Secrets are never a great way to start a relationship, especially if you're keeping them from family. 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way's Julio Moya caught some flak from both his mother and his Dutch fiancé Kirsten Schoemaker for not openly revealing that he was dating someone overseas for a year. While Julio didn't get a ton of time to defend himself in the episode, the TLC star shared his perspective on the situation during a recent interview with CinemaBlend.
I recently had a chance to catch up with the 90 Day Fiancé cast member, and during our chat, we tapped into the storyline of him keeping his relationship a secret from his mother. Julio wanted to set the record straight by first pointing out that Kirsten wasn't a complete stranger to others in his life, and he also explained why he didn't see a problem with waiting as long as he did before introducing her to his mother. Here's what he told me:
So, it’s not that I kept Kirsten a secret. My best friend, they knew about her. I would say the closest people to me knew about her. It was just one of those situations where we’ve been dating for a year or so, but we only actually saw each other in person five times. So, you know, I wanted to be able to live with her. We lived last year for the month of July and August in the Netherlands together before I was actually able to solidify that we could co-exist with each other.
Julio made a lot of sense in his justification above, though anyone who watched 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way via a Max subscription could see it wasn't cool with his mother or his fiancé. Kirsten was offended because she felt like she was hidden from one of the most important people in his life, which would certainly be alarming for just about anyone who was engaged.
For Julio, the situation was more nuanced. As he mentioned above, he wanted to ensure that his relationship with Kirsten was going to last before bringing her around family when the real conversations would start happening. He explained why he was hesitant to tell his mother and the questions he'd have to find answers for as soon as she knew about Kirsten:
And then, you know, me coming from a Hispanic household, it’s not easy for me to pretty much just bring anyone home and introduce them to my mom. Once I start doing that, that’s when the questions about marriage and kids start to come about. I know that if I would have told my mom sooner about our relationship, it would have put her in a place where she would be like, ‘Oh, why not find someone who’s closer? Why do you have to look so far for love?' So I just wanted to pretty much confirm and solidify me and Kirsten’s relationship before I was able to take the next step and introduce her to my family…I wanted to have more privacy for us to enjoy the honeymoon phase a little bit more.
Julio had his reasons for keeping Kirsten a secret, though I wouldn't blame 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way fans for thinking he took it to the extreme. When she pressed him for answers on how he avoided mentioning her when they were actually living together in the Netherlands, he explained that he simply told her he was overseas working.
Kirsten may face an uphill battle finding acceptance with Julio's mother as well. While finding out he had a girlfriend wasn't quite as big of a deal for her, his plan to move and live with her in the Netherlands will be an issue. Kirsten could be seen as the person pulling her son away, which might put a strain on both of them.
Julio and Kirsten have some issues in their relationship, but their problems feel relatively small compared to some of their other 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way co-stars. They could have jealousy issues or misunderstandings of veteran cast members like Daniele Gates and Johan Geronimo, and those issues have only escalated in this latest season. Hopefully, they can work out any weird feelings they have about their small issues before they evolve into something bigger.
90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way airs on Mondays at 8:00 p.m. ET. Tune in to see more happening with Julio and Kirsten's storyline, and whether or not they'll make it down the aisle and start a new life in the Netherlands.
