Krista and Tatiana Hogan, conjoined twins from British Columbia, Canada, gained much more prominence after the CBC documentary, “Inseparable: Ten Years Joined At The Head,” covered their story in 2017. The cameras captured a year in their life around their 10th birthday and how their family, at the time consisting of parents, grandparents, three siblings, and a dog named Yuna, helped them live a fulfilling life. Here’s what makes the twins distinctive, and how they handled the media spotlight.

Tatiana and Krista are unique

The conjoined twins, or Siamese twins, are joined in utero, and the phenomenon is still not fully explained. The Canadian girls were a rarity through birth alone; about half of the twins with this birth disorder are stillborn, and roughly a third of those who survive die within 24 hours. Moreover, Tatiana and Crista are craniopagus twins, meaning that they are joined at the head, which only happens to one of 2.5 million twins. However, their brain structure makes them the only such twins in Canada and perhaps the world. They can do things that still confuse neurologists, including reading each other’s thoughts, seeing out of each other’s eyes, and sharing some senses. However, they’ve had several medical issues and underwent physical therapy in the show. Besides a reduced quality of life, they will likely have a shorter lifespan.

Other networks covered their story before CBC

Most people don’t realize that Tatiana and Krista agreed to share their unique experience with the world long before the CBC documentary. They were featured in the Vancouver Sun segment in 2013, and The New York Sun interviewed them a year earlier. ABC media network was one of the first media networks to bring light to their unique lifestyle and medical mystery in June 2010.

All investigations agree on one thing; the sisters have different personalities and are full of life seemingly despite unsurmountable odds of surviving childhood and living a normal life.

Besides different characters, they had distinct body weights from birth on 25 October 2006. Krista was always a bit bigger, quieter, quirkier, and loved telling jokes, while Tatiana was hyperactive, chatty, loud and outgoing. Kristi’s funny side came out at the documentary’s beginning since she jokingly said that she doesn’t like being stuck to her sister because ‘she’s annoying.’ In contrast, their mom called Tatiana ‘a little bully.’ She spoke from experience; the girls have three siblings, a younger sister Shaylee, an older sister Rosa, and an older brother Cristopher “Toad” Hogan.

They are a medical miracle

Doctors who conducted a CT scan of their heads when they were a year and a half old have concluded that they could never separate them because of how their heads are fused. They learned that the girls didn’t have two joined skulls; instead, they had one skull or cranium with four brain hemispheres inside. With that information in mind, trying a separation operation would put them at risk of infection, severe injury, and quite possibly death.

However, the scan also showed that the twins’ connection is unique; they have a bridge that connects their thalami, a gray matter shaped like an egg that controls sensory input and the brain’s motor functions. Because theirs are linked, the sensory input and blood go back and forth, like they are using a switchboard. Therefore, the twins share the senses of taste and touch, and Krista can see out of one of Tatiana’s eyes while Tatiana can see out of both of Krista’s.

Moreover, they can control each other’s limbs besides self-control; Krista can move three legs and an arm, while Tatiana can control a leg and three arms. Finally, they learned that Tatiana’s heart was working harder and supplying some of its blood to Krista’s brain, which made Krista’s blood pressure higher. Doctors plan to solve this by jumpstarting Krista’s heart to adjust its rhythm, and make it pick up the pace. Yet, their most amazing ability, at least to outsiders, is knowing each other’s thoughts without speaking, which they call ‘talking in their heads.’

Krista and Tatiana don’t let the medical issues stop them

Although it’s uncertain if being conjoined had an effect, the twins have epilepsy and type 1 diabetes. They are on a strict medication regimen, most undergo blood tests to manage their sugar, and require daily insulin injections, and thus often travel to the British Columbia Children’s Hospital in Vancouver. That was a hit for their finances because the girls live in Vernon, British Columbia, with mom Felicia Simms, dad Brendan Hogan, grandparents Louise ad Doug McKay, and some aunts and uncles.

