90 Day Fiance star David Murphey has revealed how much money in cash and gifts he's spent on Lana over the course of their nearly eight-year relationship.
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RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE' COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT? WHERE ARE THEY KNOW? (PHOTOS)
David told the cameras Lana was "aggressively interested" in and pursued him on the dating website, which has cost him more than $100,000 over the course of their relationship.
But according to David, he's spent much more money than that!
Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days' Season 4 Tell-All reunion ended up filming remotely during the first weekend of May, with cast members participating via videoconference.
About ten hours of raw footage from the Season 4 reunion show subsequently leaked online, including several hours in which David was interviewed by host Shaun Robinson and discusses his Lana romance with his 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days co-stars.
"David how much money have you spent going over to Ukraine, being on these [international dating] sites. How much would you say the total cost has been?" Shaun asked.
"Oh, to be honest, it's probably a quarter of a million -- $300,000 or so," David confessed.
"But Shaun, this is nothing," David assured her. "If you're making $40,000 a year or $50,000 a year like the average person, yes, that's crazy money. But at my income level, it's not crazy money."
90 Day Fiance alum Caesar Mack was part of the videochat conversation and said his situation with Maria from Ukraine was similar to David and Lana's relationship, except Caesar was giving his money straight to Maria rather than paying the dating website.
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"People think I gave Lana $100,000 and that's crazy!" David claimed.
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE' COUPLES NOW"Over the course of eight years, I've given her maybe $3,000 to $4,000 in total for gifts -- for birthdays, Christmas, Women's Day, and Valentine's Day. It adds up to less than $500 per year!"
David insisted, "If I'm going to have a relationship and have a girl interested in me for that long, you're going to have to give something! You're not going to have a girl if you haven't given her a birthday present or a Christmas present."
David said if Lana just wanted a Green Card from him to come to America, she would have hurried the K-1 visa process up and married him seven years ago.
"And if she wanted money," David continued, "she would've been asking me for some -- but she's never gotten any."
When Lana was asked how much money David has given her through the years on 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days, she dodged the question. But David insisted Lana had nothing to hide and was just "nervous about answering" it.
"Sometimes I've only sent her $200 [worth] of a gift and she's like, 'Oh, you're too generous! That's too much!' She doesn't have any money. She's broke now," David reiterated.
At one point during the Tell-All, David was joined by his Ukrainian friend Victoria, who is currently living in the United States.
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE: BEFORE THE 90 DAYS' COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT? WHERE ARE THEY NOW? (PHOTOS)
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"I'm not sure how it's going on right now because I've been there 20 years ago, so I think she should get some portion of it, a percentage," Victoria said.
"It seems the way it actually works is the more people that you're talking to, the more money that you're bringing in, and she would get a percentage of it," Shaun reasoned.
"But David," Shaun continued, "you don't think she's getting money like that?"
"I know she's not getting money," David replied. "If she was getting money, she'd have something. She's very poor."
David said Lana has "very little clothes" and "very little possessions."
"And just recently -- from this last trip [to Ukraine] -- she was flat broke and didn't have a job because she had just moved to Kiev and couldn't afford to live. So for the first time ever in her life, she asked me to help her get food money," David revealed.
David said he's well aware Lana is poor because they've been getting to know each other online regularly for seven years. David also believes Lana has only dated one other man in all the years they've "dated."
But Shaun asked David how he's so sure Lana is poor when he's never been to her apartment.
"She has no belongings. She's literally wearing the same clothes all the time and we've talked in detail about how much she has... and how much she earns," David said, adding Lana is "depressed" because she has "no money" to move out of her sister's place and rent an apartment of her own in Kiev that would cost $300 a month.
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David, however, insisted he's seen Lana's closet and she only has five pairs of shoes.
He also clarified Lana belongs to an "agency" and it's the agencies that have contracts with different dating websites and place the girls on certain sites.
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Shaun pointed out Lana would seemingly have more time to work if she spends less time on the international websites.
"She earns almost double the average salary over there in Ukraine doing what she does do," David said, adding that Lana is essentially able to work and chat with men simultaneously.
At another point during the reunion Tell-All taping, David was joined by fellow 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days stars Tom Brooks and Ed Brown, and the latter accused Lana of playing David for a fool.
"I feel sorry for you because you have been scammed. You're not engaged. I'm sorry brother, you're not," Ed told David.
"It's not a scam!" David argued. "You know what, Ed? What is a scam? A scam would mean I've given her something. She hasn't gotten anything from me and she has never asked for anything in her life."
However, David's comment directly contradicted his earlier remark that Lana had asked him for "food money."
"In the whole time I've known her," David continued, "she has never asked me for anything. You've given more to [Rosemarie Vega in the Philippines] than I gave to [Lana] in eight years."
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Ed and David continued to argue, with Ed expressing further frustration.
"I cringe. I cringe at what you're doing. You're telling me right now that you spent over $100,000, and you've got nothing... She's still on the website [dating other people]," Ed explained. "You're being scammed, brother!"
Tom reasoned "the thrill" of dating women on the website is probably "worth paying the money" to David.
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"Yes it is, come on dude! It's money. That's a lot of money" Ed exclaimed.
"I'm a multi-millionaire. One hundred thousand is nothing!" David said with a big smile.
"Oh please," Ed countered.
David confirmed he loves the thrill of the chase, just as a regular person enjoys going on vacations and adventures.
"It's nothing. I was paying $2,000 [a month] on dates before I went to Ukraine," David said, explaining he merely moved the money he was dating women in America to international online dating websites.
David said he doesn't understand why people don't give someone like 90 Day Fiance Season 7 star Michael Jessen a hard time considering Michael had given his young Brazilian girlfriend, Juliana Custodio de Sousa -- who is now his wife -- $100,000 and a new car on his credit card while they were dating.
"What's the difference?!" David shouted.
"What's the difference?" Ed asked. "Juliana is not on a website... David, bottom line...You spent over $100,000 and she's still on the website."
"All the girls in Ukraine are on the websites. I know hundreds!" David yelled. "I know girls here who have gotten married that way, and this is how it works. Stop using your American mentality on this relationship."
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As shown on 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days' fourth season, David flew to Ukraine with an engagement ring in his pocket, but Lana never showed up at the train station in Odessa to meet him.
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"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."
David couldn't get in contact with Lana afterward, so he decided to take a dangerous 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.
Once David arrived in Pavlohrad, David searched for Lana in local florist and candy shops. She also stood him up at a restaurant.
David therefore went straight to the source by driving to Lana's alleged address at an apartment building, but a man answered the door and said he had never seen Lana before.
David wanted to be angry and quit his romance with Lana, but he admitted, "I know if she just writes to me and suddenly invites me into a chat, that's it!"
"That's all it takes and I'm hooked again," he added. "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.
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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.
David didn't like the private investigator's findings and insisted someone could have stolen Lana's pictures and used them, and so David accused the PI of making stuff up and fired him.
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.
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Lana put off meeting David for a couple of days, but she did eventually show up! The latest episodes of the series have shown David and Lana dating and getting to know each other better. David even got a little kiss from the beautiful blonde.
"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."
Lana, however, wanted to take things slowly, including the idea of an engagement and being physical with David.
Click here to read spoilers about David and Lana's relationship, including whether the pair got engaged in Ukraine and more details from the reunion Tell-All.
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE: BEFORE THE 90 DAYS' COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT? WHERE ARE THEY NOW? (PHOTOS)
Want more 90 Day Fiance spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our 90 Day Fiance homepage!
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
