Warning! The following contains spoilers for the 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way episode "Much Ado About Everything." Stream it with a Max subscription, and read at your own risk!
Season 6 of 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way is turning out to be quite eye-opening, as I'm learning new things left and right. Not long after being blindsided by a seemingly new trend in this spinoff, viewers were introduced to Corona and Ingi, and with their arrival came the birth of a term I haven't heard before: soft-partnering. And I would truly appreciate if 90 Day Fiancé stopped trying to make "soft partnering" happen.
This franchise has shown us plenty of cringe couples, with plenty of them splitting up after marriage (though it probably should have happened sooner). Perhaps that's why we're now meeting Corona, who apparently coined this term I'm not familiar with, which is somehow getting an entire storyline centered around it. We'll see if it ends up being a solid relationship strategy, but I think it's a terrible idea even beyond its buzzword ideals.
What Is Soft Partnering?
Soft-partnering, as introduced by Corona in 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way, is essentially the way she chooses to hide away the undesirable parts of her life and personality from Ingi, and also the way she lets relationship issues slide that would have otherwise she would otherwise have a much bigger reaction to.
Corona warned Ingi that now being in Iceland means she's going to be showing her true self, and elements that she's been shielding him from to this point. It appears things will get "real" now that they are together.
Why Corona's Method Feels Like The Wrong Approach To A Relationship
Corona's whole idea around "soft-partnering" feels misguided, because it starts the entire relationship off with lies, and purposeful subterfuge. Essentially, it's like Corona is admitting a guy like Ingi wouldn't want to be in a lengthy relationship if she was behaving as she normally would, and so she's justifying the fact-hiding by saying they'll be more compatible if they're together longer before the dirty laundry comes out.
Now, I highly doubt Corona is capable of angry outbursts comparable to Angela Deem flying to Nigeria to mess up Michael Ilesanmi's car, so she shouldn't be too upset about showcasing her true anger within this franchise. I can certainly understand wanting to put one's best foot forward when starting a relationship, but moving to another country to live with them should automatically imply a certain level of openness and honesty.
Soft-partnering, I believe, only delays a relationship's progress. Ingi believed he got to know Corona pretty well, and now it seems he'll have to re-learn who she actually is if he wants this relationship to progress. It's quite a reveal and one that would probably give anyone in a relationship second thoughts about the relationship.
In fairness, we have yet to see how Corona and Ingi's storyline will play out, and it's already going better than the exhausting problem I have with James and Meitalia. Maybe these two will end up having the most healthy relationship we've seen in the 90 Day Fiancé franchise, and "soft partnering" will become the hot new crazy in relationship advice. I'm not too optimistic about that, but the chances of it happening aren't zero!
90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way airs on TLC on Mondays at 8:00 p.m. ET. Tune in to learn all about soft partnering, and check out the 2024 TV schedule to see what else to watch as we work through the final weeks of summer.
