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'90 Day Fiancé' star Karine Martins is 'not missing' amid drama with estranged husband Paul Staehle

90 Day Fiancé’s Karine Martins says she and 1-year-old son Pierre “not missing” after her estranged husband, Paul Staehle, claimed they were.

“I want you all to know that me and Pierre are doing well now,” the 23-year-old Brazilian wrote in a statement on her Instagram Stories. Over the past few days, “I had a lot going on” including “issues where the police [were] called because I feared for my life and my son’s life.” She said that “led me to ask for help and ultimately be rescued from an environment that no longer was healthy.”

She made it crystal clear, “I am not missing.”

(Screenshot: Karine Martins via Instagram)
(Screenshot: Karine Martins via Instagram)

The couple — who have appeared in the TLC spinoffs 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days (2017), 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way (2019) and 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After (2020) — have been making headlines since Thursday, when footage Staehle, 35, put on Instagram Live — before deleting it — showed officers responding to a dispute between them at their Kentucky home. Staehle was heard telling police that the dispute stemmed from him seeing Martins texting “a Brazilian lawyer about child support and divorce. I asked her what’s going on with this,” according to The Blast.

According to the report, Staehle insisted he hadn’t hit his wife, saying he had video cameras all over their home and had footage of Martins pushing him a day before. He also told officers his wife was being investigated by Child Protective Services. A friend of Martins’s told officers she wanted to go to a shelter as Staehle controlled all aspects of her life and she needed help.

The drama between them has continued to play out on social media. The next day, Staehle shared a video showing himself at a medical facility waiting for test results. He then said he tested positive for a sexually transmitted disease and was being treated while maintaining he “never cheated on” his wife.

That same day, he claimed Martins had gone missing. He claimed he was told she got into a car with their infant son, sans car seat, and drove off. She wasn’t answering her phone.

“Karine took off with Pierre and I don’t know where they are,” he said.

Another update hours later saw Staehle saying that Martins filed a restraining order against him. He shared photos of the paperwork, in which Martins allegedly claimed a weapon was involved during their dispute (she described him as “armed and dangerous”). She also claimed he was holding her green card and wouldn’t give it back. In the paperwork, she claimed Staehle told CPS she was “always drunk, aggressive and abusive.”)

And in yet another update, Staehle said the sheriff’s department came by because “they are looking for Karine,” who “is missing.” He said he was “very scared for her and the child, as was the sheriff that was here,” he added. “If anybody sees her please contact the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department.”

Yahoo Entertainment has reached out to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department and will update this story when we receive a response.

In Martins’s statement Sunday addressing Staehle’s claim she is missing, she made it clear she wasn’t and said she “feared for my life” but she and her son are “doing well now.”

“I’m getting the best help I could ever get and I’m really thankful for all the people involved in it,” she wrote.

Martins went on to confirm that she obtained an EPO (emergency protective order) and wrote, “Relationships are hard and sometimes it just can’t be fixed anymore. I need this time to organize my thoughts, work on myself, care for my son after everything we have been through in the last year and [a] half.”

She ended by saying it was “a legal matter not a ‘media matter’” and it’s “the first and last time I will speak about it.”

A subsequent post she shared gave an email if anyone had any information that could help her case.

(Screenshot: Karine Martins)
(Screenshot: Karine Martins)

Staehle and Martin’s relationship was documented over several TLC’s 90 Day shows. They welcomed their son in March 2019 after she suffered two miscarriages. In November, Staehle said in an Instagram Story that Martins was filing for divorce. However, she apparently called it off.

Most recently they have been on 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After with a recent episode showing him surprising her with a new one-room house.

He said, “I have a lot of pressure to make sure Karine's satisfied here. We can't afford to keep staying in a hotel, so I really hope she likes it. Otherwise, she's gonna want to go back to Brazil.”

TLC has not yet responded to request for comment and their future with the series, which has been a big hit with the networks, breaking audience records last year. The hit franchise of course focuses on couples who have 90 days to wed. It follows them as they navigate the K-1 visa process, which sees an American citizen petition for a foreign beneficiary to enter the country. Once the beneficiary arrives, they have 90 days to tie the knot — or the beneficiary must leave.

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