Marissa Rubinetti knew how the preview would land. In the sneak peek for 90 Day Fiancé season 12, episode 11, the Kleinfeld exec talks with her friends. She shares her biggest worry about her fiancé, Edward Gomez: she doubts they match intellectually.
Before the episode airs, Marissa took to Instagram to clarify. She insists her comments don’t mean she thinks Edward is “stupid” or an “imbecile.”
“I wanna publicly apologize to him for, you know, saying things that made him look like I didn’t think that he was smart,” she said. “It’s not the case. It’s just that it was difficult communicating because of the language.”
Marissa’s early apology shows a new strategy in 90 Day. It hints at how tough she thinks the viewer reaction will be after they hear the whole conversation.
What She Actually Said In The Preview
The preview does not leave much room for soft interpretations. Marissa told her friends she couldn’t tell if Edward was naive or just “not culturally experienced.” Either way, she struggled to connect with him intellectually.
“Am I ever gonna feel like this is like, my match, or am I gonna eventually like, regret like, and think like I’m not happy here because I can’t feel intellectually stimulated and I can’t have like a partner that like, helps me grow, you know?” she asked.
Her confessional went further. “There’s a certain level of sophistication that the people that I run with have, and let’s be honest, my relationship with Edward isn’t necessarily one that’s based on intellect. Our relationship was based on a physical attraction at first, and now, I’m concerned that we’re not gonna meet at an intellectual level.”
She said she used to think love would fix everything. Now, she has “serious doubts” about marrying Edward.
Edward’s Side Of The Same Problem
Edward has shared his experience, which reflects the same dynamic Marissa worries about. His perspective changes the entire debate. In the previous episode, he explained his frustration in his own words.
“I’m a little bit aggravated. I can’t communicate very well in English and like I know that, but I know that I’m smart and I can do a lot of things, but like everything is a process, you know, I don’t know nothing about your country,” he said.
That quote is the crux of it. Edward moved from the Dominican Republic to a new country. He faced a new language and a different family dynamic. This change came after two years of long distance with Marissa, whom he met on a girls’ trip. Judging someone’s smarts across a language barrier is like judging a swimmer by their running skills. Marissa’s Instagram clarification essentially concedes this point.
“The challenge that I was facing was that we have a very big language barrier and we were unable to get into deep conversations because I don’t speak Spanish very well and, you know, he’s still in the process of learning English to a level of high fluency,” she explained.
Fans Aren’t Letting It Slide Easily
The preview has already generated reaction, and much of it is not on Marissa’s side. Some viewers said that if she wanted someone smart, she should have dated people in her own circle from the beginning. Others noted that even her friends appeared to cringe as she spoke. Some fans defended her point, saying that it’s better to resolve compatibility doubts before a wedding instead of after.
Both camps have a piece of the truth. Wondering whether you match your partner is fair. Framing it as him lacking the “sophistication” of your friends, on camera, is where the fair question became something she had to apologize for.
