Things weren’t looking good for 90 Day Fiancé couple Jenny and Sumit on the latest episode of The Other Way. On the Sunday, Nov. 22, installment of the TLC show, the would-be bride and groom butted heads with Sumit’s traditional parents when he broke the news to them that they planned to get engaged. The pair knew their news wasn’t going to go over well, but Sumit wasn’t ready to give up on his mother and father just yet. He invited them over to try and convince them to give him and Jenny their blessing one last time.
However, his parents came over with a different agenda. They were determined to drag Sumit home and away from his lady and would only agree to get on board with his future marriage over their dead bodies. It left the couple in a sucky situation where the 32-year-old would be stuck choosing between the woman he wanted to make his wife (and had been in love with for nearly a decade) and his whole family. While Jenny couldn’t understand the conversation, she got enough of the gist to declare that all the conflict wasn’t worth it and that she would be better off packing her bags and heading back to America.
So where does that leave the couple? Last week they talked about getting an Arya Samaj marriage, and their Instagram accounts have made it plenty clear that they’re still together. So did they tie the knot without Sumit’s parents’ permission? Did Jenny head back to America — and did her man follow her? Or are they all happy and holed up in India as one big family? Let’s explore all of the possibilities.
Possibility #1: Jenny and Sumit moved to the States to start their lives together
While Jenny and Sumit made their 90 Day debut on The Other Way and not the flagship series in the franchise, they never explicitly shared the reason that Jenny decided to move to India instead of having Sumit come to America.
Fans have speculated that visa wait times may have been an issue (and astutely pointed out that Sumit couldn’t exactly get a K-1 fiancé visa before he had finished getting divorced from his ex) and that Jenny may not have had to financial means to sponsor her man’s move stateside, but considering that nothing has ever been officially confirmed, it’s possible that it was just a matter of preference. With Sumit’s family out of the picture, relocating may have been on the table for these two.
While Jenny hasn’t actually posted anything on her Instagram account since August, her latest post suggested that it’s possible she and her man came stateside. “Traveling in a rickshaw back to home,” she captioned a video on August 29. Considering rickshaws aren’t really a thing in the United States — and they’re definitely not a common method of transportation in Palm Springs, California, where Jenny lived before moving abroad — I think it’s safe to say they were in India at the time the clip was filmed. However, her caption just might’ve been a hint that it was just one leg of an international journey.
The rest of her caption included hashtags about her relationship and her time on TV, but what was truly notable was the fact that she also tagged her daughter Christina’s Instagram as well as Christina’s wife, Jennie. The younger couple live in Cathedral City, California, right next to Palm Springs. It’s possible Jenny and Sumit decided to make the United States their new home after his parents made it clear they wouldn’t be welcome as part of the Indian family.
Christina and Jennie’s Instagram posts shed a little more light on this theory. Recently, the 62-year-old 90 Day Fiancé star celebrated a birthday, and her daughter-in-law took to the social media site to share a photo of them together on November 21. The picture featured Jennie jokingly putting Jenny in a “choke hold,” suggesting that they might have celebrated together. While there weren’t any masks in sight in the photo, the fact that they were seated at a near-empty restaurant outside suggests that the photo could be recent. Their clothing also wouldn’t be inappropriate for November in the desert, where temperatures currently reach highs in the 70s and 80s.
However, Christina’s post for her mom’s birthday tells a different story. Instead of sharing a photo that features both her and her mom, she posted a picture of Jenny and Sumit together as they celebrated the occasion. The two were featured alone on a beige couch as they dug into what we assume was a birthday treat. Not only was the furniture recognizable as the same ones we’ve seen on The Other Way, Christina’s caption also hinted that she hasn’t seen her mom in a minute. “I miss you so much, but my heart is content because you are happy,” she wrote in her sweet message.
