Michael filed for divorce from Natalie in December.
Despite their troubled marriage, 90 Day Fiancé star Natalie is still open to a possible reconciliation with her ex, Michael. ET's Melicia Johnson sat down with the reality star to talk about the new season of 90 Day: The Single Life, and she talked about where she stands with Michael.
90 Day Fiancé cameras captured Natalie moving from Ukraine to rural Washington to be with Michael, and while the two did end up marrying -- more so just so that Natalie could legally stay in the U.S. since her visa was set to expire -- it was clear they were not compatible. Natalie never wanted to live a quiet life with Michael and she often brutally insulted him. However, Natalie stressed to ET that she never used Michael just to get to America as a lot of fans have accused her of.
"First of all, I don't have stability at all and whenever Michael had no papers, I didn't even take my passport to be honest," she said. "It was reasons why but for those wonderful haters who hate me for coming here for papers ... I had it because of war and I couldn't go home ... four years of marriage and I never had even a permit from my marriage. This is the sad truth."
Michael filed for divorce in December, but Natalie said she would never say never when it comes to possibly reconciling with him.
"I don't know, I mean I never close the door when it comes to Michael," she admits. "We always talk so, since it's his choice and I respect it."
Natalie said one of the biggest issues between her and Michael was that she wants to be in the entertainment industry and he wants to live a more normal life.
"We don't talk about entertainment industry, he never would want to work with entertainment," she says of Michael. "He never believed I could succeed, now I understand why, it’s a bit hard here. But one of the major conflicts we would have is me trying to be accepted by the world of entertainment industry while he was trying to lead a regular life, job, a regular job and was trying to make me just being able to pay my bills on time because this world really hard to make money and most of the people are independent contract workers. So, you have contract, you have money, you don't have contract, you don't have money. So, it's really hard. And he knew it. This was the reason."
Natalie said she doesn't regret leaving Michael, but had some kind words for him if he's listening.
"All I want to say is that um... we had a good time with him, and Michael was always... by my side no matter what," she says. "He would listen to me, he's kind. If not for Michael, I would never be here. And war was started, I was thinking, God, if I would not come here and COVID started and after war started, I would never be able to, like, survive. I don't know what would have happened to me."
She also told ET that Michael never stopped supporting her mother, Nelia -- who is a big fan of Michael and not her new love interest, Josh -- and even helped her come to the U.S.
"Michael, he never stopped liking my mom," she notes.
This season of 90 Day: The Single Life captures Natalie dating again, including moving to Los Angeles from Florida to be with her on-again, off-again love interest, Josh. Natalie told ET what she's looking for in a partner.
"I feel like someone who would be able to understand me and my desire to achieve my dreams, not many people can understand why I keep falling, I keep standing up and going," she says. "But I need someone who understands that you have to follow your heart and your dreams. And no matter how hard it is ... you might do a lot of sacrifices but at the end of the day, we're all dreamers."
90 Day: The Single Life airs Mondays on TLC.
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