Traditionally speaking, 90 Day Fiancé couples aren’t long for the franchise once they break up, but there’s something about the recently-split Deavan Clegg and Jihoon Lee from The Other Way that I’m not ready to say goodbye to yet.
Though Jihoon confirmed just days before the midseason finale that he and his estranged wife Deavan went their separate ways, I still think there’s a place in the series for the stars. We can make this work! And by “this” I do not mean their relationship. By “this,” I mean, a semi-fulfilling extension of their time on television for the benefit of their wallets and my viewing pleasure. After all, whether or not their actual breakup was caught on camera, it’s clear these two still have plenty of real-life plotlines just made for reality TV.
Just look at what happened mere weeks after their break up. After news broke of their split, Deavan has since gone public with her new boyfriend and shaded her ex’s parents, and Jihoon has blocked Deavan on Instagram and revealed he’s moving on by literally moving into a new apartment. This is the stuff of TV gold, and it’s TLC’s for the taking.
And they’ve taken such gold before! Deavan and Jihoon wouldn’t be the first couple to call it quits on their relationship without quitting the franchise. Yes, most separated stars will only share the occasional update on 90 Day Fiancé: What Now?, but there’s Colt Johnson and Larissa Dos Santos Lima, who bravely paved the way for broken-hearted couples when they appeared, separately, on Season 5 of 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After?
After their marriage went south in Season 4 and the tell-all reunion confirmed they really were over, Colt and Larissa returned to film their own, independent storylines (with the occasional overlap thanks to Jess Caroline, who seemingly went from being Colt’s new girlfriend to his ex-wife’s best friend).
Deavan and Jihoon are primed to follow in their footsteps because, and read this next part in a movie announcer voice: “They gave ~the other way~ a chance, but Deavan and Jihoon’s love wasn’t meant to be. Now that they’re going their separate ways, have both stars managed to find their Happily Ever After?”
Picture Deavan back home in America, making life work as a single mom of her two kids, Drascilla and Taeyang. We follow them, and her new Hollywood-hunkish boyfriend who’s already rocking matching flannel with her son. We find out if she can balance her L.A. love with her Utah family, and what it’s like to set her kids up for Zoom dates with Jihoon, who is sadly an ocean or two away.
Plus, a source close to Deavan told The Dipp in August that Deavan’s new boyfriend “wants nothing to do with the show,” so there will be plenty of conflict when cameras invade her home.
Then, over in South Korea, we watch as Jihoon settles into his own apartment, something he struggled to do even after he and his wife had a baby. (He famously told Deavan that he “didn’t take her seriously” before she moved to South Korea, and that’s why he failed to save up the cash necessary to get them their own place.) Now that he’s a man out on his own, will he find a new love? Will he get to see Taeyang? And how will his family cope with having their grandson — and Drascilla, the little girl they welcomed as a granddaughter — living all the way across the globe?
Neither TLC nor the former couple has said anything about a Deavan and Jihoon return, and to be fair, recently, it seems like both parents are ready to take a break from life in the limelight: In mid-August, Deavan slammed TLC’s editing after she claimed the series cut two different scenes together, and at the end of the month, Jihoon revealed he was “thinking of leaving social media” after all the hate from the show’s fans became too much.
If 90 Day Fiance has taught us anything, though, it’s to expect the unexpected. Jihoon said in early September that he hasn’t seen any divorce papers yet.