still on the [dating] websites talking to her friends and she's hearing from guys all over the world that are watching this show going on here in America that they recognize her and she's scamming some guy," David told Shaun.
"So she's taking hell for that and getting lots of emails from guys trying to point out that she's scamming me."
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When asked to clarify if Lana is currently still using those dating websites, David replied, "Yes."
Lana claimed to David she's on the websites because she's "very shy and very private." David said Lana also alleged she "has no friends" because she "just moved recently to Kiev and is living with her sister."
"Those are her only friends. The people she has talked to... for nine years now on the website are her friends."
"They're not necessarily trying to date her or that she's open to dating -- because I don't think she's actually met anybody else in the last few years -- but those... are the people she can talk to when she's home alone and feeling a little depressed," David explained.
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David called Lana's online conversations "an escape" for the blonde beauty before assuring Shaun the men she talks to are "not paying her" and Lana "doesn't get paid."
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In fact, David promised, "I haven't filed any money into Lana" and repeatedly insisted Lana is not paid to be on the website and chat with men.
He clarified, "[People using the website] are paying to be on the site by the minute to talk to her... to talk to a pretty woman," David said.
"The maximum [money] Lana can get is that sometimes the website will have a contest or sometimes her agency will have a contest and if she wins something, she can win cosmetics for a month -- that kind of thing. But money, no. [The websites] are strictly prohibited from working that way."
At another point in the leaked footage, David also said he has regularly given Lana gifts over the years -- including gifts on Valentine's Day, Christmas, and her birthday -- but insisted the total value of the gifts only amounted to about $500 a year.
He did however, claim that for the first time ever, Lana asked him for some money to help her buy food after they finally met face-to-face in Ukraine. (Click here to read more about the amount of money David has given to Lana).
In addition, he also admitted to buying Lana an iPhone once in an unsuccessful attempt to get her to begin communicating with him outside the website's paid environment.
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According to David, Lana complained the iPhone keyboard was too small for her long fingernails and steered their conversations back to the website.
David and Lana did in fact get engaged before he left Ukraine!
The leaked Tell-All footage also confirmed Lana accepted David's marriage proposal at the end of his trip in which he finally met her after four previous failed attempts.Footage of their engagement will be shown at the end of 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days' fourth season, and based on leaked footage, David gets down on one knee and pops the question to Lana at the airport as he is about to leave Ukraine.
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Lana's body language remains very reserved during David's proposal -- a fact several of David's fellow 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days cast members noted to David while watching the footage during the Tell-All.
During the leaked Tell-All footage, David admitted "of course I don't like" that Lana has opted to continue to remain on the dating websites talking to other men despite her engagement to him, adding it's "a point of contention" between the couple.
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"Usually if women get engaged, they get off the site... I was hoping she would get off right away, and she didn't want to. Those are the reasons she told me, that those are her only friends and she'd feel depressed and lonely [without them]... That's always been an issue for me," David noted.
David said he wished Lana would spend all of her time talking to just him instead, but he has seemingly accepted Lana's need to chat with others.
Lana said "yes" to David's proposal, so are David and Lana still together and still engaged?
The current status of David's engagement to Lana was a heavily-discussed topic during the hours of leaked Tell-All footage, with David even repeatedly admitting he wasn't sure absolutely certain where the couple stood at that time."Right now, I would say we are not together. I'm not going to say we won't be together in the future, but right now, we are not. She is just under way too much stress with what's going on with the show and the people that bother her," David explained.
"I've told her, 'That's partly your fault; you could get off.'"
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE' COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT? WHERE ARE THEY KNOW? (PHOTOS)
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David continued, "She told me a couple of weeks ago that all she wanted was a white picket fence and a simple life with me and traveling in the RV. She loves that idea."
Shaun asked David why he didn't move on to another woman after Lana "ghosted" him four times.
"During that seven years that I've known Lana, I dated 30 girls in Ukraine. There was a two-and-a-half period of time when Lana and I didn't talk during that seven years, and I actually dated -- I went out on dates -- with 30 girls in the Ukraine," David disclosed.
"I almost got engaged to one! There was two-and-a-half years when I didn't talk to Lana."
David said he's been to the Ukraine over 20 times, and Shaun asked David if he's "high maintenance" considering he's claims he has spoken to 1,000 women and still never found himself a wife.
"I'm definitely not high maintenance. I may be a bit picky, but when you can meet 1,000 girls online and weed them out, you get picky! It changes you," David claimed.
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"I've been engaged twice over there to girls, and I've had many girls ask me to marry them, and I didn't do it because of one thing or the other."
David -- who said he's also previously been engaged to two American women at another point in the leaked footage -- added if he just wanted to get married, it would be very easy for him to do so.
Since David's relationship with Lana appears to be in limbo, David confessed he's also still on the dating website but has just been "talking to friends" -- not anyone he's seriously interested in romancing.
