Are Russ And Paola From 90-Day Fiancé Still Together?

Are Russ and Paola from 90-Day Fiancé still together?  Fans of the 90 Day Fiance franchises remember Russ and Paola from the first season of the original series. Back in those early days, the show followed a number of couples who had met and fallen in love in person first, as opposed to starting an online romance to start. Russ and Pao were one of those couples. He's an engineer in the oil industry and was working in Colombia when he met Paola, a native of Bucaramanga, Colombia. The couple dated and decided to move to the US where they planned to get married.

The two of them seemed like a fairly well-matched couple. Their season on 90 Day Fiance was unremarkable — they weren't the drama machines later couples would be. They married at the end and seemed ready to sail off into the Oklahoma sunset together.

But then Russ lost his job and they headed back in front of the cameras to detail the next phase of their life. So what's been happening with this couple — and are they still together? Read on to find out.

1. Oklahoma

Russ worked as an engineer in the oil industry, though he wisely didn't share a lot of details about his employer. At the beginning of 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After? season 2, we find outhe has lost his job. Obviously, that's a rough situation for any couple to go through. While he looks for new employment, Pao picks up work as a model. But Oklahoma is (shockingly) hardly a hotbed of modeling work so Pao finds herself doing a lot of gigs that don't offer a lot of room for advancement. 

2. Miami

On the advice of a friend, Pao suggests to Russ that Miami might be a better city for her career goals. Russ is dubious because while Miami might be great for his wife, his skills aren't in demand there. Pao convinces him to let her go down there to visit and see what kind of luck she might have modeling down there. Reluctantly, he agrees. 

3. Fun in the sun

Paola heads to Miami to seek her fortune, leaving Russ behind. She begins her adventure by finding an agent and getting a makeover, going blonde for the cameras. Russ visits her to try and convince her to come back to oil country where he can find work, and where they also own a house that isn't selling. Pao is sure he's wrong and Miami is the place to be.

4. Bad influences

One of the reasons Pao seems to like Miami is that her best friend from Colombia is there. Her best friend, Juan and his date join Russ and Pao for drinks one night and it turns out that Pao's bestie and her sweetie do not get along ... at all. Juan doesn't feel Russ is fabulous enough for Paola and Russ feels hurt and insulted. He walks off and she follows to fight with him on camera in the middle of the street. They continue fighting at their new apartment. Eventually, Russ just gives up and lets Juan come over because it's easier than continuing to fight.

5. Career prospects

Russ talks to a headhunter and finds out that there's pretty much no chance of getting a job in his field in Miami and he probably will have to take a steep pay cut if he wants to start in a new industry. This news doesn't concern Pao. She is so certain Miami will be a gold mind for her that she refuses to even consider leaving for his career. Instead, she does as her very shady agent suggests and gets new portflolio photos done because her current photos aren't sexy enough. This thrills Russ not at all.

6. Looking up

Russ finally lands a job in Miami and Pao seems on the verge of breaking through. She's offered the opportunity to star in a music video for a singer no one has ever heard of. Russ supports her decision and even helps her select wardrobe choices for the shoot. He sends her off with the admonition not to wear any lingerie on camera. Pao gets to the set and immediately wears lingerie. When she gets home Russ is upset but frankly, the fight has gotten so tedious that no one even cares anymore. 

7. Where are they now?

All of this brings us to the new season of 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After?. Pao and Russ are still in Miami, he's still working the a low-paying job, and she's still not a famous model. He still doesn't like her friend Juan and she still keeps doing photos shoots that he thinks are too sexy. But their personal lives are about to get more complicated. Paola learns that her grandmother in Colombia is quite sick so they begin to make plans to go visit her. It's been years since Pao has been home so she's looking forward to the trip, if not the reason.

8. What else?

There is nothing else. This couple lacks the trainwreck style backstory that other 90 Day Fiance couples bring to the table. They're basically a young married couple trying to make a life despite compeeing demands of careers and families' geography. They would probably be perfectly nice people and fun to hang around with if they weren't playing up every smidgen of drama in their lives for the sake of TV cameras.

Will Russ and Pao stay together? Keeping watching 90-Day Fiance: Happily Ever After to out.

Rebekah Kuschmider is a DC area writer with a background in non-profit management and advocacy Her work has been seen at Ravishly, Babble, Scary Mommy, The Mid, Redbook online, and The Broad Side. She is the creator of the blog Stay at Home Pundit and is a contributor the book Love Her, Love Her Not: The Hillary Paradox . She is a cohost of the weekly political podcast The More Perfect Union.