Late last year, after ages of what we can only characterize as “divorce hype,” Kalani and Asuelu seemingly reconciled.
Beyond filming for some sort of 90 Day Fiance “All Stars” couples counseling spinoff, we don’t know the details of their relationship these days.
That doesn’t mean that Kalani has gone radio silent.
She just shared a series of beautiful family photos, along with a little update about how she’s been spending her time.
Kalani Faagata took to Instagram on Thursday, March 16 to share a series of precious family photos.
Each pic includes some combination of the 33-year-old mom and her two boys, Oliver and Kennedy.
Notably, Asuelu Pulaa does not appear in the photos — some of which show them at the beach, others on a plane. But several fans are already speculating that he may have been the photographer.
“Enjoying living quietly,” the 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After? star wrote in the caption.
Her emojis are what make this curious: she included a grimace emoji (as in, awkwardly gritting one’s teeth, not the purple blob monster from the McDonald’s cinematic universe) along with a two-heart emoji.
Our guess? Kalani meant to use a regular smiling emoji, and selected the wrong one. Could be worse. Many of us have sent an eggplant emoji at exactly the wrong moment. It happens.
There are three major interpretations of Kalani’s “enjoy living quietly” caption.
The first is that she’s just taking it easy and enjoying life in their new home. The second is that she and her family have been taking a break from reality TV.
And the third is that this may be a veiled reference to Kalani and Asuelu’s relationship status.
Okay, so let’s break that down, item-by-item, starting with their big move. Last year, their family moved from Utah to California.
Kalani’s parents live in California, but there was more to the move than being closer to family.
Utah has some particularly nasty issues with racism and white supremacy. Yes, all of America does — these societal evils go back to the roots of our nation, and it will take generations of work to purge these systemic injustices. But, unfortunately, even for the US, Utah has notable racism issues.
Kalani opened up to her followers about some of the racism that she and her family experienced.
Among other things, apparently some monster referred to her sons as the N-word.
Obviously, she and her husband and their children are ethnically Samoan. But clearly that doesn’t matter to racists. And the hatred behind the literal worst slur in the English language is palpable.
Even when he and Kalani were seemingly on the outs, Asuelu also opened up about the adversity that he faced in Utah.
Asuelu in particular highlighted how thoroughly unsurprising it was for police to flash their sirens and pull him over at various traffic stops.
Is it possible that he had some sort of actual traffic violation? Sure. But we all know that many white Americans have an expectation that most traffic violations will fly under the radar. Racial profiling and unconscious bias (not to mention conscious bigotry) means that millions of Americans do not have that luxury. Especially in Utah, apparently.
Obviously, Kalani and Asuelu had other issues in their marriage than persistent and systemic racism.
There will still be racism in California, even if perhaps they can find a more accepting community and less racism.
So maybe Kalani’s caption referred to life being at relative peace after their move.
Are they taking a break from filming? Well, if so, it’s not much of a break thus far.
See, just earlier this year (we’re in the middle of March!), Kalani and Asuelu were filming in the Florida Keys.
We don’t know much about this unannounced 90 Day Fiance spinoff, but it’s reportedly supposed to be a bit of a “marriage boot camp” situation. Oh, and unfortunately, Kalani and Asuelu had to spend time around Angela. We wouldn’t wish that on our worst enemies.
Not only was that filming extremely recent, but there is a major clue that they could appear on our screens yet again.
Kalani and Asuelu have not divulged their relationship status to fans. No reconciliation news, no breakup announcement. In fact, we’ve seen separate photos that indicate that they were clearly at the same place at the same time, but didn’t post pics of each other.
All of that points to still being under contract … which usually, but does not always, mean that they will film again.
Finally, is this about their relationship status? We honestly don’t know. And we don’t know because they won’t, or cannot, tell us. Which … is what we were just talking about.
Kalani’s “peace” could come from being single. Or it could come from a newfound balance and respect in their marriage.
We won’t know until they tell us. And they likely won’t tell us before the show does. Odds are that they’re still together in some form, but we cannot say for sure.