Content warning: This article references domestic violence. Reader discretion is advised.
Of all of the 90 Day Fiancé relationships over the history of the show and all its spin-offs, Angela Deem and her Nigerian husband, Michael Ilesanmi, have one of the most explosive. They’ve had more ups and downs than an aerobic workout and were long-distance for over two years due to logistical and immigration issues, and they even broke up for a bit.
In February of this year, Michael went missing, while the couple were being featured on season eight of the spin-off 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After?, where the recently-aired episodes seemed to showcase a happy new chapter for the pair. So what is the truth about their relationship? Here’s what we know about Angela and Michael’s relationship status today.
Angela and Michael’s journey to Happily Ever After? season eight
We first met Michael and Angela on season 2 of 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days in 2018, after the couple connected online when Nigerian native Michael sent Angela a friend request. They then appeared in both the flagship 90 Day Fiancé and the latest season of the spin-off series 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After?
The pair finally tied the knot in January 2020 in Nigeria, on the eve of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Angela then returned home and started the lengthy process of getting her husband to America by applying for a visa. Unfortunately, the ongoing pandemic, financial issues, and significant hurdles in the U.S. for prospective immigrants from various foreign nations including Nigeria made Michael’s immigration process a long and complicated one. If you know Angela and Michael, you know that the arguments come fast and furiously. Even thousands of miles and multiple continents between the couple could not stop the pair from getting into earth-splitting arguments — especially when accusations of infidelity came Michael’s way.
One argument that threatened to break the chaotic couple got so heated that Angela flashed the camera — which, let’s be honest, makes for pretty great TV. Regardless, the resilient couple’s love for each other, or Michael’s undying desire to come to the States, got them through it. Then, in Dec. 2021, Angela was in Las Vegas celebrating her birthday when a fan asked her for an update on her marriage to Michael.
She told the fan she was still with Michael and just “waiting on his visa.” Then Michael posted from the couple’s shared Instagram account and said: “I’m sending this loving birthday greeting to my darling wife. I’m sorry I can’t be there with you to celebrate, but just know I’m counting down the minutes until I can.”
It didn’t take long for that era to come to an end, because there were break-up rumors only one month later. On Jan. 29 2022 he shared, “A human being is a single being, Unique and unrepeatable. ‘Be the change that you wish to see in the world.’ #happynewyear2022.” At the same time, Angela changed her Instagram from a shared one back to a page just for her.
The rumor mill continued to thrive when Michael was seen palling around with his 90 Day Fiancé co-star Usman “SojaBoy” Umar, a rapper from Michael’s home country of Nigeria. Usman and Angela never really got along, and have even fired a few shots at each other online. In response to the men hanging out, she posted an Instagram story that said “Birds of a feather flock together.” To which Umar replied that Angela “used all his money from Cameo to buy yourself a house” but still “refused to take [Michael] to the U.S.”
“Don’t worry,” he said in his Instagram story rebuttal. “I will personally take you to America.”
Angela followed that up with a screenshot of a conversation she had with Michael where he said “Calling me out and him not cool. I see [you] block me on IG.” The caption on the post? “Well, I hit a nerve. Truth always comes to light.” So much drama between these two! It’s intoxicatingly entertaining.
You would think they would never want to see each other again, but for the sake of the rest of us, thank God that’s not the case. Also, it really seems like they enjoy being on TV. So, it wasn’t really surprising to anyone when the couple returned to the show for season 7 of 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After? Believe it or not, Angela claimed she hadn’t seen Michael since their nuptials in Michael’s home country more than two years prior — although that feels like a lifetime ago.
She told the cameras it could be different but “the shady sh*t Michael’s doing” is making things challenging. “He hardly ever calls. And when he does call, it’s only about the visa or that he needs money. And on top of that, he’s put his Instagram up [despite] knowing I’m against it. He even went so far as to block me,” she said.
She also said she was tired of waiting and that she met someone new named Billy. Billy is a former stripper, and their relationship started when she asked Billy to paint something for Michael. She later clarified, saying even though Billy was “just a crushable man,” it was only a crush and “not an affair.” However, this hardly gave off the idea of a healthy, stable relationship.
“I don’t know how much more time I can waste waiting on Michael if Michael is starting to give up on our marriage,” she told the cameras. “Michael and I, we might really be through.” Here’s where things get really exciting. On Oct. 2, 2022, Angela and her friend Rene decided to surprise Michael in Nigeria, and she is ready for an all-out war. Things get pretty crazy almost immediately when she pulls up.
Michael doesn’t answer the door, so Angela does what any self-respecting wife would do, she threatens to go ham on his car. “My car,” she yells. “I paid for this car, bitch! Tell him I’ll break the windows next. You got the wrong mother****er.”
A screaming fight ensued and they had to be separated by Rene and Michael’s uncle. Afterwards, they both broke down in tears. Things got even more heated on Dec. 18, 2022, when Angela found out Michael’s been chatting it up with some girl on the Internet. Angela claimed she was blindsided because she thought they had patched things up in Nigeria.
Are Michael and Angela still together? Their latest on-screen journey, explained
Things seemed to go well for Michael and Angela during their time on the spin-off 90 Day: The Last Resort, which saw the couple (alongside several other 90 Day alums) attend a series of couples’ therapy sessions at a resort in the Florida Keys — although Michael could only attend virtually. By the end of the series when the two had a re-commitment ceremony, Angela ripped up the divorce papers she had brought to the resort after the couple had decided against splitting up.