So it seems that possibility is off the table. Which brings us to…
Possibility #2: Jenny and Sumit are still waiting for his parents’ blessing in India
If Christina’s account hinted that her mom was still living abroad, Sumit’s posts seem to confirm that. The Indian native is much more active on the social media site than his lady, and he regularly shares selfies of the two of them out and about. Though he doesn’t exactly geotag his posts, he does frequently chat with his fans in the comments, and he confirmed on a recent November 1 photo that it was taken in New Delhi.
Posing on a staircase, he snapped a few model shots in order to share a reminder to tune in for a new episode of the TLC show. While fans were excited to talk about the series, they also wanted to know where the picture had been taken. “What a beautiful staircase!” one commenter wrote. “Where are you here?” The star shared that he was at the Hotel Taj Palace, and a photo of one of the interior staircases featured on TripAdvisor seems to confirm that statement.
There aren’t any hints about when that photo was taken, but his shirt, hair length, and hair style seem to match an earlier photo from September 23 that appears to be taken in a hotel room. While the November picture may not have been taken just a few minutes before it was posted, it seems to be relatively recent. Pair that with an October photo of Jenny and Sumit (with his same long hair) drinking tea while a waiter can be seen wearing a mask and gloves in the background and it suggests that the photos really were taken in the last few months.
If they’re still together and in India, the global pandemic may have allowed them enough leeway with Jenny’s Visa situation to be able to put off tying the knot for a little longer. It’s possible they’re still waiting for Sumit’s parents to come around but not waiting to live their lives in the meantime. But if you take a closer look at that tea photo you just might notice something interesting.
Possibility #3: Jenny and Sumit tied the knot with his parents’ blessing
In the October 18 photo, Sumit can clearly be seen wearing some jewelry on his ring finger as he brings his cup to his lips. However, that’s actually his right hand. Because the text of his placement is visible (though I can’t quite make out the full name of the restaurant), it’s clear the image hasn’t been flipped or mirrored. That doesn’t mean he’s not also wearing a ring on his left hand, though. Take a closer look and you’ll notice he’s actually got a second piece of jewelry, too.
“Does Sumit have a wedding band on? I hope you two got married,” one commenter wrote when they noticed it. While the TLC stars aren’t allowed to give away the ending to the show one way or another, he did hint that there might be something to that observation. Without confirming or denying that they’d moved forward with an Arya Samaj marriage, Sumit shared that he had to “keep it secret,” then added a zipped-lip emoji and a winking emoji. As fans shared their excitement over the still-technically-just-a-theory news, he shared laughing emojis in response.
It’s clear from the show just how much Sumit’s family means to him, and it’s also clear that he’s beyond happy with Jenny. If they did tie the knot with his family’s support, it makes sense why they would be so publicly loved up and beaming in every photo they post. While he hasn’t shared any additional photos featuring his brother, his wife, or his parents, that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. After, all, making it clear whether or not Jenny had eventually been welcomed into the family would also be a spoiler.
Unfortunately, I get a pretty strong sense from the Nov. 22 episode that that might never happen. Let’s take a closer look at that conversation. While the TLC program provided subtitles for the confrontation, reddit user /u/ylenoLretsiM decided to also take their own crack at translating what was said. While they grew up primarily in the United States, they speak Hindi fluently, and their examination provided some much needed insight and nuance into what really went down.
Throughout the talk, Sumit’s mom made it explicitly clear that she doesn’t like Jenny and that she “never did [and] never will.” When her son begged her to just be happy for him that he’d found happiness, she insisted that it was the “wrong” happiness, and that “the day he gets married, that will be the day that he has to pass over their corpses.” In essence: It’s never going to happen.
/u/ylenoLretsiM also introduced other reddit users to the concept of kasam. “It is basically an oath or promise that you can call out, and, if someone breaks that oath, it will do irrevocable damage to them like death,” they wrote. Speaking to The Dipp, they went into a little more detail. “It's similar to, ‘I swear on my mother's grave,’ but I think it has farther reaching implications,” they said. “I've heard it used two different ways. One is where you do it to yourself or ‘meri kasam.’ That is basically you swearing on your own life and implying that, if it's not true or if I break this oath, it'll be my life. I've also heard it where you do it to your mom or ‘ma kasam,’ which is swearing upon your mother.”