Despite all the physical problems, the twins travel to school, ride a customized bicycle, and swim. During winter, the twins go down hills on toboggans, and have tried cross-country skiing.

They are pursuing education

Krista and Tatiana had a slightly delayed education path due to their unique situation. They delayed starting kindergarten at Okanagan Landing Elementary to fly to Manhattan and appear on Anderson Cooper’s daytime talk show, “Anderson.” Their mother said that most children around their age were curious, and some befriended them. However, a few parents were uncomfortable seeing them, and forbade their children to play with them, which Felicia openly criticized, prompting her to ensure that her children never shun anyone for being different.

Although their unique congenital disorder slowed their academic progress, the documentary showed that they started attending regular school. The twins spent a few hours per day in Grade 6 as of September 2017, learning to write, read, and do basic arithmetic.

Twins live their lives away from the public

Sadly, the CBC documentary was the last public update from the twins, and that was seemingly intentional. Chuck Harris, a Hollywood agent, is the only reason they became well-known for several years. He signed the twins for all the media appearances in the late 2000s and early 2010s because he ‘wanted to get a reality show for them so badly, to make big money. For them, anything over $1,000 is big money.’

He explained that the family had fourteen members in one household in 2011. Their mom, known for being protective, agreed to Chuck’s proposal, and told him, ‘We can do interviews and documentaries. Just get the word out. I want people to understand that’s just what they are—they’re just little girls.’

Chuck also represented George and Lori Schappel, the oldest living conjoined twins in the world as of 2022, according to the Guinness World Records notes. He also wanted to find their mom a job, giving parenting lectures and speculated that she could earn CAD$5,000 to $15,000 an hour, talking about ‘how she’s raising the girls, not hiding them, and doesn’t see their condition as a handicap.’

Krista and Tatiana contributed to science

Viewers saw the conjoined twins’ daily life, including all their struggles, which was captivating. However, their media appearances had a real impact on science and medicine. Their mother always knew that her daughters might not reach the average lifespan; the doctors told her that they had a 20% chance of survival at birth and that the danger was not over in the first 24 hours. Upon turning 10 in the documentary, their mother explained, ‘For them to actually be here for 10 years is just a blessing. It just felt so good to see them get to this milestone.’

However, the documentary also showed how amazed their pediatric neurologist, Dr. Juliette Hukin was, and how much she learned from their unique brainstem connection. Neurosurgeons and other medical professionals they met had a similar reaction.

Ultimately, their mother never wanted fame or preferential treatment for them. At the end of the episode, she said, ‘They’re just little people living their lives like the rest of us. That’s how we see them, and that’s how their siblings see them.’

Moreover, Tatiana and Krista have inspired clinical research. Their case has been cited in many clinical studies, for example, “Craniopagus: Overview and the Implications of Sharing a Brain” by Jordan Squair at the University of British Columbia’s Undergraduate Journal of Psychology in 2012.

“Big Fat Gypsy Weddings” started unexpectedly; a single episode aired on 18 February 2010 as part of the well-known British documentary TV series “Cutting Edge,” which was on-screen from 1990 to 2017. However, after attracting critical acclaim and winning the Cultural Diversity Award for the Most Groundbreaking Show in 2010, the media network decided to commission five episodes of a dedicated show.

That was a success, too; its first episode, aired on 29 January 2011 on Channel 4, had about seven million viewers, and the third was the most-watched, with nearly nine million. However, many people, us included, wondered what happened to the couples after the show went off air in 2015, so we investigated who remains married, has children, or is divorced.

Weddings start early and don’t always last

The show, while it focuses on the rush of preparing for marriage and the splendor of the wedding day with hundreds of Travellers or Gypsies present, shows many controversial traditions. Despite dreaming of the wedding day from a young age, the participants frequently marry, with their family’s blessing, between ages 16 and 18. Additionally, community members are usually only allowed to marry a fellow Traveller or Gypsy, and mustn’t indulge in sex before marriage, talk back to their elders, or divorce. Therefore, some fear rejecting their partner and feel stuck if they realize marrying that person was a mistake.

