Everything You Need To Know About Chantel From 90 Day Fiance

Chantel Jimeno (maiden name Everett) is, by far, one of the most explosive and downright captivating characters to ever grace TLC's binge-worthy guilty pleasure, 90 Day Fiancé. The reality starlet and her husband, Pedro, were instant fan-favorites when they first appeared on the hit show's fourth season in 2016. Chantel and Pedro memorably caused drama with Chantel's family (the Everetts) when they lied about the status of his visa — and their relationship. 

Since their first season, the flagship 90 Day Fiancé series, Chantel and Pedro have gone on to appear on three seasons of the series' popular spin-off, 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After and, in 2019, they became the show's first couple to get their very own spin-off series, The Family Chantel. If, after all of that, you still feel like there's more you need to know about the Atlanta native, we have you covered. Keep reading to learn absolutely everything you need to know about Chantel from 90 Day Fiancé.

Fans of 90 Day Fiancé were quick to notice a major difference between Chantel and her siblings: Specifically, their names. Many pointed out that Chantel's brother and sister, River and Winter, seemed to have names that followed a nature theme, whereas Chantel, clearly, did not. Rumor has it that Chantel isn't the reality star's birth name. Several fans and websites have cited suggestions that Chantel's real name—CeAir (pronounced like "Sea Air")—is much more in line with the family naming convention.

If this is her birth name, it's not clear exactly why Chantel changed her name for the series, but fans have floated several theories, ranging from a desire to maintain a degree of privacy to pressure from the network to choose a more "normal" name than CeAir. "The thing of Chantel's real name being CeAir makes more sense with her siblings all having very similar super hippy like names like that (River, and I think her sister's name is Winter) I feel like it would be more odd for someone to name their oldest super hippy dippy, give their middle child a 'normal' name, and then go all hippy again for the youngest. It could be that TLC requested the name change as her real name is so unique that people would have had a much easier time finding her more quickly on social media if they used it on the show," Reddit user applepwnz theorized on a thread about the subject.

Before she was one of 90 Day Fiancé's most popular stars, Chantel Everett was a fan of the series herself. In fact, she was actively a fan of the show while she was dating her future husband, Pedro Jimeno, before they decided to go through the K-1 visa process themselves. "I used to watch 90 Day Fiancé while Pedro and I were dating," she admitted in an interview with E!. "I really wanted to be a part of the show because I wanted to show everybody how perfect I thought my relationship was."

Even though she was a fan of the show, however, Chantel was not prepared for the struggles she faced in her own engagement and marriage. "Before I would watch the show and look at the situations the couples were going through, I'd think, 'Oh, we're nothing like that. Our love is perfect. We're going to have a fantasy life,'" she told the Chicago Tribune. "Once I got on the show, I realized no relationship is perfect. We have our flaws. A lot of them too ... It's hard to watch during those difficult moments of your life."

Many of the couples on 90 Day Fiancé meet on the internet, but Chantel and Pedro Jimeno's meet-cute had a real-life connection, too. According to their official TLC bio, Chantel's tutor inadvertently played cupid when they connected the future couple to be language learning buddies. "Chantel and Pedro met when Chantel's former Spanish teacher introduced her to Pedro via Facebook to help her learn the language," TLC wrote of the couple, who first appeared on Season 4 of 90 Day Fiancé. "Upon meeting, they fell in love quickly and Pedro proposed to Chantel and moved to the U.S. for her."

"I was interested in learning Spanish and I had a friend introduce me to Pedro. He's from the Dominican Republic. The idea was for me to learn Spanish and for Pedro to learn English. But when I first saw him online, I was attracted to him right away. So I decided to visit him in the Dominican Republic," Chantel gushed about their meet-cute during her first season on the hit series (via InTouch). "I thought that I was just going to have a little fun on vacation, but I fell in love. On the third trip, he proposed."

Like all couples on 90 Day Fiancé (okay, make that most couples on the show — we're looking at you, Nicole and Azan), Chantel Jimeno first brought her now-husband Pedro Jimeno to the United States from the Dominican Republic on a K-1 visa. Fans of the show are probably at least passably familiar with the visa, which allows US citizens to bring a foreign fiancé into the United States once they've declared their intention to marry. The catch? The pair has to wed within 90 days, or the non-citizen has to leave the country.

