'I don't need to bribe somebody for sex. That's gross.'
90 Day Fiancé star Kim is confident that Usman isn't scamming her for money or using her for a green card to live in America. Kim spoke with ET about her rocky journey with Usman -- aka musician Sojaboy in his home country of Nigeria -- on this season of 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days, and she addressed some fans' suspicions that he's dating her for reasons other than love.
When 50-year-old Kim arrived from San Diego, California, to meet 32-year-old Usman in person in Tanzania, where he was shooting a music video, she gave him two expensive gifts -- a PS5 and a MacBook Pro. Usman was not surprisingly overjoyed at the gifts, and at the time, Kim jokingly asked if the gifts made her "girlfriend status." Kim told ET's Melicia Johnson that she definitely wasn't buying Usman's affection.
"I don't need to buy a man's love for anything. I don't need to do that," she says. "Anybody -- my friends, my son -- anybody will tell you everything I do, everything comes from my heart. I like to make other people happy. I love that. I'm a giver. I'm just a giving kind of woman. I don't know about now anymore, but I'm a giver. So the PlayStation actually was not that expensive. I don't want to say how I got it, but I used some of my little restaurant manager charm and I talked the guy down to $150, $200 over the price now. It was not that expensive. Swear to God, it wasn't. I wouldn't have paid $2,000 or even $1,000 for it. I just wouldn't have done that."
As for the brand new computer, she explains, "The only reason I got him the MacBook is it was two weeks or something before we went to Zanzibar, we were arguing on the phone about something and it's his music studio and he had it on top of his car. And he drove off and it fell and somebody ran over it. And I felt so bad because I was the one that started the argument. So, that's why."
Kim also talked about the Sojaboy necklace she took back from him when she got upset with him and threw a glass of water in his face in a previous episode.
"The SojaBoy necklace, yes, it is real gold for everybody who asked, because everybody asks me that," she notes. "That was a birthday present. That's just who I am. And I didn't need to bribe. I didn't buy them as bribe gifts. ... I don't need to bribe somebody to be with me. I did it because I'm a good person, honestly. ... My biggest thing is to help, to make people smile. That's my biggest thing. I'm a caregiver at heart and it's a blessing and it's a curse. But for everybody out there, I don't need to bribe somebody for sex. That's gross."
Kim later pointed out that if Usman was using her for a green card, he could've easily chosen another woman.
"So, Usman gets a lot of DMs. I don't know about millions, but I know he gets a lot," she explains. "He could have chose anybody. I don't know anything about the music industry. I can't help him. Could I help him get here? Of course I could. He could have chose any of his DMs. I've seen his DMs. They're pretty gross, some of them. I feel like our friendship was really, really important to him. And then when we met in Zanzibar, it was to see if we were going to be in a relationship or not. He doesn't need me for anything."
Kim said she never once felt Usman was using her to further his career.
"Honest to God, I don't feel that he used me for anything," she says. "I don't feel that way. And it might be the perception of other people and that's fine. Everybody's entitled to their opinion, but nobody knows how close him and I really were. We were extremely close. So nobody understands that part."
When asked if there were any misconceptions from this season that she wanted to clear up, she stressed that she isn't desperate.
"The scene where he brought me to his room to give me the gifts [he bought me]. Ladies and gentlemen, I knew he wasn't going to propose to me. It was my first day there. That was so crazy," she recalls. "I get so many DMs being like, 'You're so desperate and you're so this.' I'm like, 'Girl, please.' I knew he wasn't going to propose. We were laughing and everybody was laughing, because I was putting my hand out. It was totally a joke."
"But I want people to know that I'm a really intelligent person, and I would never let anybody use me, for anything," she adds. "It looks that way. I am swept up in the moment and everything, but I see signs too. I see things. I see things for what they are, and I can either choose to accept them or I can just be like, 'Bye.'"
Still, Kim said she learned a valuable lesson from her experience with Usman about no longer letting others take advantage of her.
"I'm not going to take any more sh** from people," she said. "You can't be nice to everybody, because not everybody appreciates your niceness. I've had so many people in past relationships take, take, take, take, take, because I am a good person, but once I reach that point, like the throwing the water [at Usman's face], once I reach that point, it's just like, 'OK, whatever.'"
"I know now who my circle is," she continues. "I know that I have self-worth. I know I'm a beautiful woman, regardless if I wear no makeup or not. I know I have a very good soul, and I have a very big heart, and I will no longer let anybody take advantage of that, ever. That's just my life now. And I'm not saying I'm not a bad b**ch, but I'm just like, 'OK.' So my vision in the future is to just keep ... I have to be genuine, because that's who I am. I'm just a genuine person. For past mistakes that I've made and everything, I have to deal with that. I pray on it and I meditate on it and I have to forgive myself, because I'm my own worst critic, honey. I am my own worst critic, but I have to be me at the same time."
90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on TLC.
When ET spoke with Usman ahead of this season of 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days, he insisted he wasn't scamming Kim after his messy divorce from his ex-wife, Lisa, who's also an American white woman who's significantly older than him (by 23 years).
"I love her with all my bones, my heart," Usman told ET about his feelings for Kim. "Right now, I am in love. I love Kimberly, I can say that any way in the world. I love her. I'm not shy. I'm not ashamed. I am proud to say that I love her. I love her for real."
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