The parents were also criticized for sexualizing children, putting them in full make-up and dressing them up as if attending a beauty pageant. The concept of grabbing in the show, where a groom pins down and tries to kiss a girl who catches his eye, is also frowned upon; however, many Travellers claim that the show fabricated it. All these factors affect the success rate and the longevity of the marriages shown in “Big Fat Gypsy Wedding,” leaving fans to wonder who said ‘I do’ to their true love.

Paddy Doherty

Paddy Doherty, a bare-knuckle boxer and perhaps the best-known cast member of “Big Fat Gypsy Weddings” because he won “Celebrity Big Brother” in the year the first season aired, has been through a lot. He’s been married to Roseanne for decades, and they’re still together as of 2023. Paddy has 10 children, but most people only know about his three sons. His presumably oldest son, Patrick, died in July 1996, and Paddy said in September 2011, during his “The Late Late Show” appearance, that he drank his son’s blood immediately after he passed away, explaining to the host Ryan Tubridy that it made him feel closer to him.

His second, David, was sentenced to a three-year jail sentence in 2012, for causing death by careless driving, after his friend, James Loveridge, a passenger in his Mitsubishi Shogun SUV was killed. He was then jailed for seven years in November 2018, for burglarizing a home with a gang of criminals.

His third son, Simey, became known through the news on 22 August 2020, when a 22-year-old criminal attacked him and tried to rip a US$37,500 Rolex watch and diamond ring off him. In the process, the mugger kicked Simey in the head and threw him the ground, leaving him with three brain bleeds and a bloody, muddy face.

Paddy also has several grandchildren he posts about. However, his granddaughter Margaret attracted the most attention by telling the “This Morning” hosts that she wants to leave school at eight, despite Paddy’s efforts to dissuade her.

Paddy faced another family tragedy in April 2017 when his father, Simon Doherty, died. Only a year later, his cart racer nephew, Michael “Mikey” Connors, died in July aged 32, when a BMW hit him from behind while riding Paddy’s champion horse. Almost simultaneously, Paddy was diagnosed with prostate cancer, but only revealed it seven months later in April 2019, when doctors had given him the all-clear. However, the illness left a mark on his mental state, and he stated that he suffered from depression afterward.

Then, in 2020 and 2021, Paddy announced on Facebook that he ended up in the hospital three times because he had severe symptoms of COVID-19. Even worse, his sister died from COVID-19 in January 2021, and he couldn’t attend the funeral because he was ill.

John McFadyen and Cheyenne Pidgley

Cheyenne appeared in the show at 14 and immediately sparked controversy. While grabbing is allegedly a Gypsy tradition, John pinning her against a wall and forcing her to kiss him was something many viewers disliked. Regardless, it worked for them; Cheyenne became engaged to him, but the wedding didn’t happen immediately because her mother had died of cancer. After some time, the couple married in a beautiful wedding ceremony with 200 guests.

However, while the marriage seemed to blossom in private, the couple resurfaced in 2018, but not for a good reason. CCTV footage showed McFadyen and his brother Isaac attempting to rob the neighbor of singer and actress Amanda Holden. John, in particular, threatened to ‘hurt her toddler and take him away’ if she didn’t comply and hand her expensive rings over.

Thankfully, nearby scaffolders heard the commotion and chased the brothers away, saving the mother and her child – Amanda called them ‘scumbags’ after posting the video on social media, and John received two years and eight months in jail while his brother got the same sentence, but in a youth offenders institution. In total, their 12-man gang received 68 years behind bars.

John left the jail ahead of schedule, and started a business, Garden Shed Pubs and Nightclubs UK, in 2019, showcasing his luxury pub shed, which sold alcoholic drinks and had a pool table, a games room including a dart board, and a fireplace. It also featured murals of individuals such as Al Pacino, Conor McGregor, Tyson Fury and Bob Marley. After leaving the jail, John had also became passionate about bodybuilding .

