International lovers face all kinds of challenges on TLC’s “90 Day Fiancé.” Besides having to tie the knot in just three months so they can live together, couples confront age differences, racial tensions, language barriers — and, as of this weekend, sexuality.
On Sunday, the franchise’s spinoff, “90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days,” introduces the series’ first-ever same-sex couple Erika Owens, from Australia, and Yonkers, New York, resident Stephanie Matto. “Before the 90 Days” focuses on couples in the early stages of cross-border dating.
“We are treading uncharted waters,” Matto, 29, tells The Post. “Erika’s my first serious female relationship. I identify as bisexual, and I’ve always been attracted to women but I’ve only had public relationships with men.”
Matto, a social-media influencer who goes by “Stepanka” on YouTube, where she has more than 350,000 followers, met Owens in traditional millennial fashion: via Instagram DM.
“I responded to one of her [Instagram] stories,” Owens, 25, tells The Post. “I was super drawn to her energy … Plus, obviously, she’s gorgeous.”
The duo started talking more and more on Snapchat, on Instagram and through voice messages. Both were in relationships with men when their friendship started heating up.
“Once we both broke up with our boyfriends,” Matto says, “it went from casual messages to voicemails to all day, every day.”
After about three months, the duo decided to meet — with cameras rolling. Matto persuaded Owens to try out for the show because she was a fan. After being cast, they chose to meet in Australia rather than the US because neither were out yet to their families, and Matto’s mom was “always popping by.”
“I’m bisexual,” says Owens, a professional photographer. “There’s never been a time when I don’t remember liking women, but I don’t really talk about it. Most of my friends just know. It’s funny that my parents never really picked up on it. My friends are, like, ‘You’re like a walking rainbow! How could people not notice?’ ”
For Matto, coming out was more of a challenge.
“I have casually dated women in the past, especially during my mid-20s living in Manhattan. But anytime anything with a woman became more serious, I would chicken out or things would fizzle out,” Matto says. “I tested coming out to my mom a few times by joking that I was done dating men, but she never took it well. That pushed me further into the closet. I think being on the show was like finally ripping the Band-Aid off.”
Traveling to Australia was also a challenge: In 2017, Matto was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a condition in which the body stops producing enough new blood cells, causing extreme fatigue, uncontrolled bleeding and increased vulnerability to infections. She’s had transfusions to keep symptoms at bay, but she’s still waiting for a bone marrow match — the only known cure.
Despite the drama ahead, Matto believes that meeting a foreigner has always been in the cards.
“My father was American and my mom is Czech, and they met while she was on vacation in the States,” she says. “They got married a week later.”
“90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days” premieres Sunday night at 8 p.m. on TLC.