However, Sumit’s mother didn’t use the phrase in either of those ways. Instead, she said “teri kasam,” which means she told Sumit she was swearing on his life instead. When you put it that way — that Sumit’s mother swore on her son’s life that he would never marry Jenny — it sounds a lot more like a threat. I’m certainly not implying that Jenny and Sumit’s situation is identical to the one Brittany and Yazan are facing in Jordan, but when you consider the emotional implications of making a statement like that, I kind of think any family unification may be out of the question. So there goes that theory.
Possibility #4: Jenny and Sumit threw caution to the wind and got married without anyone’s permission
If you ask me, this is the most likely one. Even aside from the fact that Sumit’s parents seem unlikely to ever change their mind, his Instagram captions often carry an air of an us-against-the-world attitude. When push came to shove, it seems like he really did choose Jenny over his family. He would hardly be the first reality star fan to speak directly to his haters in social media posts, but I have a feeling that his messages are more for his disapproving family than any Instagram trolls.
While he frequently posted about “positivity” and fighting for his love, his words seemed to take on a different tone in September. “All that you are is all that I’ll ever need,” he told Jenny in one September 16 caption. In an October 10 post, he quoted the Dalai Lama that “love is the absence of judgment.” On October 23, he wrote that he was “getting his smile back on his face” and that he wished the “good times” would teach lessons as well as the “bad times” do. His most recent post, on November 18, has a similar sentiment. “You will never mock me again over my suffering,” he wrote. “First, try to attach your heart in someone's love just once…”
It’s not hard to believe that those captions reflect Sumit’s journey as he reconciles that a life with romantic love might be one without familial love, though he’s not ready to give up hope. And that hope can be found in another one of his fan interactions. On the October 10 post, one commenter wrote that his parents seemed like nice people who wouldn’t turn their back on him — and he agreed. “Yes, they are very nice people, and they love me, too. They will never turn [their] back. They want [the] best for me, and I want [the] same.”
Notably, he doesn’t say that they agree what’s best, and the fact that Sumit’s parents want that for him has never been in question. Even on the show, they don’t look down on Sumit because he wants to marry for love instead of having an arranged marriage, they simply don’t support his choice of bride. They thought he should find someone both more age-appropriate and someone who could one day give him a family of his own. While it’s possible Sumit’s comment is more evidence for possibility #3, I read it as more hopeful than definitive.
One more thing that I need to talk about, however, is that hotel that the star’s September 21, September 23, and November 1 photos are from. They all seem to be taken the same day in different stages — waking up with bedhead and getting dressed, getting styled, venturing out to explore — but the question is why would the couple stay in a hotel at all. They already live together in India, and while a staycation is always nice, it could be a risky decision to make in the middle of a pandemic.
Consider, however, Sumit’s tone change in September. Couple that with a hotel stay and a possible wedding band sighting and I think there’s a distinct chance that September is when he and Jenny finally said, “fuck it,” and had their Arya Samaj wedding. With COVID restrictions making an overseas trip impossible (or at least not very feasible), this hotel stay may have been their own makeshift honeymoon. In the October 18 tea photo, Jenny’s left hand (where she’d be wearing a ring) is out of frame, though she does seem to be wearing some kind of ring on her finger in a September 16 photo.
On September 26, Jenny’s daughter Christina also posted a photo of her mom and her mom’s man, seemingly celebrating their love. “I can't wait to go back to India,” she wrote. “I hope we get the chance again, but times, they have a changed. We love you, mom [and] Sumit.” Is it possible that Christina was marking a very important occasion that she was sorry she couldn’t help them celebrate in person?
This couple has been through a lot, but frankly, I’m rooting for them — and for possibility #4. While I hope Sumit’s family one day gets on board, the romantic in me can’t help but be compelled by the idea that love won out, no matter the obstacles that stood in its way.
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Images: TLC, Instagram