Although little is known about their private life, since Cheyenne made her Instagram profile – @cheyenne_johnx – private, we know that the couple is still together and has two daughters, Julie-Ann and Berry-Marie – some insiders said that they were awaiting a son in April 2018. Cheyenne also stated that if their daughters decide to leave school at 13, as she did, she will approve of it as long as they learn to read and write. Similarly, she would support their decision to marry at 16.

Bill and Joe Smith

Joe and Bill Smith’s tragic ending was a shock to people who tune in to see glorious weddings. The police found the 32-year-old twin brothers, who appeared in season three as landscapers, hanging from a tree in Sevenoaks, Kent County, after 11 AM in December 2019 – they quickly concluded that this was a case of double suicide. According to family sources, Joe was diagnosed with cancer, and Bill, whom the family called “Billy,” told him that he wouldn’t be able to live without him. Although Joe apparently told his family that he was in remission after undergoing chemotherapy, they suspect that he didn’t want to worry them.

A cousin found the suicide note, and the community members stated that they had a suicide pact and would be found ‘in the woods where they played with the family years ago.’ The community also revealed that they may have had depression. Billy was dating and presumably wanted to marry Kristine Davey, from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, who posted a heartbreaking update on social media, but didn’t elaborate on the events before his death; Joe left behind a nine-year-old son. Their family organized a beautiful funeral procession, with white horse carriages transporting identical coffins, with flowers arranged to look like a tequila bottle and a Rolex watch.

Chantelle Kielly and Jim

Chantelle Kielly was heavily criticized for what can be considered incest, after marrying her first cousin, Jim, when she was 18. She made a spectacle, with the whole of her hometown of Rathkeale attending, including 73 best men and seven bridesmaids. Her dress, designed by Thelma, had over 20,000 crystals, and her family allegedly paid a $50,000 to $125,000 dowry to Jim’s family for their engagement. While they seem absent from social media, the lack of updates from the family or insiders, especially after such a high-profile wedding, suggests that the cousins are still happily married.

Danielle Maughan and Brendan Joyce

Brendan and Danielle attracted much attention for marrying a day after her 16th birthday, the youngest legal age to marry in the UK. Brendan was 21, and the public suggested that she was too young to consent; moreover, they thought she was pressured into it; the celebration cost over £50,000 or US$62,500, and she wore a 6ft or 1.8m wide dress, neither of which she could pay for herself at that age. Luckily, the couple defied all odds and proved their doubters wrong; they are still married and have two children as of 2023.

Sam Norton and Pat Lee

Sam Norton, a 17-year-old “gorger”, a person outside of the Traveller community, was trying to adjust to the Gypsy lifestyle when she married Pat Lee in 2011. Most viewers remember her extensive dress that had lights and moving butterflies, and her pregnant belly during the BAFTA TV Awards red carpet event that year. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out between them, and they divorced for unknown reasons. Sam remarried, but took someone outside the Traveller community this time, while Pat doesn’t have a social media presence. However, they continue to co-parent their son.

Patrick Ward and Joan Furey

Most people remember Joan for wearing a luxurious dress with a 20ft or 6m train, and arriving at church in her Cinderella-inspired carriage. However, despite saying that she would never divorce Patrick, a part-time laborer, she did so in 2011, the year her season premiered. She revealed to Sunday Express, ‘I’ll always regret marrying him… I’ve torn up my wedding photos and sold my dress.’ An insider disclosed that she never destroyed her dress, but said that she did out of anger.

Regardless, the court granted her a divorce for Patrick’s unreasonable behavior, including control and jealousy. Joan was eight months pregnant when the divorce was finalized, and admitted in 2012 that they lost contact after the split, suggesting that Patrick doesn’t even know their son’s name, Roman. She also mentioned hearing that he’d married a younger Irish Traveller bride after they went their separate ways.