"In order to obtain a K-1 fiancé(e) visa, you and your fiancé(e) must intend to marry each other within 90 days of your fiancé(e) entering the U.S as a K-1 nonimmigrant. Your marriage must be valid, meaning both you and your fiancé(e) have a bona fide intent to establish a life together and the marriage is not for the sole purpose of obtaining an immigration benefit," the U.S. Citizens and Immigration Services website explains. "If your fiancé(e) marries you within 90 days of being admitted to the United States as a K-1 nonimmigrant, he or she may apply for lawful permanent resident status in the United States (a Green Card)." This means that as soon as Pedro landed on American soil, he and Chantel had just three months to tie the knot — something that caused drama with her family.

The Everett family (better known to 90 Day Fiancé fans as "The Family Chantel") has never fully trusted Chantel's now-husband, Pedro Jimeno. Why? The roots of the in-laws' trust issues go way back to the beginning of Pedro's 90 days in the United States on his K-1 visa. Basically, Chantel, who was just 25 when she and a 24-year-old Pedro began their K-1 journey, was very nervous to tell her family that she was engaged. In a classic case of bad decision-making, Chantel initially lied to her family, telling them that Pedro was in the country on a student visa.

Although Chantel and Pedro intended to tell the Everett family the truth shortly after his arrival, the moment never felt just right, and they ended up continuing the lie until days before their wedding in Georgia. The lie planted seeds of distrust in Pedro for Chantel's family that have never been fully overcome. "Now that they are married, they are struggling to start a life together because Chantel's family doesn't trust Pedro after they lied about their engagement," the couple's TLC bio explains.

After their initial appearance on 90 Day Fiancé, Chantel and Pedro Jimeno appeared on the show's popular spin-off series, 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After?. On Happily Ever After, Chantel and Pedro invited viewers along for the drama of their second wedding ceremony/vow renewal in the Dominican Republic, which the couple hoped would bring their families closer together and heal the Everetts' distrust in Pedro. "In an effort to bring their families closer together, Chantel and Pedro have decided to take her entire family to the Dominican Republic for a second wedding," their TLC bio explains. "However, their good deed could further drive a wedge between the people that matter to them most."

Instead of mending Pedro's relationship with Chantel's family, however, the trip to the Dominican Republic not only drove the Everetts and Pedro further apart, but also ended up destroying Chantel's relationship with Pedro's family. By the end of the trip, the couple's family drama had reached Montague and Capulet levels.

The drama between the Family Chantel and the Family Pedro might make for gripping reality TV, but it doesn't make for the healthiest marriage or home life. That's why Chantel and Pedro Jimeno are committed to working to fix the feuds between their families. "Since our families are a big problem that's affecting our relationship, we will be attending family counseling," Chantel told Hollywood Life in 2019, adding that she and Pedro have to work to keep their families' negativity out of their relationship. "We're still working on it. We are still working on trying to keep things between Pedro and I and not letting the outside world affect us especially when it comes to our families and people who love us and have strong opinions about what we should be doing."

Pedro agrees that counseling has helped his and Chantel's relationships — both with each other and with their in-laws. "I believe that now, with the counseling, our marriage and the relationship between me and Chantel, and between the families, been improving a little more since that," he explained during an October 2020 interview with the Associated Press. 'Because now we can talk, we can sit down. You know, they accept me the way that I am. I accept them the way that they are. Some days with their family we have problems, and we can sit down and talk, better than before."

In April 2019, Chantel and Pedro Jimeno made 90 Day Fiancé history when TLC announced that the couple would star in their own spin-off series, The Family Chantel. "This is an awesome moment for TLC, as we create a family show based on one of our most popular 90 Day couples, and on a whole new night," Howard Lee, President and General Manager of TLC, said in a release announcing the show. "Our fans can't get enough of Pedro, Chantel and their larger-than-life families. For a brand known as THE destination for love, relationships and family shows, THE FAMILY CHANTEL hits the bullseye."

The first season of the show featured Chantel and Pedro (of course), as well as the Everett family—Chantel's parents, Karen and Thomas, and her siblings, River and Winter. But, since the Family Chantel now includes the Family Pedro, Pedro's mother, Lidia, and his sister, Nicole, were also central to the season's storyline. The series was renewed for a second season, launching October 12, 2020.