However, by their next appearance on the eighth season of Happily Ever After, things had clearly gone south once more. Angela suspected that Michael was involved in a number of scams, including being an admin of a group chat for Nigerian men looking to marry American women, and even a supposed plot to kill Angela and claim life insurance in her name. This distrust wasn’t helped by the fact Angela believed Michael was being deliberately shady about his ongoing visa process, keeping her in the dark about his immigration journey.
Michael finally moved to the U.S. in Dec. 2023, which was documented towards the end of the season. Things seemed good to begin with, with a happy first meeting with Angela’s kids and grandkids, but Angela hired a private investigator to follow Michael and find out about his seemingly shady side. In one heated confrontation in a restaurant, Angela spat and Michael and screamed at him in public.
At the tell-all reunion (said to be filmed in early February 2024), Angela and Michael struggled to even sit together, and refused to stay with the other cast members in a shared home the night before. Angela forbade Michael from interacting with the other cast members at the in-studio tell-all, telling her husband, “you don’t get out of my f—ing sight. Do I make my f—ing self clear?”
When prompted about their relationship by host Shaun Robinson, Angela revealed she doesn’t trust him, and regrets bringing him to the U.S. “Seven years, I’ve seen you do nothing but lie,” she reasoned. In the second episode of the tell-all, the private investigator Angela hired was invited to the studio to discuss his findings. He concluded that he found no social media activity to suggest that Michael was unfaithful in his marriage. Moreover, there was no evidence found through such channels – or the investigator’s contacts in Michael’s native Nigeria – to suggest that Michael was trying to scam Angela.
While Michael and his co-stars rejoiced in his vindication, a furious Angela stormed out of the studio, refusing to accept the results of the investigation. As the chaos unfolded backstage, Shaun turned to Angela’s daughter Skyla, who was also in attendance at the tell-all. While Skyla said she accepted the findings and believed her mother should live up to her promise of trusting Michael if he was cleared of wrongdoing. However, she stated that she still thinks the two should divorce, citing Michael’s previous infidelity. When Skyla later caught up with her mother, Angela was still determined to “send [Michael’s] ass home”.
Angela and Michael’s last scene before departing the tell-all showed Angela seemingly giving up on the on-again, off-again marriage and asking Michael for his ring back. Michael refused, and the pair seemingly returned to Angeka’s home state of Georgia together.
In a follow-up before the credits in the final episode of Happily Ever After? season eight, a text appeared on-screen to reveal that just days after the taping of the tell-all wrapped, Michael fled the couple’s shared home without explanation, causing Angela to report him as missing.
What happened with Angela and Michael after Happily Ever After season 8 wrapped?
“After the Tell-All, we got home, and my worst fear came true,” Angela said in a follow-up video at the end of the episode, referencing his disappearance.
Some 90 Day Fiancé fans will recall that Angela announced Michael was missing on February 26th, 2024, several days after he fled the home. “Clothes on his back is what he left with,” she said, claiming he left his wallet and clothing. In a follow-up video, she said the police had found him and he was safe.
Police also said that Michael was “in fear of his life” and was actively hiding from Angela. She went live on YouTube with 90 Day Fiancé Blogger John Yates and said that she was “mad as hell” because she was worried he was hurt.
Speaking in a follow-up video for the finale of Happily Ever After, Michael offered an explanation for his disappearance. “After the Tell-All, you know, we went back home and as usual, my wife Angie, you know, she got angry,” Michael revealed. She started giving me attitude and saying all sorts of things to me. So it got to a point — I just had to leave.”
The Nigerian added that when Angela briefly left the house without him to “run some errands,” he used the opportunity to flee their home, taking some clothes and some documents – somewhat of a contradiction to Angela’s recollection of the event on Instagram at the time. Michael also revealed that he walked for five hours and eventually hitched a ride to a secret location, approximately 18 hours away from his American spouse.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Michael cited abuse from Angela – both verbal and physical – as the reason he fled their shared Georgia home. “It’s a lot for me to leave, for me to have left,” Michael told the outlet. “Rather, it had gotten to the point [where] I couldn’t just bear it anymore.”
Angela’s concerns for Michael didn’t seem to last long, either. As documented by In Touch Weekly, Angela shared a Screen Rant article titled “Why Michael Ilesanmi Doesn’t Deserve Sympathy“, accompanied by the hashtag #TruthWillShine on Instagram when Michael started posting on the app again.
Similarly, Michael has been throwing some shade in his own posts. Recently, he shared a video (made by another user) titled “Why Are You Single?” on his Instagram. Since then, he has been linked by fan theorists to another Happily Ever After cast member, Jasmine Pineda, who is also said to have split from her spouse.
In August 2024, In Touch Weekly reported that Angela had filed to annul her marriage from Michael – something which could result in his deportation from the U.S. The outlet also spoke to a divorce lawyer from Anegla’s home state of Georgia, who explained that the American later sought annulment over divorce in an attempt to dissolve the validity of the marriage.
This, the lawyer explained, in addition to violating Michael’s right to stay in the country, would hinge on the basis that Angela could prove that she was misled or conned into the relationship.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1.800.799.SAFE (7233), or text “START” to 88788 for safe, confidential support.