90 Day Fiancé's Chantel Says She Was Blindsided by Husband Pedro's Sexy Dance with Other Woman
Tensions are continuing to rise on The Family Chantel.
When the tell-all episode of 90 Day Fiancé aired earlier this month, Chantel Everett was horrified by footage she saw of her husband Pedro Jimeno taking off his wedding band and sharing a sexy dance with a female friend while vacationing in the Dominican Republic without her.
Sitting down exclusively with PEOPLE, Everett says she hadn’t realized the full extent of her husband’s actions until the couple attended the taping of the tell all.
“I didn’t know. I found out a lot at the tell all about what happened when I was not in the Dominican Republic,” says Everett, who is starring with Jimeno and their families on TLC’s spinoff The Family Chantel. “I didn’t have a proper reaction in the Dominican Republic [because I didn’t know] about the severity of it. At first, I thought it was just a two-second dance, but this is a girl who wants a relationship with him that he’s seen on multiple occasions.”
In the final episodes of 90 Day Fiancé, the spouses appeared to put drama surrounding Jimeno’s wild night out with his friends behind them — but now tensions are back at an all-time high.
“I messed up. I enjoy in the moment I had with my friends. I passed the line,” says Jimeno, who admits he was looking for a “free” night with his friends after feeling lonely and frustrated for months in America. “I been so long in United States, I no have friends over here, you know what I mean? That’s why I extremely passed the line.”
On The Family Chantel, Jimeno agrees to go to family counseling with Everett, whose family has been suspicious of her husband’s intentions since the couple lied to her loved ones about bringing Jimeno over via the K-1 visa process.
RELATED: 90 Day Fiancé Chantel’s Mom Accuses Pedro of ‘Borderline Body Trafficking’ Before Ambushing Him
“The first time we were all in that room together, I almost had an anxiety attack because it was the first time that everybody was together [since the big fight],” says Everett. “It was so intense.” Adds Jimeno: “It’s very stressful in that moment.”
While fans have questioned whether the couple and their families play up their feud for the cameras, Everett says it’s all reality.
“I don’t feel like any of it is exaggerated,” she says. “I’ve definitely grown a lot since 90 Day Fiancé to The Family Chantel in the sense where I have my opinion and I’m gonna be strong about what I believe. You may not always like it, but it’s better that I say it and be true to my own self than suppress and bottle it up. I feel like I’m more open now.”
“In the beginning, that was a happy life,” adds Jimeno about their early days of courtship in the Dominican Republic, where the pair first fell in love. “I had the best wife in the world! Then I met your family.”
In a clip from Monday’s episode (shared exclusively with PEOPLE), Jimeno visits an immigration lawyer — without his wife — to discuss the possibility of bringing over his mother and sister to America.
Now nearly three years into their marriage, both Jimeno and Everett admit they have regrets about how they handled their relationship with their families.
“I wish I had done my marriage a different way, like I had told my parents some things. I feel like I messed up on one big decision of my life — not to be with [Pedro], but the way that I told my parents,” she says. “I would still choose to marry him, but I would definitely have more realistic expectations.”
The Family Chantel airs Mondays at 10 p.m. EST on TLC.