Chantel and Pedro Jimeno married during their 90-day window, as fans saw in Season 4. By 2020, the couple was still married, but their drama is going at least as strong as their love. In the trailer for The Family Chantel Season 2, Chantel declares that they are "still trying to work on our relationship." For what it's worth, Pedro offers a more optimistic take on the state of their union, asking his wife, "We [haven't been] better? A little bit? Like, a teensy bit?" In the trailer, Chantel agrees with Pedro's assessment, admitting, "Maybe a little."

The couple has struggled with drama since the beginning of their relationship (or since the televised portion of it, anyway). In addition to alienating Chantel's family by lying during their engagement and driving a deep wedge between the Everetts and Pedro's mother and sister during their trip to the Dominican Republic for their wedding, Chantel has accused Pedro of being less-than-faithful during their union. In the 2019 tell-all special for 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After?, Chantel went off on Pedro for dancing inappropriately with other women during a trip to the D.R. "You went over there to hang out with h**s," she said (per Us Weekly). "It just shows that he really doesn't respect me or our relationship at all." This prompted Pedro to admit, "I don't know if I was to stay in this marriage."

In the trailer for Season 2 of The Family Chantel, viewers were introduced to a new member of the Everett family: Chantel's brother Royal. Royal's return to Atlanta brings a shock for everyone when he introduces them to his fiancé, Angenette, a woman from the Philippines who he met on Facebook when she friend-requested him out of the blue. Unsurprisingly, given their deep distrust of Pedro and the entire K-1 visa process, the Everett family (including Chantel and even, it appears, Pedro) is immediately suspicious of the relationship.

While Angenette is wedding dress shopping, Chantel tells her, "I feel like maybe Royal doesn't trust you enough or something," and later, during a trip to the Philippines to meet Angenette's family, Chantel announces to her potential in-laws, "We believe that she was fishing for an American guy." 

Despite their troubles, Chantel and Pedro Jimeno showed that they believe they're in it for the long haul in April 2019 when they launched their own company, Pedro & Chantel LLC, according to documents obtained by InTouch. Not much is known about the company, but according to public records on the Georgia Corporations Division website, Pedro & Chantel LLC's North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code is Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation, and its NAICS sub-code is listed as Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers, suggesting that the company focuses on their work in the entertainment industry, specifically as on-screen talent. The business is listed as active and is currently registered through 2022.

This isn't the first time 90 Day fans will have heard about a Jimeno business venture, of course. For several seasons now, Pedro's plans to start a mysterious business back home in the Dominican Republic (along with his mother and sister) has been an on-going storyline and source of drama for the couple, since it has helped fuel the Family Chantel's suspicions that Pedro entered their marriage with an ulterior motive (specifically to, as Chantel's mother Karen has repeatedly claimed, "harvest the American dollar," to gain prosperity in his home country). 

In addition to whatever work Chantel and Pedro Jimeno might do through their company, Pedro & Chantel LLC, she's building a personal brand as a social media influencer. On Instagram, Chantel regularly posts sponcon for brands including Teami Blends (which sells "wellness and skincare solutions inspired by the health benefits of tea"), Garma Guard (which she claims "makes your clothes resistant to germs and reduces their transmission"), Jaanuu Scrubs, and Allyson Rubin Cosmetics. 

Of her partner brands, however, Chantel appears to be most closely aligned with Teami Blends, which she's posted multiple testimonials for on Instagram. "I love what I do but sometimes it can be pretty daunting but since I became a #teamipartner a while ago it makes my schedule a little more achievable!" she wrote in one post from April 2019. "Most days I try to get to the gym no matter tired or busy I may seem. I spend so much time in school and in the field that I don't always make the healthiest dinners or I eat WAY too late. Without my @teamiblends detox I usually always go to bed with a stomach ache and feeling so bloated afterwards. It's important to fuel your body and understand how gut health effects [sic] you, which is why I love and continue to use this program."

Even though they've had their ups and downs, Chantel Jimeno has made it clear that she's ready to start a family with her husband, Pedro Jimeno. In a 2019 video on Facebook, Chantel and Pedro answered fan mail — and the subject of their next steps together and the big "B" word came up. "Baby, what's next?" Chantel asks Pedro in the video. "Maybe a house? Maybe a baby?" Pedro is less-than-enthusiastic about the idea and says he doesn't feel ready, prompting Chantel to point out, "You're never truly ready, and we're not getting any younger." 

In an E! interview, Pedro doubled down on his refusal to start a family just yet, saying, "The factory is closed right now, you know, because we have too many problems with our families right now ... If we have children that could affect them."