The couple admits the much talked-about prank still has lasting consequences on their relationship.
90 Day Fiancé newcomers Bilal and Shaeeda are revealing the origins of the much talked-about prank he played on her upon her arrival in America from Trinidad and Tobago. ET's Melicia Johnson spoke to the couple about their journey this season on 90 Day Fiancé, and if they had any regrets on Shaeeda's rocky start to her life in America.
Bilal, 42, proposed to Shaeeda, 37, after spending just one week together in Trinidad and Tobago when he traveled to meet her. Bilal said he purposely didn't show Shaeeda his home or cars when they communicated online. The divorced father of two admitted he had trust issues and said he was pranking Shaeeda upon her arrival to the U.S. by showing his old childhood home to her for one night and pretending he still lived there to see if she truly wanted him for who he was and not his wealth. He even went so far as to pick her up in an old minivan that wasn't his.
Not surprisingly, Shaeeda was not amused and Bilal was hurt by some of the comments she made, such as asking if he could even afford to buy her food. But Bilal told ET that he actually pranked Shaeeda because she pulled a prank on him when he went to visit her in Trinidad and Tobago. Bilal revealed that he asked Shaeeda where to get an Airbnb and she put him up in a bad area "in the middle of the worst crime area ever."
"It was like I was in an institution," he recalls with a laugh. "There was like, barb wire, fencing around the premise. It was a bad area. She thought it was very funny."
"So we both like to joke, humor, so in the back of my mind I was like, OK, good one, I was there for seven days --- not one, but seven -- so in my mind I was like, you know what, I'm gonna get you back."
Shaeeda had no regrets about her joke.
"He said he's hood bougie, so I put him in the hood with a little bit of bouginess," she cracks. "It was still bougie because it had barb wire all around so he was protected in his hood bougie Airbnb."
However, Bilal acknowledged that there were some elements in his prank that were extremely personal. For example, the home was the childhood home he lived in and the car belonged to his father who recently died. Bilal decided to prank her with the old truck because she used to tell him that men in Trinidad and Tobago drive trucks, not cars, and wanted him to get one. He shared that his dad worked a lot with his hands and also helped build his house.
"I also wanted to show her, don't judge a person by their cover," he says. "Just because a person drives [an older] truck or does things like that, doesn't mean they're not successful."
Shaeeda said she does regret some of her snarkier comments.
"It was insulting towards him, I was so upset," she explains. "Like, you want to buy me food but you can't even take care of our home? First of all, I was thinking if you can't maintain your home, what makes you think you can maintain me? You know, I gave up my life, I closed up my yoga business, I made this big move to America with a little bit of savings in my pocket, but at the same time, I'm depending on him because I can't work."
"When he playing a prank on me, I was totally unaware," she adds. "I was so upset, I was so angry, I was trying to hold back a lot of anger at him, you know? Because he met me and I'm a woman with standards. Just because you have standards, doesn't mean you have to be rich, although you have to be clean. ... Just because it's a humble home, doesn't mean it has to be dirty. That was my heartbreak."
Bilal admitted her attitude at the time had him rethinking his feelings toward her.
"She was killing me with the comments," he said. "So for me, it started as a prank but then it became like, 'Oh, man, you're taking shots.'"
The two shared that the prank still has lasting consequences on their relationship.
"I wish he would not have tested me because I was holding back so much things I wanted to say and this could have destroyed us," Shaeeda notes. "That little bit that I said, we still have arguments based on that. We haven't got past this test. It still comes up, he still talks about it and says how much I hurt his feelings and I try to express my point of view, so he tested me on something that really could have, you know... it's just too heavy."
As for what they want fans to know about them, they both stressed that what viewers are seeing is the real deal.
"With Bilal, there was a lot of things I was not prepared for," Shaeeda says. "I just want fans to know this is a real relationship."
Bilal added, "You're gonna see a roller coaster and you have to remember, we're still trying to get to know each other."
Still, he clearly has no regrets about proposing to Shaeeda within a week of meeting her in person.
"I just feel like she had the essence of things that I was looking for, great motherly qualities for my children and any future children to come," he shares. "She was ambitious, she wears her faith on her sleeve, she's very God conscious, so a lot of different qualities I was looking for she possessed."
90 Day Fiancé airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on TLC.
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