Josie McFadyen and Swanley Smith

Josephine “Josie” McFadyen, sister to Isaac and John and six confirmed siblings, and her then-boyfriend, Swanley Smith, were among the most memorable couples. While their family dynamic was interesting, since they married after only five months of dating, what remains in most viewers’ memories was their splendid pink wedding with a Spanish theme. The couple also started a family early; she gave birth to a daughter, also named Josie, at 16, when Swanley was 19, making her the first of her siblings to do so.

However, things quickly turned sour, and she became the show’s first divorcee around May 2012. She stated that life with Swanley no longer made her happy, and she wanted to focus on being a good mother. Besides her brief run-in with the law, when she caused a commotion at another gypsy wedding, and received an electronic police tag for three months, her life was mostly quiet.

That changed in 2019 during Swanley’s birthday, when she was caught physically and verbally attacking two sisters, Margaret and Eileen Doyle; her mother, Josie Doherty, siblings Barbara and Isaac, and cousin Charlie Collins were also the perpetrators. Although all five denied the attack, bystanders reported that one stomped Margaret’s head and stomach and shouted, ‘Go on, kick the baby out of her!’ Moreover, it was revealed that Margaret was eight months pregnant and partially blind and that the two groups had a family feud.

Barbara, who made brief appearances in her sister’s episodes, was caught on 13 April 2019 trying to smuggle a small mobile phone to her ex-boyfriend, Shane Warburton, by hiding it in her children’s diaper and received a six-month sentence. However, it was unclear if Shane was one of the attackers,.

Josephine has an Instagram account today – @josie_mcfadyen28 – on which she announced on 27 January 2022 that she’d found a new boyfriend. However, insiders have revealed that she’s been dating Richard since early 2020, and that they were expecting a boy in June 2020. Josie also showed a pregnant stomach in June 2022, indirectly revealing that they are expecting their second child. One person, allegedly close to the family, commented in a Facebook fan group that it was her fourth. Josie also posted about a previous relationship with an unnamed English Traveller in early 2018. Finally, one fan mentioned that Josie’s mother gave birth to her 10th child after the show stopped filming.

Ina and Michael

Ina and Michael didn’t have such a prominent marriage, but many fans remember her secret relationship and piercing sky-blue eyes. She was 15 when she met Ian who was 17, and the family forced them to go through a typical courtship after her uncle told on her to her mom. However, she was convinced that she ‘only had to kiss one frog to find her forever prince.’

While she was undoubtedly happy, and things looked good when she said Ian was “the one” for her, there was some doubt because of her age. However, Ina is still married to Michael and has two children, a boy and a girl, as of May 2023.

Noreen and Tony

Viewers may recall Noreen as the Irish Traveller who focused on her independence instead of finding a husband. Although she helped design most cakes for other women’s weddings, Noreen transitioned from working in a cake shop to owning a hair salon, Noreen’s Lavish Locks, after the show.

While there were no indications that she plans to marry as of 2016, updates from two years later showed that she began dating someone. Then, social media posts revealed that she married Tony in April 2018, and a year and a half later on 1 January, news surfaced that the couple had recently welcomed a daughter named Josie. Additionally, before and after pregnancy, Noreen displayed a taste for elegant fashion, and possibly designed some dresses.

Thelma Madine and Leanne Alexandra

Thelma Madine was at the forefront during the show’s run as the primary wedding dressmaker. Her creativity was so beloved that she earned a spin-off TV show, “Thelma’s Gypsy Girls,” allowing her to showcase her fabulous, over-the-top dress designs.

However, a prolonged court case with Leanne Phillips, her former head designer, mainly occupied her post-show life. Although Thelma called her ‘a major creative force’ at her Liverpool Traveller design shop, Nico, she let her go in 2012.

