Mahogany didn't look like her pictures on the internet.
Surprise! Despite all the tell-tale catfishing signs, it turns out Ben's online girlfriend, Mahogany, is a real person. On Sunday's episode of 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days, Mahogany showed up at the restaurant Ben asked to meet her at after he traveled all the way to Peru, but she looked significantly different than her pictures on the internet.
Ben, a former pastor, connected with Mahogany online and they bonded over their faith. Despite their age difference -- Ben is 52 and Mahogany is 24 -- and the fact that Ben had been catfished before, he's convinced she's the One. However, his ex-wife and kids were not convinced given his previous relationships, and his friends were also highly suspicious given that Mahogany's photos are obviously heavily filtered and she refused to video chat with him. Still, Ben took a chance and traveled to Peru, but Mahogany was a no-show at the airport and stopped answering his texts. Ben still had hope and told her he was going to be at a restaurant, and although she made him wait, she did end up showing up.
The two were clearly nervous, but gave each other a hug. Mahogany told cameras she was apprehensive about coming since her parents thought he had bad intentions with her. Meanwhile, Ben said he was "blown away" by Mahogany, though admitted she didn't look like her photos.
"I am so relieved that Mahogany is a woman and beautiful," he told cameras. "It was worth the wait in the end."
"In person, Mahogany does look a little different than she does in the pictures and I could tell that the pictures that she sent me were doctored a little bit," he added. "But to me the most important thing is the aura that she gives off and just this presence of kindness and love that emanates from her."
Mahogany also said Ben wasn't what she was expecting in person.
"When I met Ben, he didn't look as muscular like in his pictures," she said. "He was a little bit smaller. But his personality was about the same."
Although the two agreed that they still had to get to know each other, Ben was taken aback because Mahogany was nowhere near as affectionate as she was online. While he told her he loved her, she did not say it back.
"I still definitely see her as my future wife, but we are definitely on two different levels right now," he told cameras. "I still have my heart out there, I love her, I want to express that to her, but she is not reciprocating and she's just not the same as she was online. She's not saying 'I love you' back and that is very concerning."
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