"As I said, right now, I'm not so sure I'm with Lana as of this time," David said. "I think it's been six days [since I last spoke to her]."
David reiterated that while he and Lana are not together right now, he's not sure if it will stay that way in the future.
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE: BEFORE THE 90 DAYS' COUPLES NOW: WHERE ARE THEY NOW? WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT? (PHOTOS)
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"So she said she wants to marry you but you have not started the [K-1 visa] process?" Shaun asked.
"Yes, we started it, but it everything got put on hold so it hasn't actually been sent. It hasn't been sent into the office yet because they're not receiving them [due to the pandemic]," David replied.
David said whether or not his relationship with Lana works out, he's retiring earlier than anticipated so he may move to Ukraine or at least travel there once a month.
David -- who now plans to retire in about a month, rather than over a year from now, as he says his retirement savings have benefited from the economic recession -- apparently considers Ukraine his second home and has already lived there for 17 months.
Finally, David revealed what he believes his future with Lana holds, including whether he thinks they'll get married.
"We'll see what happens with it. Right now, she is just still upset with everything. I basically spoiled her dream future, which is to be quiet and be just us and travel the world in the RV," David said.
"This [show] has now become a big thing in our lives, and she's just so afraid of the camera. She gets physically ill in front of the camera. I thought she did a great job and she was a trooper, but it's not for her and she can't do it."
David therefore concluded, "We'll see what happens with that, see if I can't change her mind and see if she comes back. Otherwise, I'm probably going back to Ukraine."
But David -- who made it clear he plans to continue to pursue other Ukrainian women if things with Lana don't work out -- said he'd likely live in Ukraine for three months, travel back to the United States, and then return to Ukraine for another three months.
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"You can't be there for more than six months in Ukraine without residency," David noted. "I think that's the way to actually meet somebody... instead of being online with them the whole time. I want to go on real dates and get to know somebody that way."
"And you know when you're ready to marry, you're ready to go."
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More insight into David and Lana's relationship and what Lana allegedly wants from David
The @FraudedByTLC Instagram account, which is run by a woman named Katrina, has a podcast called The Fraudcast, which she co-hosts with Hanekawa Dravon, the ex-wife of 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days Season 3 star Benjamin Taylor.During a recent episode of The Fraudcast, which was released before the raw footage of David at the Tell-All leaked, Katrina shed more light on David and Lana's relationship.
Katrina said it was already known, before David hired the private investigator, that Lana had been talking to different men on several dating websites.
"We know that she's done this. We know that her 'agent' puts her pictures on all of these various sites to find an American husband. We know that happened," Katrina said.
Katrina believes David had constructed a narrative in his head that Lana was into him and wanted to be with him, which built up his ego and self-confidence and made him feel youthful and desirable.
But Katrina wondered why Lana even bothered talking to David when she doesn't make any money off the dating website David uses to communicate with her. One might say Lana was looking to come to America.
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE' COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT? WHERE ARE THEY KNOW? (PHOTOS)
"What is her gain in stringing him along?" Hanekawa questioned.
Hanekawa pointed out, however, David had admitted on social media he and Lana were just friends during a portion of their seven years together.
"You can see he gets messages from other women," Katrina agreed.
"He's not putting all of his eggs in one basket," Hanekawa said.
Katrina suggested maybe Lana enjoys her friendship with David and "that's the payoff she's getting," unlike how her conversations might be with other American men, who could be aggressive or focused on the physical.
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"Maybe [David] is providing more of an intellectual conversation, or a more actual conversation," Katrina noted, later adding. "She doesn't have to pay to chat, so it's no loss for her... She also lives in a very remote area of Ukraine."
Katrina also appeared on Katie Joy's "Without A Crystal Ball" YouTube channel last week and discussed David recently blaming TLC's editing of the show for making him look foolish and making Lana seem like a scammer.
"We believe [David] and that's because our independent investigations have shown that to be true," Katrina said.
"What we know, like when David went to the candy store looking for Lana, we know that candy store is an hour-and-a-half from where she lives, and she doesn't have a car. So if she pops in regularly to a candy shop, that's not going to be it. And then there are no other candy shops near where she lives. So we know that is fake."
Katrina therefore reasoned, "We believe the producer [made that] a storyline... and same thing with the restaurant."
Katie pointed out there seems to be a scam happening regardless, and Katrina agreed, "There is something going on, but I don't know what it is."
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Katrina reiterated how the women do not make any cash from communicating with guys on the particular website David has been using.
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE: BEFORE THE 90 DAYS' COUPLES NOW: WHERE ARE THEY NOW? WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT? (PHOTOS)
"Does he send her money?" Katie asked.
"Not that I'm aware of, no... And what TLC filmed this season for him is, I believe, we believe, much of it to be fake," Katrina noted.
Katrina continued, "We've been able to prove some of it is fake, and so we have been led to believe some of the other stuff is fake as well or embellished... There is going to be some more coming out on them that I am not at liberty to discuss yet."
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