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Karine Staehle has broken her silence after claiming her husband Paul had gone missing by posting supposed screenshots of text between him and his mom.
The pair rose to fame on TLC's reality show, 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days and married in 2017 before splitting up in December 2021. They reconciled earlier this year and were working to regain custody of their young sons, Pierre, four and Ethan, two, who had been placed into foster care by Child Protective Services (CPS).
Karine sparked concern when she claimed on her Instagram stories that Paul had gone missing in Brazil and asked people to pray. Then hours later she posted a video montage of Paul and their family to her main Instagram grid with a cryptic caption.
After causing concern among fans and making news headlines, Staehle broke her silence, once again taking to Instagram stories with more cryptic posts. She also shared screenshots of texts Paul sent his mom and an Instagram account of a woman he apparently said to contact if he needed help in Brazil.
Paul's mom shared screenshots with celebrity gossip blogger, John Yates, which with her permission he posted to one of his Instagram accounts.
Some of the messages show Paul asking for help because he "f***** up," was lost in Brazil and needed to get a boat back to somewhere safer.
"I need help," he wrote in the texts which have not been verified by Newsweek.
"Here are the screenshots Paul's mom just gave me permission to post," Yates wrote on Instagram. "This was him talking to her last night and then her also reaching out to his friends to make sure he's ok. From reading this it sounds like something did happen to him cause I can't believe that he would let his mother worry like this. Let's just all pray he's ok."
Some of the other screenshots show Paul's mom contacting people in Brazil to try and get help.
Karine broke her silence by reposting old content from her main grid, including a reel from July 15, 2022, showing the perspective of a passenger in a car going over a bridge.
A voiceover on the video said: "Dear Lord, thank you for the breath in my lungs this morning, thank you for waking me up and giving me another chance that this life. Thank you for this cup of coffee and this roof over my head. I'm sorry God for anything that I take for granted on a daily basis."
Another post was an image of some clouds with words over them reading, "hate is heavy let it go."
The other stories included a selfie, in which she wore blue eyeshadow, and photos with her children from a visit to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
Newsweek has contacted Karine Staehle on Instagram for comment.
Shortly after posting about Paul's alleged disappearance, Karine shared a number of photos of her stomach to her Instagram story, which fueled speculation she was pregnant. She also posted a selfie on her Instagram grid wishing everyone a good day.
About 19 hours later Karine posted a video montage of her husband showing photos of him with their two sons and other family photos.
"Not all of our memories were bad. Our children loved you very much. We will never forgot you or the good memories we all shared," she wrote.
The couple endured a rocky marriage, hampered by their age difference and a language barrier. There were allegations of abuse, bust-ups on social media and eventually divorce after video leaked online showed an alleged physical fight between the pair in their Kentucky home.
Karine Staehle filed a restraining order against Paul after the incident, accusing him of rape and domestic violence, but later dropped it and the couple rekindled their relationship multiple times in the ensuing years.
Their children were taken by CPS in 2022. In June of that year an alert was sent out saying Pierre had gone missing and CPS said it was believed Paul had taken him. Paul brought Pierre back a few days later and he was placed in the same foster home as his brother.
In June this year, Paul's cousin filed a motion to gain custody of the two boys.
"Shockingly my cousin has taken my kids to Alabama so CPS notified Karine she will no longer get visits because our children are no longer in Kentucky," Paul wrote on his Instagram stories on June 5. "My cousin purposely took our kids out of state after a motion was filed for them not to leave Kentucky so Karine could have her visits."
UPDATE: 09/01/2023, 10:56 A.M. ET. This story has been updated to include additional information.
About the writer
Shannon Power is a Greek-Australian reporter, but now calls London home. They have worked as across three continents in print, ... Read more