Leanne promptly set up a design shop under her own name, Leanne Alexandra, in the same city, taking away some of Thelma’s customers and eventually stealing her designs. Thelma won one court case for a design theft and accused Leanne of stealing and using her designs for a Crystal Princess Figurine range of porcelain girl figurines. In an interview with ECHO, she said that the two-and-a-half-year court battle harmed her mental health more than her prison sentence for benefits fraud in 2001. That was largely because Leanne was allegedly bankrupt, making it hard for Thelma to collect money from her wages.

After her legal battle concluded, she used the lower level of her fashion shop to open a cafe, Cafe Nico, in late 2019. Thelma has a daughter named Margaret, a teenager in 2020 who was occasionally active on social media. According to some fans, Leanne has a daughter and was expecting a second child in June 2020.

There are no guarantees

Learning about the history and post-show events of the couples in “Big Fat Gypsy Weddings” made it clear that neither fans nor the cast members and their families could foresee the success of the marriages. Some, like Danielle and Brendan, married early, developed their romantic bond, and are now parents; Ina and Michael had a similar story. In contrast, Josie and Joan seemed enamored with Swanley and Patrick, respectively, and viewers predicted a bright future after they became pregnant. Yet, both women left their marriage within a year and found new partners, in the case of Josie, or are presumably single, like Joan.

Most couples aren’t sharing their post-marriage life

Although weddings seem to be at the forefront, some episodes showed dishonesty, such as when they booked a venue but didn’t tell the owners that a Gypsy wedding would occur until the last minute. Others display illegal activities, for example, when one Gypsy family started building infrastructure on land where laws forbid doing so. Many families also regret their appearance, usually because their lifestyle was stereotyped or they decided not to let viewers judge their traditions.

All these reasons make learning what happened to the couples difficult, and fans must rely on periodic updates from sources close to the family.

Jibri and Miona Bell’s bittersweet and utterly confusing story in “90 Day Fiancé” left many wondering what was the actual truth at the end of it all, and it’s since been no easy task to uncover what truly lies at the bottom of that information cesspool. As far as most people know, there have been allegations that TLC never paid Miona Bell for her participation in the series.

However, the verity of that claim is dubious at best, as is most of what the Bells would have everyone believe about them. They’re definitely an unlikely match, as Jibri is a cowboy-hat-wearing southern rapper, and Miona a spoil-me-daddy city girl who lusts for the blinding disco lights of nightclubs deemed prestigious on Instagram.

That being said, even bad clout is good nowadays, and many viewers of the show just couldn’t stop looking for information about Jibri and Miona’s lives after they first appeared on the TV screen on 17 April 2022. The two have since then come up with a number of completely unverified and far-fetched claims in an attempt to shape public opinion to their benefit.

Black Serbs, allegedly

While most “90 Day Fiancé” couples have met at a party, or through a mutual friend or app, the way Jibri and Miona came to know each other is rather unconventional and definitely confusing. It seems that this inconsistency with logic, which started their journey, would form the main building material of their online presence later on.

It all began back in Rapid City, South Dakota USA, where Jibri Bell was born and raised. While obtaining an early education at the local Stevens High School, he met a fellow classmate by the name of David Brkljač. He was a Serbian immigrant whose family moved to the US in search of a more comfortable life, and Jibri found his European customs enticing.

It didn’t take long before the two became best friends, and started looking out at the future together. While David was much more fitness-oriented than Jibri, they both shared a passion for music and, more importantly, fame. As the years slowly went by and they trickled into adolescence, Bell and Brkljač came up with the idea of a band, with a name that made no sense at all – Black Serbs.

Their direct.me page states that the band’s philosophy is ‘Pushing the Boundaries of Reality,’ and while their mediocre dance/electronic music, also dubbed by themselves as ‘space punk’, never saw much success, the name definitely does push those boundaries.

With not even one black Serb in the band to speak of, the logic of the name is equivalent to calling Linkin Park ‘White Japanese Guys,’ since their piano player Mike Shinoda has east Asian ancestry. Regardless of how little sense the band’s name made, and how ordinary their songs and music videos turned out to be, they were welcomed in a few nightclubs in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, just for the peculiarity of their style.

