90 Day Fiancé: Did Paul Staehle go missing? Disappearance drama explained

90 Day Fiancé, TLC's long-running show, which features international couples as they work through the process of getting a K-1 visa, has seen numerous cast members since it first aired in 2014. One of the cast members who appeared on the show was Paul Staehle. This 90 Day Fiancé alum appeared on the franchise during Before the 90 Days season 1 in 2017.

During the show, he appeared with his girlfriend, Karine, who lived in Brazil. The cast member traveled to Brazil, where the two got married. Soon after, the couple welcomed two children together, but the status of their relationship started deteriorating, and they split up in December 2021.

While the two have spent significant time away from the cameras since, Paul Staehle's name started resurfacing last year when Karine claimed he had gone missing. At the time, Paul's mother had also not heard from him since August 30, 2023, but a few days later, the 90 Day Fiancé star spoke to TMZ and confirmed that he was never missing. He noted that he had a lot going on and wanted to go out and be by himself for a while.

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90 Day Fiancé star Paul Staehle never went missing

Days after Karine claimed that her estranged husband had gone missing from Brazil, the 90 Day Fiancé celebrity spoke to TMZ to clear the air. During the conversation, the reality star noted that he just needed to clear his head and spend some time alone.

Paul Staehle added that he met someone who was a big fan of the TLC show and invited him on a boat tour. However, they had a "hiccup" en route and had to stay in a "floating house" in the Amazon for a couple of days. He didn't have a phone charger on him and had to go around until he finally got a signal.

"I had no idea that my mom would start talking to people online and all that stuff," he said.

Paul further addressed speculation that this was a publicity stunt and clarified that he never wanted "any of this stuff to go public." He added that if the "disappearance" was a hoax, he would have gone on Instagram Live or posted about it. The 90 Day Fiancé cast member added that he didn't want to "add gasoline to all these different fires" and didn't want people to twist his explanation.

His alleged disappearance began to worry fans when Karine Martins shared vague stories about his location on Instagram. Initially, she shared a story noting that he was missing, which was followed by a tribute post, making viewers believe that Paul was dead.

"Not all of our memories were bad. Our children loved you very much. We will never forgot (sic) you or the good memories we all shared," Karine wrote in a since-deleted post.

Soon after Karine's post, Paul's mother, Edna, also took to social media to voice her concerns about her son's well-being. She stated that she was worried because of some text messages that Paul had shared with her the day before he allegedly disappeared.

A couple of days later, blogger John Yates revealed that Paul was alive. The TLC personality sent a voice note to Yates, noting that he was in a "small indigenous community" where the signal was bad.

90 Dy Fiancé is currently airing The Single Life season 4 and 90 Day Fiancé Diaries on TLC.