During this weekend’s upcoming episode of 90 Day Fiance: Before The 90 Days, we’ll “meet” a new couple.
Meisha Johnson has quite the story. As an adult, she converted to Catholicism, which apparently prompted her to quit her TV journalism job.
She has now taken up an online romance with Nicola, a 46-year-old Catholic virgin in Israel.
In the sneak peek video that you can see below, Nicole admits that he’s straight-up not telling his mother about Meisha. He knows that she won’t approve.
46-year-old Nicola will speak to his friend, Wasim, while 90 Day Fiance: Before The 90 Days introduces him on Sunday, June 18.
On Season 6, Episode 3, Wasim is not exactly hyping up his longtime buddy.
Simply put, he cannot imagine what their relationship will be like.
“She is out of his league,” Wasim says accurately of the two of them.
It’s not just about looks, though that is also a factor.
Wasim characterizes Nicola as spending all of his time in his room, praying to Mary. While that is likely hyperbole about the devout Catholic, he’s unsure of how Nicola and Meisha will work out.
Before viewers condemn Wasim for throwing his friend under the bus, Nicola isn’t exactly portraying himself as a ladies man.
Apparently, he has neither kissed nor touched a woman in 16 years.
And when he says touched, he means “touched” — as in, even then, he wasn’t taking anyone to pound town.
To hear Nicola tell it, he has never had sex in any way, shape, or form.
(It would be interesting if someone or something casts doubt upon this claim during the season, but there are no hints of that so far)
Explaining his personal history to the confessional camera, Nicola details that he has had only one relationship, ever, in his life.
He goes on to explain that this is an expression of his faith as a Catholic.
Nicole believes that he must remain celibate until marriage.
This brings an interesting twist into the picture. Because Meisha has a different story.
Though Meisha is also a devout Catholic, she has more experience.
It’s not just because she is an adult convert.
Meisha was also married. She is a divorcee.
This is something that Nicola never expected for himself.
It sounds like culture comes into play more than Catholicism itself, judging by his conversation in the sneak peek.
Nicola also admits that he would have preferred a fellow virgin. Virginity is a social construct with no concrete biological significance, but there are cultures and individuals who value this concept.
“I don’t like that Meisha slept with somebody else before,” Nicola confesses to the camera.
However, he cites that within his Catholic theology, he believes that Meisha’s conversion has “restored” her virgin status.
This is only one small part, he says, of what converting to Catholicism can do for a person as it makes them a “new creature.”
Here, the conversation pivots. Presumably, editors trimmed it down considerably, and we lost some context along the way.
Wasim notes that he does not know what Nicola’s “mom’s problem is.”
It sounds like Nicola lives at home, but that his mother is largely in the dark about Meisha.
His mother does not share Nicola’s religious beliefs. It’s unclear whether she is Catholic but less orthodox than he is, or not a Catholic at all.
But Nicola says that his mother expects him to have a virgin wife who is also young and fertile and will give him grandchildren.
(A number of cultures include a profound sense of entitlement among older generations; this is widespread in America, as well)
Nicola fully expects that his mother would disapprove when she learns that Meisha was previously married.
There is a divorce stigma in his culture.
So apparently even a divorce that fits within the Catholic Church’s guidelines, which would not be an issue for Nicola, would be too much for his mom.
Many fans of the franchise are predicting that Nicola and Meisha’s story will be this season’s most bonkers.
They may be in for some stiff competition. Gino and Jasmine are back, after all.
But it will be interesting to “meet” this couple.