Miona was known as a prolific party goer back then, spending her weekends at whichever nightclub let out the loudest noise at the time. Having as little success as they did, which hasn’t changed even in mid-2023, Black Serbs loved mingling with the crowd after performing, for just a little extra popularity.

This is how the two eventually ran into each other, and it looks like Miona was thoroughly fascinated with the idea of Jibri being a black Serb, even though he didn’t even speak more than two words of the language, and had literally nothing in common with Serbian culture or ethnicity. That still seems to have done the trick, however, as following their encounter the two embarked on an unstoppable romance.

Miona’s classic infatuation with African-American culture, as well as her desire to eventually become famous, blended together in a mix that Jibri had been looking for in a girl who shared his party-going mindset and has an appearance deemed attractive on Instagram, so the stars looked to have aligned perfectly for them.

Being too young to have lived through the illegal bombing of Belgrade in 1999 by the US and its allies, against the decision of the United Nations and the defensive military alliance premise that is the foundation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Miona was utterly fascinated with American culture through the influence of TikTok and Instagram, aspiring to become a version of Kim Kardashian.

On the other hand, Jibri wanted to show off his girl back home, where the women seemed nowhere near as interested in him, as he had been single for a long time prior to meeting Miona. As a result, the two were anxious to go to the US and begin their life together, but the paperwork at the embassy made that difficult.

After thorough deliberation over the course of some hours, the couple decided that they were both ready to take their nightclub fling to the next level for the purpose of bringing Miona over to South Dakota, and promptly became engaged.

The process of manufacturing Miona’s K-1 visa was then initiated, which automatically also qualified them for participating in “90 Day Fiancé.” Many fans have theorized that the only way they could’ve seen real success was exactly by landing a presence in a massive reality TV series like this one.

They speculated that the engagement was in fact a financially oriented project meant to provide the couple with much-needed publicity and so hopefully popularity, which would later lend some credence to the social media charade that they now live off. Interestingly, the merit this theory appears to hold increases significantly the deeper these two are researched.

Home of the broke, land of defeat

Jibri managed to get Miona the papers she required for a longer stay in the country, and the two met at a South Dakota airport with glimmering eyes. There was no stopping for Miona, whose new beau was a super famous and successful singer with lots of followers and massive amounts of money. Except there was, because Black Serbs never made much money, and barely anyone had ever heard of them.

Even after being frequently talked about in the reality TV series, with all of the couple’s popularity poured into the franchise, the band’s Instagram page can’t push past 26,000 followers. One can only imagine how much this number grew after the viewers of “90 Day Fiancé” were made aware of the group’s existence, meaning that the follower count had more than likely quadrupled. This leaves their pre-reality TV audience at approximately 6,000 individuals – far from what anyone would call pioneers of the music industry.

With that being the case, Jibri and Miona couldn’t really go around the country driving expensive cars in short music videos for TikTok and Instagram; instead, they went to live with Jibri’s parents in South Dakota. The aspiring rapper said that COVID-19 restrictions put the band out of work, thus wiping away the income that would’ve otherwise supposedly sustained the lavish lifestyle they both aimed to sport.

Riding the wave

Having spent a great deal of time in the ninth season of “90 Day Fiancé” across late 2020 and early 2021, Miona eventually began thinking herself too famous to fail, and launched a wig selling business that was featured on her separate Instagram work page. The enterprise literally consisted of just Miona, who advertised the wigs in selfies and maintained the page, and Jibri, who brought her new boxes of wigs to try and sell.

The first product she offered there was a so-called mimi ponytail, placed on sale on 25 July 2022. The page has done somewhat alright for itself, with just under 40,000 followers nine months later. Still, most of that audience is thought to have come from the clout of “90 Day Fiancé,” as certain fans remain curious about the direction their lives will take after the limelight.

