'Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars' recap: Half of participants watch partners flirt with strangers at party

Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars' latest episode was filled with jealousy and insecurity, as one participant even gave his phone number to a woman he had just met at a party, during Season 9's Friday night episode.


This season of Marriage Boot Camp documents the following couples attempting to work through their issues: Bachelor in Paradise stars JJ Lane and Juelia Kinney, Teen Mom 2 star Kailyn Lowry and estranged husband Javi Marroquin, Bad Girls Club star Mehgan James and boyfriend DeAndre Perry, Shahs of Sunset stars Asifa Mirza and Bobby Panahi, and Love & Hip Hop: New York stars Amina Buddafly and Peter Gunz.

All of the couples try to overcome their scandals, dark secrets, and emotional or physical cheating under the guidance and with the help of therapists Dr. Venus Nicolino and Dr. Ish Major.

About halfway through the journey to creating better and healthier relationships, Asifa couldn't help but be obsessed with Bobby's baggage, thinking back to times Bobby had allegedly given his phone number to women at his gym.

The therapists acknowledged Asifa's relationship would fail if she couldn't get past Bobby's mistakes and if Bobby couldn't make his long-term girlfriend feel confident and secure in herself and their romance.


Venus and Ish then had each of the couples sit down for an exercise. Each couple was required to remove one puzzle piece from a puzzle at a time, with each piece representing a need or want in their relationship that was missing.

Once all the necessary pieces were removed, the participants were asked to flip the board over to reveal a picture of each couple that was filled with holes.

The exercise was designed to show the couples how their relationships are incomplete when a partner's wants, needs and desires are not being met by his or her significant other.

JJ was afraid to upset Juelia and disturb the piece, but it was clear they had a lot of problems for having entered a fairly new romance, such as honesty and affection. Amina was missing commitment from Peter, but he was missing faith from her that he could change and become a better man.

Meanwhile, DeAndre was missing support from Mehgan, and Kailyn and Asifa were both missing trust in the relationship.


While Javi was complaining about Kailyn's lack of communication, Bobby vented about how he needed Asifa to shut up once in a while and listen to him, rather than nag him about past indiscretions.

At this point in the season, Juelia was finally ready and willing to open up about her issues with JJ to her fellow cast members. She therefore decided to tell a very curious Asifa about the letter JJ had written to her on a previous day -- a letter JJ believed was going to be shredded and never read aloud.

Juelia explained to Asifa how JJ had picked apart her physical appearance from her "greasy" hair and makeup to potential weight gain in the future. Juelia had been take aback by JJ's shallow nature, and she began questioning whether she really knew the guy she was so crazy about.

"I think Juelia can do better than JJ," Asifa told the cameras before telling JJ, "I think she's already a little bit broken from what she went through and you just broke her more."

Asifa was referring to the fact Juelia's husband, the father of her only child Ireland, had committed suicide in 2013.


JJ admitted to Asifa that he battled "selfish tendencies" and has "mean thoughts." He also owned up to sabotaging meaningful relationships in his life, like how he had cheated on his ex-wife.

Venus and Ish determined that half of the Marriage Boot Camp group were failing their partners.

Peter, Kailyn, Mehgan, JJ, and Bobby were all forced to sit in a control room while their significant others -- Amina, Javi, DeAndre, Juelia and Asifa, respectively -- joined a party and flirted with attractive men and women.

The group at the party learned what it felt like to have someone from the opposite sex care about their wants and needs, while the people in the control room had to sit back and watch that happen.

Amina told a man that she lives in New York while her husband resides in Los Angeles so their relationship is complicated and long-distance. The man made Amina feel like her husband should move for her and sacrifice for her.


JJ quickly realized Juelia deserved a lot more than she was getting from him.

And during DeAndre's conversation with a girl -- whom Mehgan called "a poodle -- led to an exchange of phone numbers. Mehgan was absolutely furious watching DeAndre hit on a girl in front of everyone, so she ran into the party to scream at him and throw a glass of water all over his head.

Meanwhile, Asifa was still looking for answers from Bobby as to why he had handed out his number to a girl at the gym, but he refused to talk to her about it.

Divorce Court judge Lynn Toler then arrived at the Marriage Boot Camp house to speak her mind to the participants.

Judge Lynn told DeAndre that he never should have given his phone number to the girl at the party when he's on Marriage Boot Camp to work things out with his girlfriend. However, Lynn told Mehgan that if she fixed her issues with DeAndre at home, he wouldn't have to look outside for comfort, support and his other needs.


Lynn then told JJ that he needed to give more romance and affection to Juelia, while Amina must stop beating Peter up and allow him to prove he can do better.

Lynn warned Asifa she needed to drop the past in order to move forward with Bobby, and that Kailyn needed to learn how to approach Javi in a soft manner in order to boost their communication levels.

Lynn decided not to punish anyone, and the episode ended with Peter questioning whether he should move to New York to be with Amina or go crawling back to his wife, Tara, whom he also really loved.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski