Warning! The following contains spoilers from the 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way episode titled "Testing Trust." Read at your own risk!
90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way really wasted no time getting into some drama with its second episode, and few situations in Season 3 are quite as immediately hairy as Ariela Weinberg and Biniyam Shibre's current state. Ariela already shocked fans by inviting her ex-husband to stay with the couple in Ethiopia, and if that wasn't already odd enough, the details behind Ariela and Leandro's split that were revealed in this latest installment left us with a lot of questions.
Ariela's ex-husband Leandro arrived at the couple's home with gifts, which included some bras for Ariela, which was a strange ordeal in and of itself. Perhaps understandably upset by the rather personal undergarment gift, Biniyam was inspired to come right out and ask exactly what drove Ariela and Leandro to end their marriage in the first place. Fans will remember in the premiere, Ariela revealed they'd been married for 10 years and split up because she wanted to travel the globe while he wanted to stick around and earn his doctorates. The latest episode provided more context behind that backstory that only made things muddier.
Ariela Weinberg explained in a confessional segment that she married Leandro when she was 19, and that the end of their marriage started with a planned move to Indiana that went awry. Though Ariela was set to make the move to the Hoosier State with Leandro, she mentally reversed course and opted instead to travel the world, though she wasn't very clear about that on the homefront. To the point where Leandro explained there never was a true "break up," but that Ariela just kept coming home less and less until the point when, at the last minute, she finally informed him that she would not be moving to Indiana, and would instead spend more time abroad. In case anyone thought "travel goals" was a weird reason to file for a divorce, now we know that divorce didn't happen at the time.
Ariela Weinberg went on to say in the confessional segment that while she knew Leandro was mad about the way things left off, she also knew there was a piece of him that continued assuming their marriage was not really over and that Ariela would eventually return home after her travels. Then, in what may have been the most shocking part of this 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way episode, Ariela revealed that she also believed that would be the case.
In the back of my mind I always imagined that we would get back together again. That's why I didn't want to break up with him, because I was sure this was just a hiatus. Then I met Biniyam.
Though there was a sliver of a chance for Ariela and Leandro to work things out before she met Biniyam, she was already pregnant for her and Biniyam's son Avi three months after they started dating. 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way did not reveal whether Ariela's divorce from Leandro came before or after her pregnancy. Ariela confessed to Leandro (with Biniyam there) that she avoided telling him about her new life directly because she wasn't sure if it would all work out, and she apologized for stringing him along in such a manner, all for the sake of keeping her romantic options open.
As those apologies happened in front of fiancé Biniyam Shibre, he was incredibly hard to read throughout. One would imagine that the 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way cast member was upset if he was hearing any of it for the first time. Leandro, who casually mentioned he was in a relationship with another woman soon after arriving, looked pretty awkward during that part of the show, perhaps because he didn't wholly expect all of it to be played out for reality television. Regardless of who fans side with in this situation, there's no denying it's a confusing mess, and I personally can't believe anyone agreed to bring this storyline to the masses after learning just how messy it is. Even for 90 Day Fiancé, it was a lot.
90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way airs on TLC on Sundays at 8:00 p.m. ET, with episodes dropping early on Friday mornings for Discovery+ subscribers. For more drama that's happening around the franchise, check out which 90 Day Fiancé couple has officially called it quits recently.