They also started up a YouTube channel named Jibri and Miona – 90 Day Fiancé, which is still trying to peak over 10,000 subscribers. On it, they attempted to cater to the Serbian audience by posting vlogs in Miona’s native language, and answering questions regarding their relationship.

However, of approximately 6.5 million Serbs nation-wide, most have never heard of TLC’s reality TV series, and much fewer actually care about the public life of small-time US reality TV participants. Lastly, even fewer than that have ever heard of the band Black Serbs, numbering in the low hundreds.

The couple did their best to try and expand across all of the existing social media networks, basing their entire online personas on their appearance in TLC’s hit show. However, as time has made clear, receiving money for the mere act of existence or peddling third-grade goods often requires more than simply appearing in front of the camera.

Jibri and Miona had to learn this lesson the hard way, eventually falling into frowned-upon habits to try and stay relevant as their time in the limelight began to fade away. Their desperate attempts to maintain the attention of wider audiences actually managed to spark a little bit of controversy, which even prompted the creation of this very article. All in all, though, most would characterize this move as one unbecoming of a couple trying their best to make the audience believe they’re millionaires.

Their latest clout scam

In the end, the tale of Jibri and Miona Bell is just a sad attempt at vicariously living the high Instagram life, and the clues are there to see for everyone willing to look. First of all, it became apparent in early 2022 that Miona’s appearance had drastically changed since she started dating Jibri, and not because of excessive wealth.

In fact, as reported by InTouchWeekly, Miona was engaging in a very common and sad tactic of impressionable younger females who long for the African-American lifestyle, commonly referred to as ‘blackfishing.’ It derives from the term ‘catfishing,’ which means presenting someone else’s appearance as your own.

Blackfishing is similar, except the perpetrator is still using their own image. Women who blackfish do everything in their power to appear more African-American, including darkening their complexion, enhancing their facial features to seem more akin to those of the target race, as well as sporting classic African-American female hairstyles, all of which Miona was clearly witnessed doing.

The reality TV star was enraged by the audience’s observations, thus showing insecurity in who she is as a person, and giving everyone more reason to believe that she was actually guilty of the accusation. Then again, insecurity seems to be pretty much the only reason for what the two continuously do online, so not many were surprised.

As of the latter half of 2022, the couple became adamant that they were making enviable amounts of money, going as far as to call themselves millionaires. More specifically, they’re claiming that Miona’s wig business has exploded, raking in hundreds of thousands on a monthly basis.

To further cement their dubious claim, the couple insisted that they weren’t in any financial trouble when Miona arrived, that Jibri had been making good money from the band, and that their brief stay with his family was purely out of convenience. Of course, she had to supplement this statement by saying that TLC wasn’t even paying them, so they were monetarily independent from the get-go.

This is where the rumor that they weren’t paid originated, but anyone with a bit of common sense and a basic understanding of how companies as large as TLC operate immediately understood what was really being said.

To translate, Miona and Jibri wanted to distance themselves from the misery of living off a reality TV salary, as well as start a scandal that could potentially put them back in the media. Their only real goal is what it’s been since the start – trying to cure deep-rooted insecurities by appearing glamorous online.

The closest they ever got to persuading anyone of their ludicrous claims was the time when they supposedly purchased a Porsche SUV at the Porsche Ontario dealership. Its website shows leases as low as $600 per month, which makes their vehicles affordable to most middle-class families willing to make a sacrifice for a Porsche.

They ultimately tied the knot on 10 January 2023, and have since then greatly reduced the amount of false wealth social media posts. Whether they plan to one day come clean, or are simply tired of lying, it’s definite that very few actually believed most of their claims, especially one that a page of 40,000 followers is making them millions.

Just for the sake of answering the question once and for all, Miona Bell was paid in full by TLC, but saying that she wasn’t was very convenient for her story of becoming an overnight millionaire, so she’ll continue to push that narrative until she finds help for her mental issues.